13Near Real-Time Orthophotomap Generation from UAV Video
13.1Introduction
The early development of small, long-endurance, and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with significant payload capabilities was initially for military application. For example, a small UAV initiative project was started by the Program Executive Officer of the Secretary of the Navy for cruise missiles in 1998 (Kaminer et al. 2004; Kelley 2000). Afterward, the Naval Research Laboratory tested their helicopter UAV system (Kahn and Foch 2003), and the Naval Surface Warfare Center developed a field compatible SWARM platform, which utilized a heavy fueled engine, an on-board power supply, and an autonomous command and control system (Furey 2004). The US Army has ...
