JP7149569B2 - Building measurement method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method of measuring a building using an aircraft.

BACKGROUND ART In recent years, various services using flying vehicles (hereinafter simply referred to as "flying vehicles") such as drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used for various purposes have been provided. .

As an example, as an alternative to calculating the surface area of a roof to obtain an estimate for roof painting and waterproofing work, which was previously performed by actual measurement and visual observation, photographs of the roof are taken by an aircraft, and 3D images are taken based on the photographs. A technique for calculating the surface area by constructing a model is disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example.

Further, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for displaying flight data of each unmanned aircraft by switching or dividing them on a single screen when operating a plurality of aircraft.

JP 2018-055351 A

However, the technique disclosed in the above patent document converts a photographed image into a 3D model and then calculates the surface area of the roof, so an error may occur in the conversion process. There is also the problem that it takes time to calculate the surface area due to the conversion process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simpler and more accurate method for measuring the surface area of a roof.

An embodiment of the present invention is a method for measuring a building, comprising the steps of photographing a given structure; determining the number of predetermined objects; and determining the area of the predetermined region based on the determined number and the pre-stored area of the predetermined object. A method for measuring a building having a structure is provided.

According to the present invention, a simpler and more accurate method for measuring the surface area of a roof can be realized.

It is a system block diagram which consists of a management terminal and an aircraft by 1st Embodiment by this invention. 3 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of a management terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an aircraft according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram around a flight controller of an aircraft according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a control unit and memory in the management terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention; It is a flowchart figure concerning the measuring method of the building by 1st Embodiment by this invention. FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagram of a method for calculating the area of a roof according to the first embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a conceptual diagram of a method for measuring a building according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the dimensions of a roof tile according to a first embodiment of the invention; FIG. FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram around the flight controller of the aircraft according to the second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a flow chart diagram of a method for measuring a building according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

The contents of the embodiments of the present invention are listed and explained. An aircraft according to an embodiment of the present invention has the following configuration.
[Item 1]
photographing a predetermined building;
a step of recognizing a predetermined area and a plurality of predetermined objects forming the predetermined area from the captured image;
determining the number of said predetermined objects;
determining the area of the predetermined area based on the determined number and the prestored area of the predetermined object.
[Item 2]
Further, determining an estimated amount based on the area of the predetermined area,
A method for measuring a building according to item 1.
[Item 3]
a step of flying the unmanned air vehicle;
the step of photographing the predetermined building is performed by the unmanned air vehicle;
A method for measuring a building according to item 1 or item 2.
[Item 4]
the predetermined area is a roof;
the predetermined object is a predetermined unit building material arranged in parallel on the roof;
A method for measuring a building according to any one of items 1 to 3.
[Item 5]
The unit building material is a roof tile,
A method for measuring a building according to item 4.
[Item 6]
setting the area of the tile based on the working length and width of the tile;
A method for measuring a building according to item 5.

(First embodiment)
A method for measuring a building according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It is a system block diagram which consists of a management terminal and an aircraft by 1st Embodiment by this invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the management terminal 1 is connected to a plurality of flying objects 2A, 2B, 2C, etc. via a network such as the Internet (hereinafter, for convenience, an arbitrary flying object among these is simply referred to as "flying object 2”). Examples of networks include local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), infrared, wireless, WiFi, point-to-point (P2P) networks, telecommunications networks, cloud communications, and the like. Here, the flying object 2 includes, for example, an unmanned flying object (such as a drone) that can fly autonomously or that can be remotely operated and controlled by a user terminal, which will be described later. In addition to predetermined information, such as still image/video data taken by the camera of the aircraft 2, predetermined control data, such as flight position information (latitude, longitude, altitude etc.), flight path, battery usage/remaining capacity, flight speed, flight time, acceleration, tilt, and other information such as the operating status of the device, automatically or upon request from the user.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the management terminal according to the first embodiment of the invention. Note that the illustrated configuration is an example, and other configurations may be employed. As shown, the management terminal 1 is connected to a database (not shown) and constitutes part of the system. The management terminal 1 may be, for example, a general-purpose computer such as a workstation or personal computer, or it may be logically realized by cloud computing.

The management terminal 1 includes at least a control unit 10 , a memory 11 , a storage 12 , a transmission/reception unit 13 , an input/output unit 14 and the like, which are electrically connected to each other through a bus 15 .

The control unit 10 is an arithmetic unit that controls the overall operation of the management terminal 1, controls transmission and reception of data between elements, executes applications, and performs information processing necessary for authentication processing. For example, the processor 10 is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and executes a program or the like stored in the storage 12 and developed in the memory 11 to carry out each information process.

The memory 11 includes a main memory composed of a volatile memory device such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), and an auxiliary memory composed of a non-volatile memory device such as a flash memory or a HDD (Hard Disc Drive). . The memory 11 is used as a work area or the like for the processor 10, and stores a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) executed when the management terminal 1 is started, various setting information, and the like.

The storage 12 stores various programs such as application programs. A database storing data used for each process may be constructed in the storage 12 .

The transmitter/receiver 13 connects the management terminal 1 to the network and the blockchain network. Note that the transmitting/receiving unit 13 may include a short-range communication interface of Bluetooth (registered trademark) and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).

The input/output unit 14 is an information input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and an output device such as a display.

A bus 15 is commonly connected to the above elements and transmits, for example, address signals, data signals and various control signals.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of an aircraft according to the first embodiment of the invention. In order to simplify the explanation, the functional block diagram below is described as a concept stored in a single device (aircraft). It may be configured logically by using cloud computing technology.

Flight controller 21 may have one or more processors, such as programmable processors (eg, central processing units (CPUs)).

The flight controller 21 has a memory 22 and can access the memory. Memory 22 stores logic, code, and/or program instructions that are executable by flight controller 21 to perform one or more steps.

Memory 22 may include, for example, separable media or external storage devices such as SD cards and random access memory (RAM). Data acquired from cameras and sensors 27 may be communicated directly to and stored in memory. For example, still image/moving image data captured by a camera or the like is recorded in a built-in memory or an external memory. A camera is installed on the flying vehicle via a gimbal 28 .

Flight controller 21 includes a control module configured to control the state of the vehicle. For example, the control module may be configured to adjust the spatial orientation, velocity, and/or acceleration of a vehicle having six degrees of freedom (translational motions _x , _y , and _z , and rotational motions θx, θy, and θz). , ESC 29 to control the propulsion mechanism (motor 30, etc.) of the aircraft. The propeller 31 is rotated by the motor to generate the lift of the aircraft. The control module can control one or more of the states of the mount, sensors.

Flight controller 21 is configured to transmit and/or receive data from one or more external devices (e.g., transceiver 25 (propo), terminal, display, or other remote controller). It can communicate with the unit 26 . Transceiver 25 may use any suitable means of communication, such as wired or wireless communication.

For example, transceiver 26 utilizes one or more of a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), infrared, wireless, WiFi, point-to-point (P2P) networks, telecommunications networks, cloud communications, and the like. can do.

The transmitting/receiving unit 26 transmits and/or receives one or more of data obtained by the sensors 27, processing results generated by the flight controller 21, predetermined control data, user commands from a terminal or a remote controller, and the like. be able to.

Sensors 27 according to this embodiment may include inertial sensors (acceleration sensors, gyro sensors), GPS sensors, proximity sensors (eg lidar), or vision/image sensors (eg cameras).

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram around the flight controller of the aircraft according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Also, FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of the control unit and memory in the management terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flow chart diagram of a method for measuring a building according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The processing related to this measurement method is realized in the aircraft by, for example, executing a program for measurement processing stored in the memory 22 in each control unit of the flight controller 21, and in the management terminal 1, For example, it can be realized by executing a measurement processing program stored in the memory 11 in the control unit 10 .

As shown in FIG. 6, first, the position information acquisition unit 41 of the flight controller 21 of the flying object 2 acquires current position information such as altitude, latitude, and longitude from the sensors 23 such as a GPS sensor. For example, it is controlled to fly over the target building (S101). The positional information of the target building can be stored in advance in the positional information storage unit 51 . Subsequently, when the flying object 2 reaches a predetermined position, the photographing control unit 42 of the flight controller 21 controls the camera 27 to photograph the building from above (S102). Further, the photographing control unit 42 can store the photographed image of the building in the image information storage unit 52 of the memory 22 . Note that the flying object 2 may be operated manually (or semi-manually) without using (or using together) the GPS sensor described above, for example.

Subsequently, the transmission/reception unit 26 of the aircraft 2 transmits the photographed image of the building to the management terminal 1 . The management terminal 1 receives the building image via the transmission/reception unit 13, and the image analysis unit 61 of the control unit 10 executes image analysis to recognize the roof (S103). A known image recognition technique can be used for image analysis. For example, in addition to the method of recognizing the outline of the roof, the image of the roof is machine-learned in advance, and the feature amount that can identify the roof is automatically extracted from the learning data. Roofs can also be recognized from images. The roof is recognized as a certain area defined by an outline or the like, and is stored in the analysis information storage section 71 of the memory 11 of the management terminal 1 as reference image information.

The image analysis unit 61 also performs image analysis and recognizes the roof tiles (S104). Similar to roof recognition, known image recognition technology can be used for image analysis, and the shapes of tiles are machine-learned in advance. By doing so, roof tiles included in the image can be recognized. Information on the recognized roof tile is stored in the analysis information storage unit 71 .

Subsequently, the area determination unit 62 of the control unit 10 of the management terminal 1 calculates and determines the area of the roof based on the reference image information stored in the analysis information storage unit 71 (S105). The area determination unit 62 can store the determined area information in the area information storage unit 73 .

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for calculating the roof area according to the first embodiment of the present invention. First, the area determination unit 62 of the management terminal 1 refers to the reference image of the roof on which the tiles are reflected, which is stored in the analysis information storage unit 71 (S201). For example, as shown in FIG. 8, from the image of the building taken by the flying object 2, the image analysis recognizes the area 4 defining the roof and the roof tiles 3 arranged in the area. As described above, the image of the roof area 4 and the roof tiles 3 composing the area recognized as a result of the image analysis is stored in the analysis information storage unit 71 as a reference image. In this step, this reference image is referred to, and the number of roof tiles included in the area is counted by image processing (S202). Subsequently, the area determination unit 62 refers to the tile size information stored in the tile size information storage unit 72, first determines the surface area of each tile recognized from the image, and determines the number of tiles obtained in S202. Then, the total area of the tiles included in the roof area 4 is calculated and determined as the area of the roof (S203). Information on a plurality of types of roof tiles can be stored in the roof tile size information storage unit 72 . A method of determining a specific tile from among the plurality of types of tiles stored in the tile size information storage unit 72 based on the shape of the tile recognized by image analysis, and determining the area from the size of the tile is also conceivable. For example, depending on the shape of the roof tiles, there are Japanese-style, flat-style, Spanish-style tiles, and different sizes. The area of each tile can be determined.

As shown in FIG. 9, the roof tiles are usually installed on the roof such that portions of the roof tiles overlap each other. For the purpose of calculating the total area of the roof in this embodiment, the dimensions excluding such overlapping portions are used to obtain the area per tile, and the number of tiles is multiplied to obtain a more accurate roof area. The area of the predetermined region can be calculated. In FIG. 9, the dimensions in the length direction and width direction in which the tile works effectively are called the working length and working width, and the area per tile can be determined by multiplying the working length by the working width. can. Depending on the position on the roof area, different shapes and sizes of tiles may be used. A method of calculating using the dimensions of is also conceivable.

In addition, for example, when a roof is provided on each of the first and second floors of a building, when the aircraft 2 photographs the roof of the building from above, the roof of the second floor and the roof of the first floor image with overlapping roofs. That is, since a partial area of the roof of the first floor and a partial area of the roof of the first floor overlap, the measurement method according to the above embodiment cannot calculate the area of the roof of the first floor. becomes difficult. In such a case, first, the aircraft 2 is controlled to fly to an altitude between the first and second floors of the building, and the area of the roof of the first floor is photographed. is flown over the second floor of the building, and controlled to photograph the area of the roof of the second floor, the area of the roof of each of the first and second floors can be calculated. In addition, by dividing the area of the roof of the building into a plurality of areas according to the position where the flying object 2 can fly and the shooting angle, and calculating the area of each area, the total value of these can also be determined as the total roof area of

Returning to FIG. 6, the estimate determining unit 63 of the control unit 10 of the management terminal 1 determines the estimated amount of money for roof repair work, etc. based on the area information of the roof area stored in the area information storage unit 73 (S106 ). The estimated cost of roof repair may be determined according to the area of the roof, and when determining the estimated cost in this step, the area information calculated by the measurement method of this embodiment can be used. The determined estimate information is stored in the estimate information determination unit 74, and the estimated amount can be output in a predetermined display format as necessary.

(Second embodiment)
FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram around the flight controller of the aircraft according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Also, FIG. 11 is a flow chart diagram of a method for measuring a building according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The present embodiment is characterized in that the measurement method and the estimate determination method, which are processed in cooperation between the management terminal 1 and the flying object 2 in the first embodiment, are processed independently in the flying object 2. do. The processing related to this measurement method can be realized by, for example, executing a program for measurement processing stored in the memory 22 in each control section of the flight controller 21 in the aircraft.

As shown in FIG. 11, first, the position information acquisition unit 41 of the flight controller 21 of the aircraft 2 acquires current position information such as altitude, latitude, and longitude from the sensors 23 such as a GPS sensor. For example, it is controlled to fly over the target building (S301). The positional information of the target building can be stored in advance in the positional information storage unit 51 . Subsequently, when the flying object 2 reaches a predetermined position, the photographing control unit 42 of the flight controller 21 controls the camera 27 to photograph the building from above (S302). Further, the photographing control unit 42 can store the photographed image of the building in the image information storage unit 52 of the memory 22 .

Subsequently, the image analysis unit 43 of the flying object 2 executes image analysis and recognizes the roof (S303). A known image recognition technique can be used for image analysis. For example, in addition to the method of recognizing the outline of the roof, the image of the roof is machine-learned in advance, and the discrimination rule of the roof image is extracted as learning data from the feature values of the edges and corners. It is also possible to recognize the roof by comparing the feature amount and the learning data. The roof is recognized as a certain area defined by an outline or the like, and is stored in the analysis information storage section 53 of the memory 22 of the aircraft 2 as reference image information.

The image analysis unit 43 also performs image analysis and recognizes the roof tiles (S304). Similar to the recognition of the roof, known image recognition technology can be used for image analysis, and the shape of the roof tiles etc. can be machine-learned in advance, and the images captured by the flying object 2 can be compared with the learning data. , can recognize roof tiles contained in the image. Information about the recognized roof tile is stored in the analysis information storage unit 53 .

Subsequently, the area determination unit 44 of the aircraft 2 calculates and determines the area of the roof based on the reference image information stored in the analysis information storage unit 53 (S305). The area determination unit 44 can store the determined area information in the area information storage unit 55 . The details of the area determination method can be the same as the method described in the first embodiment.

The estimate determination unit 45 of the flying object 2 determines the estimated amount of money for roof repair work, etc., based on the area information of the roof area stored in the area information storage unit 55 (S306). The estimated cost of roof repair may be determined according to the area of the roof, and when determining the estimated cost in this step, the area information calculated by the measurement method of this embodiment can be used. The determined estimate information is stored in the estimate information determination unit 56, and the estimated amount can be output in a predetermined display format as necessary. This step can also be executed by a device outside the aircraft 2 such as the management terminal 1 . At that time, the flying object 2 can transmit the information about the area of the roof area stored in the area information storage unit 55 to the external device via the transmission/reception unit 26 .

The flying object of the present invention can be expected to be used as an industrial flying object for investigation, surveying, observation, and the like. In addition, the flying object of the present invention can be used in the airplane-related industries such as multicopter drones, and furthermore, through the present invention, it is possible to contribute to the improvement of measurement techniques using these flying objects.

The above-described embodiments are merely examples for facilitating understanding of the present invention, and are not intended to limit and interpret the present invention. It goes without saying that the present invention can be modified and improved without departing from its spirit, and that equivalents thereof are included in the present invention.

1 control terminal 2A-2C aircraft 3 tile 4 roof

Claims (8)

photographing a predetermined building;
a step of recognizing a predetermined area and a plurality of predetermined objects forming the predetermined area from the captured image;
determining the number of said predetermined objects;
determining the area of the predetermined area based on the determined number and the prestored area of the predetermined object. Further, determining an estimated amount based on the area of the predetermined area,
The method for measuring a building according to claim 1. a step of flying the unmanned air vehicle;
the step of photographing the predetermined building is performed by the unmanned air vehicle;
The method for measuring a building according to claim 1 or 2. the predetermined area is a roof;
the predetermined object is a predetermined unit building material arranged in parallel on the roof;
The method for measuring a building according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The unit building material is a roof tile,
The method for measuring a building according to claim 4. setting the area of the tile based on the working length and width of the tile;
The method for measuring a building according to claim 5. a means for photographing a given building;
means for recognizing a predetermined area and a plurality of predetermined objects forming the predetermined area from the captured image;
means for determining the number of said predetermined objects;
means for determining the area of the predetermined region based on the determined number and the prestored area of the predetermined object;
A building measurement system having photographing a predetermined building;
a step of recognizing a predetermined area and a plurality of predetermined objects forming the predetermined area from the captured image;
determining the number of said predetermined objects;
determining the area of the predetermined region based on the determined number and the pre-stored area of the predetermined object;
A program that causes a computer to run

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