An Overview of Aerial Mapping with Pixhawk, Pix4D, and GoPro Hero3+

##Interested in Aerial mapping? ##
I found this very useful guide on the process of surveying a piece of land that I thought I would share with all those interested in this application of drones. I am interested in this myself but knew little about the actual process - this video certainly helped with that.

In general, this video covers what equipment is best used for this process, what programmes are best to use, and how to overcome some common problems. For example, in this example he uses a GoPro camera that wasn’t GPS enabled and so he goes through how to use the tool QGIS that manages to georeference your finished picture. He was able use this camera in the first place because Pix4D now supports the distorted lens of the GoPro - great news. This process also results in a comprehensive quality report, making it one of the most useful applications of drones today.

So, if this has interested you in any way, this video is well worth a watch and happy mapping!

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First time posting to one of these videos, but yours was very informative and I needed to ask some questions. I am trying to use PIX4D to create maps and 3D files to be used for different applications. We want to export to other software in order to convert to STL and 3D print, but we also want to explore agriculture uses with near infrared or infrared cameras. What we are struggling with is the step by step procedure to import the images from a gopro into PIX4D. Is geotagging necessary? Are GCPs necessary? If so for either, I think I can do the GCP no problem, but what is the easiest way to get geotag info from a gopro into PIX4D? I am using a 3DR drone, we have an IRIS and an X8, but not the mapping X8. Thanks in advance

Hey, thanks for your interest in this article, you can find out more details on how to geotag your photos via mission planner here. As I mentioned in the original post, I am no expert with Pix4D so it may be best to contact pix4d directly for more help. However, they do have some details in the manual about using a gopro here

There is also this video by the same author of the original video that details geotagging aerial photos with mission planner for PIX4D which is useful; this guy knows what he’s doing!

If you have any more questions, I will happily help you in any way I can and have fun flying and geotagging!

I am just getting started with mapping and thanks for posting this informative video. I am building a drone to fly with my Sony PJ 650 VE as it has a great lense and resolution with built in GPS. I have tested the GPS out on the camera for video mode and picture mode and it appears to be very accurate.