Accuracy of SUAS Photogrammetry for Use in Accident Scene Diagramming

Photogrammetry from terrestrial cameras and manned aircraft has been used for many years to create scale diagrams and measure distances for use in traffic accident investigation and reconstruction. Due to increasing capability and availability, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), including small UAS (SUAS), are becoming a valuable, cost effective tool for collecting aerial images for photogrammetric analysis. For this study, two different SUAS were used to collect aerial imagery for photogrammetric processing using PhotoModeler software. The results show the photogrammetric measurement of an accident scene from SUAS aerial imagery provides measurements with errors well below generally accepted ranges for accident reconstruction.