High-Resolution Planimetric Mapping from UAV Video for Quick-Response to Natural Disaster

In recent years, there is an increasing interest for civilian applications of low-cost aerial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Because of low-cost GPS/INS navigation and relatively narrow field of view video camera, the data processing of the UAV-based still meet significant challenge. This paper presents the method of UAV-based data processing for generating high-resolution planimetric mapping for the purpose of forest fire surveillance. A software system, called VideoOrthoring, is developed to process the collected UAV video flow. The results demonstrated that the accuracy of orthimage generated from UAV video can achieve 1-2 pixels in planimetry. Finally, the UAV-based orthoimage in combination with GIS-supported data from fast response to time-critical event, e.g., forest fire, is