Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo 05508-010, Brazil; Spatial Analysis And Modelling Lab (SPAMLab) - https://spamlab.github.io/, Brazil; Corresponding author at: Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo 05508-010, Brazil.
Camila D. Viana
Institute of Geosciences (IGc), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo 05508-080, Brazil; Spatial Analysis And Modelling Lab (SPAMLab) - https://spamlab.github.io/, Brazil
Guilherme P.B. Garcia
Institute of Geosciences (IGc), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo 05508-080, Brazil; Spatial Analysis And Modelling Lab (SPAMLab) - https://spamlab.github.io/, Brazil
Rafael W. Albuquerque
Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo 05508-010, Brazil; Spatial Analysis And Modelling Lab (SPAMLab) - https://spamlab.github.io/, Brazil
Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPAs) are commonly used as a platform for collecting images which can be processed with Structure from Motion-Multi View Stereo (SfM-MVS) to generate 3D models. However, mobile applications for mapping planning are not designed for image acquisition of vertical surfaces, such as quarry walls or large cliffs, leaving the user to a manual flight operation, which does not ensure optimal overlap between images. Here we describe a workflow, based on the Litchi App, for automated RPA missions designed to acquire images of vertical surfaces or structures. • An easy-to-follow 8 steps method to survey vertical surfaces using a Remotely Piloted Aircraft. • It can be applied to outcrops, quarry walls, high cliffs and virtually any other type of vertical surface. • The workflow is flexible and can be adapted to a variety of target configurations and user-defined parameters.
