{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,3]],"date-time":"2026-07-03T23:29:00Z","timestamp":1783121340929,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":67,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]],"date-time":"2018-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1532563200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In the last few years, it has been possible to observe a considerable increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) equipped with compact digital cameras for environment mapping. The next stage in the development of photogrammetry from low altitudes was the development of the imagery data from UAV oblique images. Imagery data was obtained from side-facing directions. As in professional photogrammetric systems, it is possible to record footprints of tree crowns and other forms of the natural environment. The use of a multi-camera system will significantly reduce one of the main UAV photogrammetry limitations (especially in the case of multirotor UAV) which is a reduction of the ground coverage area, while increasing the number of images, increasing the number of flight lines, and reducing the surface imaged during one flight. The approach proposed in this paper is based on using several head cameras to enhance the imaging geometry during one flight of UAV for mapping. As part of the research work, a multi-camera system consisting of several cameras was designed to increase the total Field of View (FOV). Thanks to this, it will be possible to increase the ground coverage area and to acquire image data effectively. The acquired images will be mosaicked in order to limit the total number of images for the mapped area. As part of the research, a set of cameras was calibrated to determine the interior orientation parameters (IOPs). Next, the method of image alignment using the feature image matching algorithms was presented. In the proposed approach, the images are combined in such a way that the final image has a joint centre of projections of component images. The experimental results showed that the proposed solution was reliable and accurate for the mapping purpose. The paper also presents the effectiveness of existing transformation models for images with a large coverage subjected to initial geometric correction due to the influence of distortion.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18082433","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]],"date-time":"2018-07-26T11:32:07Z","timestamp":1532604727000},"page":"2433","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":61,"title":["Multi-Camera Imaging System for UAV Photogrammetry"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6192-3894","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Damian","family":"Wierzbicki","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry and Imagery Intelligence, Institute of Geodesy, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Military University of Technology, 01-476 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Remondino, F., and Gerke, M. (2015, January 7\u201311). Oblique Aerial Imagery\u2014A Review. Proceedings of the Photogrammetric Week 2015, Stuttgart, Germany."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jiang, S., and Jiang, W. (2017). On-board GNSS\/IMU assisted feature extraction and matching for oblique UAV images. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9080813"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2016.09.005","article-title":"RBA: Reduced Bundle Adjustment for oblique aerial photogrammetry","volume":"121","author":"Sun","year":"2016","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Gruber, M., and Ladst\u00e4dter, R. (2011, January 1\u20135). Results from ultracam monolithic stitching. Proceedings of the ASPRS Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI, USA."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"324","article-title":"Geometric Calibration of the DMC: Method and Results","volume":"34","author":"Zeitler","year":"2002","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2014.02.013","article-title":"Unmanned aerial systems for photogrammetry and remote sensing: A review","volume":"92","author":"Colomina","year":"2014","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2015.02.009","article-title":"UAV photogrammetry for topographic monitoring of coastal areas","volume":"104","author":"Henriques","year":"2015","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Burdziakowski, P., and Bobkowska, K. (2017, January 27\u201328). Accuracy of a low-cost autonomous hexacopter platforms navigation module for a photogrammetric and environmental measurements. Proceedings of the Environmental Engineering 10th International Conference, Vilnius, Lithuania.","DOI":"10.3846\/enviro.2017.173"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s12518-013-0120-x","article-title":"UAV for 3D mapping applications: A review","volume":"6","author":"Nex","year":"2014","journal-title":"Appl. Geomat."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"56","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2011.12.006","article-title":"Building extraction from oblique airborne imagery based on robust fa\u00e7ade detection","volume":"68","author":"Xiao","year":"2012","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"015008","DOI":"10.1117\/1.JRS.12.015008","article-title":"Method of radiometric quality assessment of NIR images acquired with a custom sensor mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle","volume":"12","author":"Wierzbicki","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Appl. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"387","article-title":"Dense multiple stereo matching of highly overlapping UAV imagery","volume":"39","author":"Haala","year":"2012","journal-title":"ISPRS Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"287","DOI":"10.5194\/isprsarchives-XL-1-W2-287-2013","article-title":"Relative and absolute Calibration of a multihead Camera System with oblique and nadir looking Cameras for a UAS","volume":"2","author":"Niemeyer","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"1417","article-title":"A multi-sensor system for airborne image capture and georreferencing","volume":"66","author":"Mostafa","year":"2000","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1875","DOI":"10.3390\/rs5041875","article-title":"Generating Virtual Images from Oblique Frames","volume":"5","author":"Tommaselli","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.5194\/isprsarchives-XL-3-W2-87-2015","article-title":"A modified projective transformation scheme for mosaicking multi-camera imaging system equipped on a large payload fixed-wing UAS","volume":"XL-3\/W2","author":"Jhan","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Grenzd\u00f6rffer, G., Niemeyer, F., and Schmidt, F. (September, January 25). Development of Four Vision Camera System for a Micro-UAV. Proceedings of the XXII ISPRS Congress, Melbourne, Australia."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"835","DOI":"10.5194\/isprs-archives-XLI-B1-835-2016","article-title":"UAV photogrammetry with oblique images: First analysis on data acquisition and processing","volume":"41","author":"Aicardi","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"404","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ufug.2015.03.003","article-title":"Use of UAV oblique imaging for the detection of individual trees in residential environments","volume":"14","author":"Lin","year":"2015","journal-title":"Urban For. Urban Green."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3446","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2023114","article-title":"Precision registration and mosaicking of multicamera images","volume":"47","author":"Holtkamp","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"885","DOI":"10.13031\/2013.25359","article-title":"Preparation of a low-cost digital camera system for remote sensing","volume":"24","author":"Ritchie","year":"2008","journal-title":"Appl. Eng. Agric."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5925","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2016.2575066","article-title":"Development of a large-format uas imaging system with the construction of a one sensor geometry from a multicamera array","volume":"54","author":"Rau","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"W2","article-title":"Incremental real-time bundle adjustment for multi-camera systems with points at infinity","volume":"1","author":"Schneider","year":"2013","journal-title":"ISPRS Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"101","article-title":"Calibration of multi-camera photogrammetric systems","volume":"XL-1","author":"Detchev","year":"2014","journal-title":"ISPRS Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Detchev, I., Habib, A., Mazaheri, M., and Melia, A. (2015, January 4\u20138). Long Term Stability Analysis for a Multi-Camera Photogrammetric System. Proceedings of the 2015 ASPRS Annual Conference, Tampa, FL, USA."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"445","DOI":"10.5194\/isprs-archives-XLI-B5-445-2016","article-title":"Calibration of a Multi-Camera Rover","volume":"XLI-B5","author":"Brunn","year":"2016","journal-title":"ISPRS-Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15084","DOI":"10.3390\/s140815084","article-title":"Stability analysis for a multi-camera photogrammetric system","volume":"14","author":"Habib","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"132","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mechatronics.2010.09.008","article-title":"Development of an onboard system for flight data collection of a small-scale UAV helicopter","volume":"21","author":"Taha","year":"2011","journal-title":"Mechatronics"},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"(2017, August 25). Novelty RPAS Ogar MK 2. Available online: http:\/\/noveltyrpas.com\/ogar-mk2\/."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.14358\/PERS.81.1.49","article-title":"Reliable spatial relationship constrained feature point matching of oblique aerial images","volume":"81","author":"Hu","year":"2015","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jiang, S., Jiang, W., Huang, W., and Yang, L. (2017). UAV-Based Oblique Photogrammetry for Outdoor Data Acquisition and Offsite Visual Inspection of Transmission Line. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9030278"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"140","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2017.09.004","article-title":"Efficient structure from motion for oblique UAV images based on maximal spanning tree expansion","volume":"132","author":"Jiang","year":"2017","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"GoPro 2016 (2017, January 03). Gopro Hero 4 Black User Manual. Available online: http:\/\/cbcdn2.gp-static.com\/uploads\/product_manual\/file\/490\/UM_H4Black_ENG_REVA_WEB.pdf."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zeisl, B., Georgel, P.F., Schweiger, F., Steinbach, E.G., Navab, N., and Munich, G. (2009, January 7\u201310). Estimation of Location Uncertainty for Scale Invariant Features Points. Proceedings of the British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC), London, UK.","DOI":"10.5244\/C.23.57"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1477-9730.2006.00352.x","article-title":"Stability analysis of low-cost digital cameras for aerial mapping using different georeferencing techniques","volume":"21","author":"Habib","year":"2006","journal-title":"Photogramm. Rec."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17471","DOI":"10.3390\/s140917471","article-title":"Calibration of action cameras for photogrammetric purposes","volume":"14","author":"Balletti","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_37","first-page":"266","article-title":"Digital camera calibration methods: Considerations and comparisons. International Archives of Photogrammetry","volume":"36","author":"Remondino","year":"2006","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.5194\/isprsarchives-XL-1-W4-321-2015","article-title":"Investigations on the quality of the interior orientation and its impact in object space for UAV photogrammetry","volume":"40","author":"Hastedt","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Kedzierski, M., and Fryskowska, A. (2008, January 3\u201311). Precise method of fisheye lens calibration. Proceedings of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Congress, Beijing, China."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Atkinson, K.B. (1996). Camera calibration. Close Range. Photogrammetry and Machine Vision, Whittles Publishing."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2015.10.006","article-title":"Sensor modelling and camera calibration for close-range photogrammetry","volume":"115","author":"Luhmann","year":"2016","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sen."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.14358\/PERS.79.4.381","article-title":"Automatic camera calibration in close range photogrammetry","volume":"79","author":"Fraser","year":"2013","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_43","unstructured":"Tsai, R.Y. (1986, January 22\u201326). An efficient and accurate camera calibration technique for 3D machine vision. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Miami Beach, FL, USA."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"965","DOI":"10.1109\/34.159901","article-title":"Camera calibration with distortion models and accuracy evaluation","volume":"14","author":"Weng","year":"1992","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1330","DOI":"10.1109\/34.888718","article-title":"A flexible new technique for camera calibration","volume":"22","author":"Zhang","year":"2000","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_46","first-page":"855","article-title":"Close-range camera calibration","volume":"37","author":"Brown","year":"1971","journal-title":"Photogramm. Eng."},{"key":"ref_47","first-page":"197","article-title":"Camera calibration based on OpenCV","volume":"28","author":"Yin","year":"2007","journal-title":"Comput. Eng. Des."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, Y.M., Li, Y., and Zheng, J.B. (2010, January 23\u201325). A camera calibration technique based on OpenCV. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information Sciences and Interaction Sciences (ICIS), Chengdu, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICICIS.2010.5534797"},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2027","DOI":"10.3390\/s100302027","article-title":"Automatic chessboard detection for intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameter calibration","volume":"10","author":"Armingol","year":"2010","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Douterloigne, K., Gautama, S., and Philips, W. (2009, January 12\u201317). Fully automatic and robust UAV camera calibration using chessboard patterns. Proceedings of the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Cape Town, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2009.5418141"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2016.01.008","article-title":"Band-to-band registration and ortho-rectification of multilens\/multispectral imagery: A case study of MiniMCA-12 acquired by a fixed-wing UAS","volume":"114","author":"Jhan","year":"2016","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_52","unstructured":"Muja, M., and Lowe, D.G. (2009, January 5\u20138). Fast approximate nearest neighbors with automatic algorithm configuration. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, Lisboa, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_53","unstructured":"Solem, J.E. (2012). Programming Computer Vision with Python: Tools and Algorithms for Analyzing Images, O\u2019Reilly Media. Inc."},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hartley, R.I., and Zisserman, A. (2004). Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision, Cambridge University Press. [2nd ed.].","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511811685"},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1023\/B:VISI.0000029664.99615.94","article-title":"Distinctive image features from scale-invariant keypoints","volume":"60","author":"Lowe","year":"2004","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Vis."},{"key":"ref_56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"580","DOI":"10.1109\/34.601246","article-title":"In Defense of the Eight-Point Algorithm","volume":"19","author":"Hartley","year":"1997","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1477-9730.2006.00381.x","article-title":"Direct retrieval of exterior orientation parameters using a 2D projective transformation","volume":"21","author":"Seedahmed","year":"2006","journal-title":"Photogramm. Rec."},{"key":"ref_58","unstructured":"Remondino, F., and B\u00f6rlin, N. (2004, January 19\u201322). Photogrammetric calibration of image sequences acquired with a rotating camera. Proceedings of the ISPRS Working Group V\/1, Panoramic Photogrammetry Workshop, Dresden, Germany. No. 5\/W16."},{"key":"ref_59","first-page":"404","article-title":"Resampling Digital Imagery to Epipolar Geometry","volume":"418","author":"Cho","year":"1992","journal-title":"IAPRS Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Redzuwan, R., Radzi, N.A.M., Din, N.M., and Mustafa, I.S. (2015, January 19\u201321). Affine versus projective transformation for SIFT and RANSAC image matching methods. Proceedings of the International Conference on Signal and Image Processing Applications (ICSIPA), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSIPA.2015.7412233"},{"key":"ref_61","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.1145\/358669.358692","article-title":"Random sample consensus: A paradigm for model fitting with applications to image analysis and automated cartography","volume":"24","author":"Fischler","year":"1981","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_62","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"851","DOI":"10.5194\/isprs-archives-XLI-B1-851-2016","article-title":"Evaluation of the Quality of Action Cameras with Wide-Angle Lenses in UAV Photogrammetry","volume":"XLI-B1","author":"Hastedt","year":"2016","journal-title":"ISPRS-Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_63","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Scaramuzza, D., Martinelli, A., and Siegwart, R. (2006, January 9\u201315). A toolbox for easily calibrating omnidirectional cameras. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2006.282372"},{"key":"ref_64","unstructured":"Zhao, J., Zhou, H.J., and Men, G.Z. (2009, January 12\u201315). A method of sift feature points matching for image mosaic. Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, Hebei, China."},{"key":"ref_65","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1007\/s11263-006-0002-3","article-title":"Automatic panoramic image stitching using invariant features","volume":"74","author":"Brown","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Vis."},{"key":"ref_66","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, C., Liu, X., Zhao, X., and Wang, Y. (2016). An Effective Correction Method for Seriously Oblique Remote Sensing Images Based on Multi-View Simulation and a Piecewise Model. Sensors, 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/s16101725"},{"key":"ref_67","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pan, X., Zhao, X., Gao, D., and Li, X. (2017). A multi-core parallel mosaic alorithm for multi-view UAV images. ISPRS-Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci., 845\u2013850.","DOI":"10.5194\/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W7-845-2017"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/18\/8\/2433\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:14:35Z","timestamp":1760195675000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/18\/8\/2433"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]]},"references-count":67,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,8]]}},"alternative-id":["s18082433"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s18082433","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,26]]}}}