REAL-TIME GEOREGISTRATION OF VIDEO STREAMS FROM MINI OR MICRO UAS USING DIGITAL 3D CITY MODELS

Over the last few years low-cost micro and mini UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) equipped with light weight data acquisition sensors like video cameras and with real-time data transmission capability have started to appear on the market. These unmanned systems are mostly instrumented with low-quality INS/GNSS sensors for position and attitude control. Over the same time period virtual globes have evolved and varying 3d geoinformation services based on this technology are operational today. New applications scenarios based on such virtual globe technologies like real-time pipeline inspection, traffic monitoring or event surveillance require the integration of georeferenced imagery in near real-time. Mini and micro UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) provide cost efficient, rapid and flexibly deployable platforms for the acquisition of such imagery. In this paper two different fully automated video imagery georegistration approaches will be presented and compared. The first georegistration approach is based exclusively on the flight control states provided by the low-quality IMU/GNSS sensors. In the second approach additional 3D city model data ‐ provided by a virtual globe technology ‐ is used to improve the georegistration accuracy.