I am a looking at starting a small business using a Dji inspire (or possibly a phantom 3 pro). I’ve researched every possible drone, app, and processing software, and I believe that Pix4D is the best solution for photogammetry services. But from what I can tell, there is 2 main features that required in order to make it 100% feasible.
- Setting the boundary of a survey zone.
Currently, I see no way if ensuring that a user is surveying the correct location in areas that do not have Google Earth imagery or areas where imagery is out of date. Construction and mining sites change quickly and vastly. I suggest adding a way for a user to “tag” boundary limits with either the users phone GPS or the drones GPS.
As well boundary limits shouldn’t always be rectangular. Option should be available to have a polygon shape boundary.
- Multiple Battery mission
With only a 15 to 20 min flight time, total area of a survey is limited. To survey a large construction or mine site it could take several batteries. The app needs an option to complete a very large mission over 2, 3, 4 or more batteries. A survey could perhaps take a couple of days. Understandably, you could merge missions in the processing software, but you would need a way to view previous mission boundaries while planning a new one to ensure that the user to covering all areas or mistakenly covering areas already surveyed.
I welcome other users thoughts or suggestions of any work-arounds they may have.