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Anyone using Drone Deploy?
Posted by lee-d on June 26, 2019 at 2:06 pmAnyone using Drone Deploy for UAS? Any feedback on how it compares with Pix4D and other commonly used software?
andrewm replied 4 years, 10 months ago 6 Members · 6 Replies- 6 Replies
We used it initially until we found Pix4d. Pix4d was superior by far. I am not up to speed on either but do know my tech spent a ton of time with both and Pix4d was the winner, at least for us. We use them for Drone flight data.
DroneDeploy only allows for the used GCPs in the highest tier of processing and it is done remotely. Pix4D allows for GCPs by default which is essential to an accurate aerial image and model. The flight app for DroneDeploy is pretty good, it does the same as all of the others in the autonomous flight regard, however Pix4D’s app Pix4DCapture does the same thing. If you are going to be using it frequently, or even just a few times a year and can afford Pix4D’s one time licensing cost, that is your go to for processing of the GeoTiff and point cloud.
I’ve been evaluating it for a few weeks and have flown two sites with redundant ground truth conventional and RTK surveys. Both of the sites were clear of trees, long and flat and I figured it couldn’t get any better. One was a half mile long airport runway.
Essentially I am not impressed with the quality of the processing. I am trying to see if better flight planning and ground control point add on will tighten things up but at this point the technicians on their end are much more optimistic than I am. They say our DJI Mavic II Pro is plenty good for the 3cm H & V accuracy I am looking for. To be fair I believe part of the problem was pilot error and I am trying to learn how to do it right and inform the pilot.
I have requested that DroneDeploy provide a few surveyor references and they have said they will but have not done it.
FWIW the customer support has been responsive and talked a great game but I’m not sure if they are going to be able to deliver. I feel that the endeavor has been a bit of a waste of time so far. Fortunately it hasn’t cost me much money yet…..
My last shot is a training phone conference on Friday morning. Then I will go back to the same site to fly it again with their recommended flight plan (already did the site 3 times on the first trip). I’m also going to run a few more topo shots just in case, if it doesn’t work out then I will try Pix4D on the next project, it seems to be the surveyor’s choice for now.
Good timing, I’ll let you know what I find.
Get Pix4D or Agisoft Photoscan.
I use Dronedeploy for planning & acquisition a lot. I prefer it over Pix4D Capture. There’s very little lag when I begin the autonomous flight allowing me to make the most of each battery. That’s it though. Once I get the images I want that’s it.
Also I don’t do any cloud processing. I used dronedeploy a bit early on, but for the cost and lack of control it doesn’t compare to Pix4D. There’s a lot that can be done in Pix4D to achieve better results when you don’ get what you want initially. GCPs, point cloud editing, and various exports in Pix4D is superior to Dronedeploy. It’s okay in my opinion for quick easy processing if you don’t need much control. For volumes or a simple ortho its okay. They do a good job marketing and the flight app is nice & easy. Once you’re really going strong though it’s just not the way to go by comparison to Pix4D or Photoscan.
I don’t use Photoscan either, but that’s the consensus.
I??ve only used the Drone Deploy mobile app. I like it better than Pix4Dcapture. Pix4D on iOS overrides the manual camera settings for my Phantom 4 Pro, which lead to blurry images. Drone Deploy holds the camera settings from DJI Go and it can import a kml project boundary.
Regarding processing, I??m very pleased with the results I can get with Pix4D and I love the cloud web application sharing capabilities so I haven??t tried Drone Deploy.
I??ve been able to achieve a rmse vertical accuracy of 1 GSD with Pix4D and my Phantom 4 Pro with a BAAM.Tech PPK system.
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