Comparison of DJI Zenmuse L1 and RIEGL miniVUX-3UAV Data for DTM Generation in the Forestry Area for Archaeological Purposes

Abstract. Lately, more and more laser scanners on UAVs have been launched to the market. In the literature, research can be found in which the point cloud accuracy, completeness as well as reliability of object 3D reconstruction on the point clouds from different laser scanners is described. However, there are also applications which do not require high accuracy, for example, the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) for forestry areas. In this article, the results of the experiment are presented in which DTMs generated for forestry from point clouds from two different UAV laser scanners were compared. The laser scanners that were compared were DJI Zenmuse L1 and Riegl miniVUX-3UAV. The point clouds were post-processed, and classification was carried out. After automatic classification, manual corrections were conducted based on the cross sections through the point cloud. Finally, DTMs and their derivatives were generated and compared. The results showed that the DTMs from UAV laser scanners provided more detailed ground information which enables deeper archaeological analysis.