Corridor flights can be used for environmental monitoring (such as mapping river beds and shorelines), surveying for road construction planning, powerline monitoring and other applications.
Corridor missions can be hundreds or thousands of kilometers (or miles) long. While planning such long missions can be a daunting task, this guide will show you how to do it as effortlessly as possible.
1. Start with an input KML file.
This file is typically provided by the person who orders the surveying project. Here is an example previewed in Google Earth.
2. Import the corridor KML file as a 2D Object in your flight planning software
This step is not mandatory since we will have the route plan created automatically from the KML. However, it is recommended to do this because it will be useful to have the original KML file visible as reference in case any changes need to be made to the flight plan.
To import it, in UgCS open Map Layers window and select 2D Objects. Then simply add a new layer, upload the KML file to it and move it into Enabled layers.
3. Create the corridor flight plan automatically from the KML file
At this point we can have UgCS flight planning software automatically generate the corridor flight from the KML file. To do so, click on Create new route, then select Import from file and choose the .kml file.
In the options it is necessary to select how should the corridor be imported as. The options are - waypoint, mapping corridor, vertical scan or LiDAR corridor. In this case we choose LiDAR corridor.
In the next step select the drone you will be using (in this case M300) and after clicking Next again, the corridor will be displayed on the map.
Since this corridor is about 81 km long and this drone has a fence radius of 2500 m, we will get a warning that the route length exceeds the fence radius.
Click on the link in the warning message to change the fence radius.
The total corridor route has now been calculated.
4. Adjust initial flight parameters
At this point before we proceed further, it is important to adjust the flight parameters. In this case the key parameters are:
- LiDAR FOV angle (here we will use 70 for our LiDAR)
- Flight height (50 m in this example)
- Flight speed
- Width (increasing this will increase number of lines.
- Side / forward overlaps
- Turn type (Adaptive Bank turn)
5. Split the corridor into multiple routes
In the screenshot above you might have noticed that the total length of this corridor is about 163 kilometers. Of course this is a lot more than a normal survey drone can fly on a single battery.
To fly long corridor missions efficiently, they need to be split.
First we want to measure the length of the corridor. This can be done using measurement tools inside of UgCS.
After that, right-click on any of the approximating points of the corridor and select “Split”.
You can repeat the splitting process until the whole initial corridor is split into separate routes.
Step 6 (Optional): Adjusting corridor start points.
After the corridor has been split, by default the order of points within the corridor will remain the same, meaning that the second corridor will start where the first one ends.
Very often when flying corridor missions, unless only a single flight line is required, pilots will travel to a take-off location along the corridor and fly as far as the battery allows in each direction and back.
This means that two adjacent corridors must start from the same point.
In UgCS, corridor starting point can be adjusted by adding an initial waypoint at the starting location of the drone. This will recalculate the corridor to make it start closer to the starting point.
And now the calculated corridor should look like so:
Summary
In conclusion - corridor flight planning can often involve tedious flight planning. But with the right tools, this process can be sped up and made easy for the drone pilot. With software like UgCS long corridor mapping / surveying projects can be planned with ease and safety.
You can download the KML file and the mission in JSON format for UgCS from this example at the link.
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