Overview
Hammer Missions is a drone flight planning and 3D mapping software platform designed for the commercial drone industry. We support a large number of mission types on both mobile tablets through Hammer App and web-based environments through Hammer Hub.
Whatever your use-case, Hammer Missions can adapt to it.
Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will focus on the mapping and 3D-modelling missions — 2 of the several missions currently supported in Hammer.
1. Mapping
This type of mission is useful for creating up-to-date maps of an area — farms, construction sites, quarries, etc. In this mission, Hammer generates a lawn mowing flight path inside the user defined shape, flies the drone along the generated flight path, and takes pictures continuously, maintaining the correct image overlap in between pictures.
2. 3D Modelling
This type of mission is useful for creating up-to-date 3D models of an area — farms, construction sites, quarries, etc. In this mission, Hammer generates a double-grid flight path inside the user defined shape, flies the drone along the generated flight path, and takes pictures continuously, maintaining the correct image overlap in between pictures.
Steps to Create
Tap on the add button (+) in the top right corner.
Choose ‘mapping’ from the missions view for a map OR ‘double-mapping’ for a 3D model.
Draw a shape over the area to be mapped.
Note: A shape can also be drawn by flying the drone to the appropriate GPS coordinates and tapping the back (right) button on the remote controller.
4. Once you are happy with the shape, click OK on the right panel. This will generate a lawn mowing flight plan inside the drawn shape.
Creating Mapping Missions
Note: For a double-mapping mission, you will notice a double grid pattern inside the polygon.
Steps to Configure
Tap on the white gear icon on the polygon you wish to configure, which will open a settings menu.
Use the settings menu to configure the mission settings.
Configuring a mapping mission
Brief description of the available settings:
Altitude: Constant flight altitude for the generated flight plan.
Ground Offset: Offset from the ground to take into account for correct image overlap calculations.
For e.g. if you would like the drone to fly at 50m above takeoff point, and ground being mapped is at 30m above takeoff point, entering 30m would ensure that the overlaps are calculated with the camera’s image size/footprint at 30m.
Curious to learn more about this setting? Learn more through our guide on ground offsets.
Image Overlap: The % of overlap between images in both forward and sideward directions.
Flight Direction: The direction of flight for the generated flight plan. This is by default set to align with the longest edge of the polygon, but can be tweaked to take advantage of the wind’s direction during flight.
Gimbal Tilt: The angle, in degrees, of the gimbal while flying the mission. Ideally the angle should be -90' for mapping missions (default).
Steps to Simulate
Once you are finished creating and configuring the mission, simply press play button in the right panel.
If no drone is connected, Hammer will prompt you to add a simulator, press OK and choose a home location for the simulation. Then press OK.
The simulation will begin and you’ll see a simulated drone appear on the screen flying the mapping mission.
Steps to Fly
Once you are happy with the created mission, simply connect your drone to Hammer through the USB port on the remote controller.
You’ll see a drone icon appear on the screen at its current location.
Press Play to start the mission.
Press Pause anytime to pause the mission, and play to resume the mission.
Post Processing
Once you've collected the data, we recommend using Hammer Hub - our data inspection platform to sift through the images and annotate your findings, process the data into 3D models. If you'd like to learn more about data processing options, please feel free to get in touch with us at team@hammermissions.com.
Summary
And…that’s it! Now you know how to create, simulate and fly your own mapping and 3D-modelling missions in Hammer.
If you currently do not have access to Hammer Missions, you can get started over here.
If you’d like to learn more about other missions supported in Hammer, including facade inspection, tower mapping and more, please visit our mission tutorials.
If you're interested to learn more about our enterprise solutions, including mission collaboration, flight analytics and more please contact us at team@hammermissions.com.
We look forward to hearing from you.
- The Hammer Team