Suported drones
The use of drones is not limited to certain types. However for best results you need good camera. This means the camera should be with as large sensor as possible, one inch is good enough. High frame rate is recommended of at least 30 fps.
The videos can be made with any resolution, however we recommend using 4K and then down sample them in the software.
We achieved some pretty impressive results with drones like DJI Mavic 2 Pro and DJI Phantom 4 Pro. Anything above this specs will work just fine.
This does not mean that you can’t use lower specs drones. We have made survey level maps with DJI Mavic mini and DJI Air 2s. However, it is harder to achieve perfect results because of the camera sensor limitation.
If you can test with some other drone types and you are open for collaboration we are happy to participate and hear about your result.
System requirements
Dynamix Mapper is desktop application that works on Windows operating system. The minimum requirements are:
Windows 10 or higher, 4 core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Graphic card with 4GB of memory, 250 GB SSD drive.
The recommended requirements are: 8 core CPU, 32 GB of RAM, Graphic card with 8GB of memory, 500 GB NVMe m.2 SSD drive.
The installation of the software is straight forward. Just select the installation destination and click Next.
Video capture
Our recommendation is to capture videos with higher frame rates, at least 30 fps. We prefer .mp4 video format with 60 fps or higher.
There is no overlap needed. Only important is to not rotate the drone.
The mapping should start when the drone is already on the desired mapping height and the gimbal is set into the position for mapping. Do not rotate the gimbal during the video is recorded.
We recommend flying with speed less then 10 km/hr or 6.2mph. Use translational motion (to any direction), without changing the camera orientation. It is important that the drone is not making rotation movements while it stays static (or hover). Translational motion is required when rotating the direction of the camera.
Don’t change the orientation of the gimbal during recording the video.
For vertical object reconstruction such as tall buildings or industrial structures orbital flying can be used but it is not recommended. Better way to map these types of objects is to fly bottom to top with the camera facing directly or perpendicular to the structure.
Separate videos can be recorded and mapped. After that they can be joined or combined in the software itself. This way we ensure that better reconstruction quality is achieved and all details are mapped correctly.
(Suggestion for mapping in strong wind) If there is strong wind and we are mapping location with high vegetation or trees, it is better if the flight height is higher so the noise from the wind and moving vegetation does not have high effect on the 3D reconstruction.
Mapping
Click the Main icon and select “New Project”. Select working
folder and project name. On the next page click “Import video”. In the next
window choose your drone type and click “Select video”. If your drone is not in
the list, select “Custom”.
Select the video and Click Open. More videos can be selected at the same time. This is because some drones are splitting the video recording into multiple files.
When everything is ready, click the “Start” icon to start mapping procedure. You can stop the procedure anytime using the “Stop” button.
If you are not satisfied with the result, make sure that you are using the right resolution and calibration parameters (check the Camera tab and Preferences tab parts of this manual)
For more info please download the Dynamix Mapper User manual bellow