The Coastal Ecosystem Mapping and Media Viability Project

Figure 10. Mission plan for the Northern part of Khor Kalba Ramsar Site in Fujairah (three missions shown and Home point H)

Home Point

Placement of the drone pilot had a direct impact on the mission area selected for flying (Figure 10), where the furthest point of the missions had to be close enough to the home-point (H) to keep a connection with the pilot. This will not be as critical in future versions of the mission planner when using a more recent drone with a longer range, but will still have an impact on the overall mission planning. GPS As long as there was overlap between missions and GCPs visible, for a majority of missions the software was able to auto correct the accuracy of the GPS. Five Oceans supplied a survey grade GPS unit and an expert to operate it. It was advised that error correction could be done from using RSGCPs or a survey grade base station, and with the replicability in mind it was decided to try and keep the GPS as simple as possible with keeping it as higher grade as possible at low cost in mind.

The Coastal Ecosystem Mapping and Media Viability Project

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