Intro to Pix4D

Pix4DmapperOne of the best uses for drones is capturing aerial data for processing using image analysis and modeling tools. The industries being revolutionized by this technology include:

  • Construction companies for progress reporting, site monitoring, and precise measurements
  • Miners for creating maps that show elevation and contours
  • Surveyors for mapping and precise measurements
  • Inspectors for locating defects, modeling thermal behavior, and visualizing structural details from multiple angles
  • The agriculture industry for analyzing and caring for crops
  • Public safety organizations for search and rescue, accident modeling, and many other purposes
  • Real estate for modeling property and its surroundings and creating fly-through videos
Creating Actionable Intelligence

Pix4D is an industry-leading drone-based photogrammetry software solution designed specifically for those purposes. Pix4Dmapper can process thousands of images and generate point clouds, orthomosaics, and other reports and models. Those outputs can be imported into GIS software and other tools and used to turn raw data into actionable intelligence.

This course builds upon what students have learned in the SkyOp introductory and hands-on drone flight training courses. Students will learn best practices for drone-based image data collection and be introduced to basic post-processing techniques using Pix4Dmapper. Key components of the course include:

  • An introduction to photogrammetry
  • Data capture best practices
  • An overview of Pix4D and its components
  • Data/image import, preparation, processing, and quality analysis
  • Generation of several kinds of output:
    • Orthomosaics
    • Point clouds
    • 2D maps
    • 3D models
    • Distance and volume measurements
    • NDVI index maps
    • Video animations

Students will create their own models utilizing a free trial Pix4Dmapper account and demo image datasets provided by SkyOp. This course will prepare students to pursue more advanced drone-based data collection and analysis projects.