Assessment of Accuracy in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Pose Estimation with the REAL-Time Kinematic (RTK) Method on the Example of DJI Matrice 300 RTK

The growing possibilities offered by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in many areas of life, in particular in automatic data acquisition, spur the search for new methods to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the acquired information. This study was undertaken on the assumption that modern navigation receivers equipped with real-time kinematic positioning software and integrated with UAVs can considerably improve the accuracy of photogrammetric measurements. The research hypothesis was verified during field measurements with the use of a popular Enterprise series drone. The problems associated with accurate UAV pose estimation were identified. The main aim of the study was to perform a qualitative assessment of the pose estimation accuracy of a UAV equipped with a GNSS RTK receiver. A test procedure comprising three field experiments was designed to achieve the above research goal: an analysis of the stability of absolute pose estimation when the UAV is hovering over a point, and analyses of UAV pose estimation during flight along a predefined trajectory and during continuous flight without waypoints. The tests were conducted in a designated research area. The results were verified based on direct tachometric measurements. The qualitative assessment was performed with the use of statistical methods. The study demonstrated that in a state of apparent stability, horizontal deviations of around 0.02 m occurred at low altitudes and increased with a rise in altitude. Mission type significantly influences pose estimation accuracy over waypoints. The results were used to verify the accuracy of the UAV’s pose estimation and to identify factors that affect the pose estimation accuracy of an UAV equipped with a GNSS RTK receiver. The present findings provide valuable input for developing a new method to improve the accuracy of measurements performed with the use of UAVs.