Overview
The Corridor flight plan, which is free and available on all subscription levels, allows you to plan a linear flight path. This mission type enables you to autonomously map roadways, canals, utility lines, railways, or any other linear assets. By using a Corridor flight, you can safely and remotely document assets and conduct inspections.
Availability
Corridor flight planning is compatible with Terrain Awareness. For non-terrain flights, you can also use offline mapping with Corridor planning.
How to use Corridor Flight
Conducting a Corridor flight using DroneDeploy involves several steps to ensure successful planning, execution, and processing.
1. Create the Corridor Flight Plan
Select Corridor from the flight plan list.
On the map view, manipulate the two white waypoints to set the desired start and end points of the plan.
Use the gray plus sign point to add vertices to the plan and shape the path. More details: Creating a New Project and Desktop Flight Planning
2. Adjust Flight Settings
Two basic flight settings - altitude and overlap are essential to note when planning a Corridor flight. Adjust these parameters based on the subject and conditions.
Corridor Settings
Corridor Width: Adjusting the corridor width will increase the area processed. The dashed line represents the crop/processing boundary. To have a wider corridor with more passes, increase the width. DroneDeploy automatically adds legs to the plan to achieve the overlap needed for the mapped area.
Flight Altitude: Change the flight altitude to influence the number of legs needed. Higher altitudes require fewer legs but with a trade-off in resolution.
Terrain Awareness: Use Terrain Awareness to maintain a consistent ground sampling distance for varied elevations.
General Flight Settings
Obstacle Avoidance
Front Overlap and Side Overlap
Flight Direction
Capture Flight Speed
Gimbal angle
3. Execute and Process the Flight
Check visibility and the flight length before starting the flight.
Position the takeoff point centrally relative to the start and end points of the corridor.
If needed, Corridor plans can be made available for offline execution.
Process Corridor plans as you typically would with a Map/Model.
If you choose to upload via desktop, head to the Upload tab. You should see an option for the linear plan that was flown, or you can select New Upload. Drag/Drop or Select your Corridor plans and Upload Images.
Best practices:
Maintain Visual Line of Sight (VLOS): Check visibility and flight length before starting the flight. Ensure that the drone takes off from a central position.
Adjusting Settings: Understand and change flight settings according to varied conditions and subjects.
Overlap Considerations: Increase overlap for low flights or homogenous subjects. Be aware that the increased image count may lead to potential stitching issues with moving subjects.
Image Count: When flying and capturing large corridor or linear maps, keep your image sets under 3,000 images.
Limitations: Each corridor flight is unique and may require specific adjustments based on the flight's terrain, subject, and purpose. Always consider these factors when you plan and execute your drone operations.
V2.2