High-Precision/Throughput Growth Measurement of Crops by Drone with Stereo Matching Based on RTK-GNSS and Single Camera

In this study, we propose a stereo matching system using a drone equipped with RTK-GNSS and a single camera to realize high-precision growth measurement of crops in a largescale field. Also, the technique of multiple stereo matching by repeating the photographing in the fixed interval is proposed. To evaluate the proposed system, a comparison experiment of stereo matching was carried out between the case where the baseline length was measured by RTK-GNSS and the case where the known and accurate baseline length was used by the photographing equipment without using RTK-GNSS. As a result, it was clarified that both of them could be measured with equal accuracy and that RTK-GNSS was sufficient accuracy. In the best case, the height of the plant was measured with an error of 0.1 cm by stereo matching at a baseline length of 4 m and a subject distance of 16 m.