Intro to drones and photogrammetry (the low cost open source way)

GIS User

GIS Instructor

Student

Management

Other

drone

open source

Published

October 20, 2025

Presentation Type: Workshop (90 minutes)

Skill Level: Beginner, Intermediate

Intended Audience: GIS User, GIS Instructor, Student, Management, Other

Abstract

This workshop is inspired a paper I wrote for the Illinois Archaeological Survey Jeanette Stephens Student Paper submission (https://ilarchsurv.org/news/13378365). The paper focused on low cost and open source drone comparison to high end drone and costly post-processing data software. The comparison provided an insight that low cost drones are still a worthy consideration if individuals are restricted by budget but would like orthomosaics of higher quality or more frequent time intervals than satellite imagery. In this workshop I will present some brief information regarding price points, requirements to fly drones and software options. I will have pre-collected data that will be uploaded and shared through cloud. Participants in the workshop will be able to use open source software to create orthomosaic and import it into QGIS ( or ArcGIS Pro if they wish).

Presenter(s)

Sylvia Angelova

GIS Tech, Kendall County