AN OPTIMALLY INTEGRATED DIRECT GEOREFERENCING AND FLGIHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY OF AIRBORNE MAPPING AND REMOTE SENSING

For the last decade, new methodologies in aerial mapping have emerged focusing on data collection and processing efficiency. High efficiency and productivity are demanded by niche market segments such as emergency response. Hurricane assessment, flood mapping, forest fire damage evaluation and securities planning are all examples of rapid response application segments that benefit from shorter in-field data collection and processing times to generate map products. The new technologies introduced into field operations and workflows have reduced overall costs while maintained the required quality of map products required for businesses to remain competitive. Digital sensors and direct georeferencing are leading these technology advancements and are producing quality map products that were traditionally produced from more conventional field assisted photogrammetric methods. These emerging technologies have been proven to be a cost effective approach in reducing data post-processing times and operational costs by directly calculating the exterior orientation parameters of each image capture, eliminating the need of aerial triangulation and the use of ground control points through the in-direct georeferencing approach. In addition, the use of Digital Sensor technology eliminates the expensive and time consuming film developing and scanning procedures. The resultant exterior oriented solution provides a means of generating orthophotos and orthomosaics within a seamless workflow environment. However, these efficiencies only fulfil fifty percent of the rapid temporal requirements, especially in emergency response applications when immediate mission deployment is the main criteria. This is the reason why an efficient flight planning and management system is required. Applanix’s POSTrack ™ system is a complete planning and mission execution package that overcomes this preparednes