Accuracy assessment of open - pit mine’s digital surface models generated using photos captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the post - processing kinematic mode

Abstract

To evaluate the accuracy of the digital surface model (DSM) of an open-pit mine produced using photos captured by the unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with the post-processing dynamic satellite positioning technology (UAV/PPK), a DSM model of the Deo Nai open-pit coal mine was built in two cases: (1) only using images taken from UAV/PPK and (2) using images taken from UAV/PPK and ground control points (GCPs). These DSMs are evaluated in two ways: using checkpoints (CPs) and comparing the entire generated DSM with the DSM established by the electronic total station. The obtained results show that if using CPs, in case 1, the errors in horizontal and vertical dimension were 6.8 and 34.3 cm, respectively. When using two or more GCPs (case 2), the horizontal and vertical errors are at the centimetre-level (4.5 cm and 4.7 cm); if using the DSM comparison, the same accuracy as case 2 was also obtained.