Planning for Accuracy with Lidar

It’s important to be realistic when Planning for Accuracy with Lidar. First, you need to determine what’s possible with your particular Lidar sensor, and that is going to depend on your specific Lidar sensor's abilities.

For the sake of this section, we’ll use the Zenmuse L1 as an example.

Most drone-based Lidar systems will have to be flown lower than 400’ to achieve what most would consider acceptable data. But again this is really dependent on your specific needs. We’ve found the L1 to have an effective altitude for data capture between 200’-300’, which will get you ~0.2’ accuracy in heavily vegetated areas, and ~0.1’ accuracy on hardscape due to the simultaneous photo capture of the L1.

Once you know what is possible, you’ll then want to determine what features need higher accuracy shots, and plan to shoot those on the ground using traditional methods. 

If you use a sensor other than the Zenmuse L1, check with your sensor manufacturer for specifications.