In this age of bots and slop, thanks all for being there and being part of a people-powered project. We are here as a community, moving the state of the art forward. Let's go map the world.

Primary income for the org is still through the installers that support this small but energetic team of developers, researchers, and community support folks. Donations always welcome as well.

The best way to support the project moving forward is through your participation in community forum community.opendronemap.org that has real people eager to talk drones, photogrammetry, and how to make the most of your data.

And for clarity, we'll still be shipping the same desktop installer under a different name, now with more regular upgrades. We did a lot of work these last few months ensure we can do so sustainably. For the time being, expect that the OpenDroneMap installer will be based on the WebODM code base.

We have a lot to do in order to improve core ODM, as well as build other ways to expand the ecosystem: from integrating ODM into differen user workflows to accessible drones and flight planners. Expect lots of questions, conversations, and updates along those axes.

In short, we have a great team forming to push ahead with the plans we have for this year amidst the challenges of a shifting landscape.

OpenDroneMap strives to be the best free and open source photogrammetry platform and community. In the last year, we have recruited a few developers to continue to improve OpenDroneMap, such as Leonardo who joined as a maintainer earlier this year, and others will be announced soon.

Piero has announced the departure of WebODM from under the OpenDroneMap banner to its own independent project. As a project, OpenDroneMap is deeply indebted to Piero's service over the years, not only as a prodigious developer, but also community member and leader. We will miss him.

We are currently doing some DNS migrations, so bear with us if you see outages on community.opendronemap.org, opendronemap.org, docs.opendronemap.org, and fedi.opendronemap.org.

What is your biggest pain with ODM / OpenSfM? Hi everyone, Looks like I am the new maintainer of ODM, so as part of my onboarding, I want to gather a big list of TODOs that will be later discussed and compiled into a sensible roadmap. Now,…

We are luck enough that Leonardo Urena-Fuentes is stepping in as maintainer for OpenDroneMap's photogrammetry engine! He's soliciting challenges folks have in OpenDroneMap to help focus his upcoming work.

Weigh in on the community forum to help us prioritize next fixes!
tinyurl.com/odm-pain-poi...

For clarity absent in the first post...: The Headwaters Project is a concerted effort to support critical libraries and software projects upstream of our project.

The first project that we're funding through the Headwaters Project will upgrade OpenMVS with an improved texturing method, replacing MVS-Texturing.

It's a win-win-win: upstream support for a core dependency, improved algorithms in that library, and reduced memory bottlenecks in OpenDroneMap.

“See how we can help you” Industry, e.g. Agriculture, and Looking for, e.g. Farm health monitoring

As we build out the new website, our designer added a section that will link on to Industry and Application for OpenDroneMap data.

What would you put for Industry and Application?

This is a great reminder of a thoroughly written and thoughtful workflow. Thanks for the reminder!

Drone Mapping Software - OpenDroneMap™ Drone mapping software. Generate maps, point clouds, 3D models and DEMs from images, any orientation, any camera.

🤔
We’re collecting cool datasets to show on OpenDroneMap.org, but it also might be useful to have a sentence from you on how you use OpenDroneMap and how it has effected you in your industry.

How has OpenDroneMap changed / improved / supported what you do in your sector?
🤔

Creating aerial imagery with a bike helmet camera (GoPro) and OpenDroneMap - Jake Coppinger This technical guide details how you can create your own orthorectified (aka satellite view/bird mode) imagery, point clouds and 3D models of streets with nothing but a 360 degree camera mounted on bi...

I also wrote a post on this very topic!

jakecoppinger.com/2022/12/crea...

Sometimes stuff is just bananas. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bma...

OpenDroneMap Community Discussion, Questions, and Collaboration surrounding the OpenDroneMap toolchain

That'd do it. Biggest challenge might be quality of the GNSS/GPS data, but it'll stitch, just need to choose the right camera type, and probably defaults otherwise. And join us at community.opendronemap.org if you get stuck or when you succeed!

Following up on the prior request for cool datasets: whether for posting on the website or just showing off for fun, what cool elevation datasets are folks rocking these days? Anything to show off?

We've got some cool things already posted here:
community.opendronemap.org/t/cool-datas...

We're working on an updated OpenDroneMap website and we want to showcase datasets from OpenDroneMap enthusiasts there.

You’ll be credited on the website, your cool work shown off, and we’ll be able to highlight the cool stuff that OpenDroneMap can do!

community.opendronemap.org/t/cool-datas...

Drone Mapping Software - OpenDroneMap™ Drone mapping software. Generate maps, point clouds, 3D models and DEMs from images, any orientation, any camera.

🤔
We’re collecting cool datasets to show on OpenDroneMap.org, but it also might be useful to have a sentence from you on how you use OpenDroneMap and how it has effected you in your industry.

How has OpenDroneMap changed / improved / supported what you do in your sector?
🤔

I Answer Some Of Your Burning Drone Questions Whenever drones pop up in the news, whenever they buzz unnervingly again into popular perception, people ask me what I think about these latest developments on social media. Most of the time, and rega...

Got questions about drones? Questions like “can I legally take down a drone with a flaming arrow, or a trained eagle that’s also on fire?”

I answer most of them here!

little-flying-robots.ghost.io/i-answer-som...

BTW, the model in the upper left of this sequence is the Honda crest from Himeji Castle, in Japan. Watch for a future post where we debadge a Honda and add a crest tile from Himeji Castle, reconstructed from photos last summer.

We're working on an updated OpenDroneMap website and we want to showcase datasets from OpenDroneMap enthusiasts there.

You’ll be credited on the website, your cool work shown off, and we’ll be able to highlight the cool stuff that OpenDroneMap can do!

community.opendronemap.org/t/cool-datas...

One thing maybe not discussed enough is the long term opportunity cost of not investing and supporting open source software. Imagine the more and better Blenders, GIMPs, Firefoxs, InkScapes, QGISs etc we would of had (+ could have) if open source was taken more seriously by government and businesses

And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the other feature this brings in: you can download the camera locations as a text file now (geo.txt), meaning you can edit it and upload it again in another task with corrections to your camera locations, e.g. adjust your Z to a local datum.

Right?! Didn't know how needed it was until it was right there.

The align interface allows alignment of a dataset with another: think ensuring adjacent datasets align, or multi-temporal datasets need to be well aligned geographically.

Previews allow you to (ahem) preview the project orthophoto without opening it.

Screen shot of WebODM interface with new feature: previews of orthophotos on right hand side. Orthophotos include a gravel pit and a park with houses.

Screenshot showing updated interface with new "Alignment" option, here with a dataset titled "Brighton Beach" highlighted. Map at top with image locations shown as dots, and Name, Processing Node, Options, Alignment, and Resize images in interface below.

Continuing the heavy hits on WebODM updates. This list looks short, but it's substantive:

OpenDroneMap/WebODM
V2.7.1
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- Geolocation file download
- Task thumbnails
- Task alignment support