AN OBJECT-ORIENTED UAV 3D PATH PLANNING METHOD APPLIED IN CULTURAL HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION

Abstract. Since image-based 3D model reconstruction can faithfully recover the real texture of cultural heritage with high accuracy, it is widely used in cultural heritage documentation. Given the complexity of manual image acquisition at present, we propose an object-oriented unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning method to obtain close-up and high-resolution images for the 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage. Four basic geometric classes are defined and can be automatically divided or interactively defined on the surface of an initial coarse model. We propose the concept of aerial strip unit in conventional photogrammetry to generate multiple regular strip units for photography. The optimal flight path connecting each unit is generated considering the obstacle avoidance and the shortest distance. Based on the self-developed 3D engine, we take the Ancient City of Ping Yao and Yellow Crane Tower in China as two cases to design the UAV 3D path planning. Experimental results show that, compared with general planning methods, our method can improve the flight efficiency of UAV and the visual fineness of the reconstruction results.