Problems Rendering Pipes - Skydio 2

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#1

I’m trying out DroneDeploy with our Skydio 2 to provide a complimentary 3D model to our customers when we perform our inspections.

Here I have a screenshot of the 3D rendering on DroneDeploy, which is unuseable. I also tried uploading a photo taken by the Skydio 2 so you can see what the pipes are supposed to look like, but I guess new users to the forum can only upload 1 photo. I’m a long-time drone pilot, but I’m new to DroneDeploy and photogrammetry in general. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Total of 206 photos taken for this part of the inspection, all in one go, which took about 20-30 minutes.
Photos were taken on a sunny day and pipes are mostly white in color. Since all photos were taken in a brief time-span, I don’t think shadows would be an issue, and since the pipes are white I also don’t think reflectivity should be an issue, as it may be with uncolored metal pipes.

DroneDeploy_badRender2.PNG
DroneDeploy_badRender2.PNG1920×806 292 KB

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#2

Pipes are usually shot with laser scanners. Photogrammetry is next to impossible because you have to capture point all the way around the pipe or they will just stitch across and melt together like you are seeing here. I have seen some pretty good photogrammetry scans but they were all with the 3D Scan add-on. It allows the drone to fly in a manner that is nearly impossible with standard flight modes and/or manually.