Publication

The influence of camera calibration on nearshore bathymetry estimation from UAV videos

Journal Article (2021)

Journal

Remote Sensing

Pages

150

Volume

13

Number

1

Doc link

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010150

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Authors

  • Simarro, Gonzalo

  • Calvete, Daniel

  • Plomaritis, Theocharis

  • Moreno Noguer, Francesc

  • Giannoukakou Leontsini, Ifigeneia

  • Montes, Juan

  • Duran, Ruth

Abstract

Measuring the nearshore bathymetry is critical in coastal management and morphodynamic studies. The recent advent of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), in combination with coastal video monitoring techniques, allows for an alternative and low cost evaluation of the nearshore bathymetry. Camera calibration and stabilization is a critical issue in bathymetry estimation from video systems. This work introduces a new methodology in order to obtain such bathymetries, and it compares the results to echo-sounder ground truth data. The goal is to gain a better understanding on the influence of the camera calibration and stabilization on the inferred bathymetry. The results show how the proposed methodology allows for accurate evaluations of the bathymetry, with overall root mean square errors in the order of 40 cm. It is shown that the intrinsic calibration of the camera, related to the lens distortion, is the most critical aspect. Here, the intrinsic calibration that was obtained directly during the flight yields the best results.

Categories

computer vision.

Author keywords

camera calibration

Scientific reference

G. Simarro, D. Calvete, T. Plomaritis, F. Moreno-Noguer, I. Giannoukakou, J. Montes and R. Duran. The influence of camera calibration on nearshore bathymetry estimation from UAV videos. Remote Sensing, 13(1): 150, 2021.