Tutorials¶
You can do all sort of useful tasks related to aerial data management with DroneDB. Here are some examples:
Sharing datasets¶
From a directory with images, simply type:
ddb share *.JPG
By default the images are shared with DroneDB’s Hub. You will need to register an account to get a username and password. But you can also run your own Registry, on your own infrastructure. We have two implementations available:
You can then select a different Registry by typing:
ddb share *.JPG -s http://localhost:5000
At the end of the process, you will get a URL back:
https://testhub1.dronedb.app/r/pierotofy/193514313aba4949ab5578b28ba1dd5b
Because we didn’t set a tag, DroneDB generated a random one for you. You can change the tag by visiting the URL. You can also explicitly set a tag, like so:
ddb share *.JPG -t pierotofy/brighton
Or if you’re running your own Registry:
ddb share *.JPG -t http://localhost:5000/admin/brighton
Tags are defined as:
[server]/organization/dataset
With the server component being optional.
Editing datasets¶
In DroneDB you can clone (download, or checkout) an existing dataset from a Registry, make modifications locally (offline), then sync back your changes.
Let’s use this dataset: https://testhub1.dronedb.app/r/pierotofy/brighton
You can clone it via:
ddb clone testhub1.dronedb.app/pierotofy/brighton
Let’s add a README.md file that describes the dataset:
cd brighton/
ddb add README.md
Great! We are now ready to push the changes.
(Currently this functionality is being built, so it’s probably not going to work):
ddb push
Adding a README/LICENSE¶
If a dataset contains a README.md and/or a LICENSE.md file, they will be picked up and displayed accordingly on the Registry:
ddb share README.md LICENSE.md
The files can contain valid Markdown syntax, including images, links, tables, etc.
Projecting an image onto a map¶
Have you ever wondered how a picture looks like on a map? With DroneDB you can project images onto a map. This does not require an index and can be done on-the-fly.
ddb geoproj images/DJI_0018.JPG -o projected/
Setting GPS location of photos¶
Sometimes images lack the proper GPS tags. You can use DroneDB to set them:
ddb setexif DJI_0018.JPG --gps 46.84260708333,-91.99455988889,198.31
Creating static tiles (XYZ/TMS)¶
DroneDB can create static tiles for GeoTIFFs and drone images (if they can be geoprojected). It’s similar to the gdal2tiles.py program, but it’s a bit faster and can handle drone images as well! You can use these tiles in applications such as Leaflet or OpenLayers to display them on the web.
ddb tile DJI_0018.JPG output_tiles/
Browsing data with QGIS¶
You can explore the a DroneDB dataset with a program such as QGIS too. Every DroneDB dataset contains .ddb/dbase.sqlite file. This is a SpatiaLite database and can be imported by adding a new SpatiaLite layer in QGIS.
Extracting GPS locations/footprints to GeoJSON¶
You can quickly extract the locations of images to GeoJSON via:
ddb info *.JPG -f geojson -o gps.geojson
Or for image footprints:
ddb info *.JPG -f geojson --geometry polygon -o footprint.geojson
This works with orthophotos, elevation models and point clouds as well!
ddb info point_cloud.laz -f geojson --geometry polygon -o footprint.geojson