Quality of Digital Elevation Models obtained from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Precision Viticulture
- Autores: Léo Pichon, Arnaud Ducanchez, Hélène Fonta, Bruno Tisseyre
- Localización: OENO ONE: Journal international des sciences de la vigne et du vin = International journal of vine and wine sciences, ISSN 1151-0285, Vol. 50, Nº 3, 2016, págs. 101-111
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
Aims: This work aims to study the quality of low cost Digital Surface Models (DSMs) obtained with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images and to test whether these DSMs meet common requirements of the wine industry.
Methods and results: Experiments were carried out on a 4-ha vineyard located 10 km north of Beziers (France). The experimental site presents slope and aspect variations representative of mechanised commercial vineyards in Languedoc Roussillon. DSMs were provided by three UAV companies selected for the diversity of their solutions in terms of image capture altitude, type of UAV and image processing software. DSMs were obtained by photogrammetry and correspond to commercial products usually delivered by UAV companies. DSMs from UAV were compared to a reference Digital Elevation Model (DEM) acquired by a laser tachymeter. Four indicators were used to test the quality of DSMs: the mean error and its dispersion in the XY plane and in elevation Z. Results show a good georeferencing of the DSMs (MeanErrorXY<10 cm) and a similar quality in elevation (MeanErrorZ<10 cm) estimation. Results also show that the error in elevation is highly spatially structured. The spatial patterns observed did not depend on the elevation and could be related to algorithms used to compute the DSMs.
Conclusion: Data acquisition and processing methods have an impact on the quality of the DSMs provided by the UAV companies. DSM qualities are good enough to meet commercial vineyard requirements. The tested DSMs fit the requirements to assess field characteristics (elevation, slope, aspects) which may be important for terroir characterisation purposes.
Significance and impact of the study: This study proves that elevation data derived from UAV present an accuracy equivalent to the reference system used in this study. The rapidity, the low cost and the high spatial resolution of these data offer significant opportunities for the development of new services for the wine industry for field characterisation.
