A CONTRAST AMONG EXPERIMENTS IN THREE LOW-ALTITUDE UNMANNED 
AERIAL VEHICLES PHOTOGRAPHY: SECURITY, QUALITY & EFFICIENCY 
WU Yundong a,b ,c ’ *, ZHANG Qiang b , LIU Shaoqin d 
a College of Sciences, Jimei University, 361021 Amoy, China - wuyundong@yahoo.com.cn 
b Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying and mapping, 450052 Zhengzhou, China 
institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASIA), 100080 Beijing, China 
d Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping, 100039 Beijing, China 
ThS-23: UAV for Mapping 
KEY WORDS: Low altitude, Aerial photography, Photogrammetry, Unmanned helicopter, Unmanned airship, Unmanned fixed- 
wing aircraft, Large-scale mapping 
ABSTRACT: 
At present, the vast majority of photographic measurement units are in a state of "measuring" instead of "photographing". In order to 
combine "photographing" with "measuring" more closely, an engineering test of low-altitude aerial photography has been carried out 
on unmanned helicopter, unmanned fixed-wing aircraft and unmanned airship. The paper focuses on their flight safety, photographic 
quality as well as working performance. Seen from the analysis of flight quality, all three aircrafts meet the requirements of 
photogrammetry. Taking the security performance into account, unmanned helium airship is the best one to adapt to flight in urban 
areas. As far as efficiency is concerned, unmanned fixed-wing aircraft has the highest working performance. Finally, suggestions 
are made on how to improve the techniques of unmanned low-altitude civil aircraft photography. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Over 100 years history of aerial photogrammetry and more than 
50 years history of space photogrammetry constitute a 
traditional aerial and space photogrammetry technology system. 
The traditional aerial and space photogrammetry technologies 
are very well developed, and they are playing an irreplaceable 
role in small and medium-scale topographic mapping in a wide 
area. However, when confronted with large-scale rapid mapping 
mission in a small area, they both get into a dilemma. 
Basically, the current large-scale mapping technology is 
entirely in a state of field operation. 
Another problem that is worthy of our concern is that almost all 
photogrammetry units are in a state of "measuring" instead of 
"photographing". The disjuncture of "photographing" from 
"measuring" is both necessary and reasonable in the early stage 
of technology development. However, the long-term 
disconnection will inevitably result in long mapping cycle and 
high production costs. "It is our most urgent task to help all 
photogrammetry units to carry out photography according to 
their needs”(LIU Xianlin, 2006). 
How to carry into effect the technical measures for changing the 
status quo of large-scale mapping in a small area, and further 
achieve the goal that all photogrammetry units can carry out 
photography. The scientific literature (LIU Changhua, 2006) 
gave an account of how photogrammetry was done by a light 
aircraft, and a high volume of engineering applications have 
been completed. An engineering test of low-altitude aerial 
photography was performed respectively on unmanned 
helicopters, unmanned fixed-wing aircraft and unmanned 
airship. The paper first discusses at large the engineering test 
based on the above three platforms and then further makes a 
research and comparison as regard to the security, photographic 
quality and operation efficiency of three aircrafts. 
2. UNMANNED HELICOPTER AERIAL 
PHOTOGRAMMETRY TEST 
2.1 Unmanned Helicopter and Payload 
Civilian-class products, represented by Japanese Yamaha 
RMAX(Tiwana Walton, 2007), Austrian Scheibel 
Camcopter(schiebel,2008), and American AutoCopter 
(NRI ,2005), are up to the engineering level and commercially 
successful, as is shown in Table 1. The test was done by using 
Japanese Yamaha RMAX , which carried Canon 1 Ds Mark-II 
digital camera. 
Technical 
index 
type 
Take-off 
weight 
(kg) 
Payloa 
d (kg) 
Main rotor 
diameter 
(m) 
Cruise 
duration 
(h) 
RMAXL15 
98 
30 
3.115 
2.5 
Camcopter 
66 
25 
3.02 
6 
AutoCopter 
22.5 
6.76 
1.9 
2 
Table 1. Contrast among parameters and performance of typical 
civilian unmanned helicopters 
2.2 Test Area and Flight Program 
The flight test area is located in north of Zhumadian city, and 
connected with the downtown area, with a width of 5 km from 
east to west and a length of 3 km from north to south, covering 
corresponding author 
1223