Overlap & Side-lap

Proper overlap and side-lap are critical to successful and efficient sUAS remote sensing operations. Overlap is affected by sUAS forward flight speed and the scan rate or image capture interval of the sensor. Side-lap is adjusted by the closeness of parallel flight lines. Specific to structure from motion missions, overlap and side-lap should be 70%-90% each, though many have varying opinions. As a rule of thumb, you need more overlap and side-lap for homogeneous areas of interest, low pixel resolution sensors, and high distortion lenses.