PHROG: A Multimodal Feature for Place Recognition

International audienceLong-term place recognition in outdoor environments remains a challenge due to high appearance changes in the environment. The problem becomes even more difficult when the matching between two scenes has to be made with information coming from different visual sources, particularly with different spectral ranges. For instance, an infrared camera is helpful for night vision in combination with a visible camera. In this paper, we emphasize our work on testing usual feature point extractors under both constraints: repeatability across spectral ranges and long-term appearance. We develop a new feature extraction method dedicated to improve the repeatability across spectral ranges. We conduct an evaluation of feature robustness on long-term datasets coming from different imaging sources (optics, sensors size and spectral ranges) with a Bag-of-Words approach. The tests we perform demonstrate that our method brings a significant improvement on the image retrieval issue in a visual place recognition context, particularly when there is a need to associate images from various spectral ranges such as infrared and visible: we have evaluated our approach using visible, Near InfraRed (NIR), Short Wavelength InfraRed (SWIR) and Long Wavelength InfraRed (LWIR)

Spacecraft Position Estimation and Attitude Determination using Terrestrial Illumination Matching

An algorithm to conduct spacecraft position estimation and attitude determination via terrestrial illumination matching (TIM) is presented consisting of a novel method that uses terrestrial lights as a surrogate for star fields. Although star sensors represent a highly accurate means of attitude determination with considerable spaceflight heritage, with Global Positioning System (GPS) providing position, TIM provides a potentially viable alternative in the event of star sensor or GPS malfunction or performance degradation. The research defines a catalog of terrestrial light constellations, which are then implemented within the TIM algorithm for position acquisition of a generic spacecraft bus. With the algorithm relying on terrestrial lights rather than the established standard of star fields, a series of sensitivity studies are showcased to determine performance during specified operating constraints, to include varying orbital altitude and cloud cover conditions. The pose is recovered from the matching techniques by solving the epipolar constraint equation using the Essential and Fundamental matrix, and point-to-point projection using the Homography matrix. This is used to obtain relative position change and the spacecraft\u27s attitude when there is a measurement. When there is not, both an extended and an unscented Kalman filter are applied to test continuous operation between measurements. The research is operationally promising for use with each nighttime pass, but filtering is not enough to sustain orbit determination during daytime operations

ASSESSMENT OF ELECTRO-OPTICAL IMAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEM NAVIGATION IN A GPS-DENIED ENVIRONMENT

Navigation systems of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are heavily dependent on the availability of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) or other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Although inertial navigation systems (INS) can provide position and velocity of an aircraft based on acceleration measurements, the information degrades over time and reduces the capability of the system. In a GPS-denied environment, a UAS must utilize alternative sensor sources for navigating. This thesis presents preliminary evaluation results on the usage of onboard down-looking electro-optical sensors and image matching techniques to assist in GPS-free navigation of aerial platforms. Following the presentation of the fundamental mathematics behind the proposed concept, the thesis analyzes the key results from three flight campaign experiments that use different sets of sensors to collect data. Each of the flight experiments explores different sensor setups, assesses a variety of image processing methods, looks at different terrain environments, and reveals limitations related to the proposed approach. In addition, an attempt to incorporate navigational aid solutions into a navigation system using a Kalman filter is demonstrated. The thesis concludes with recommendations for future research on developing an integrated navigation system that relies on inertial measurement unit data complemented by the positional fixes from the image-matching technique.Outstanding ThesisCivilian, DSO National Laboratories, SingaporeApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Advanced Location-Based Technologies and Services

Since the publication of the first edition in 2004, advances in mobile devices, positioning sensors, WiFi fingerprinting, and wireless communications, among others, have paved the way for developing new and advanced location-based services (LBSs). This second edition provides up-to-date information on LBSs, including WiFi fingerprinting, mobile computing, geospatial clouds, geospatial data mining, location privacy, and location-based social networking. It also includes new chapters on application areas such as LBSs for public health, indoor navigation, and advertising. In addition, the chapter on remote sensing has been revised to address advancements

Digital Multispectral Map Reconstruction Using Aerial Imagery

Advances made in the computer vision field allowed for the establishment of faster and more accurate photogrammetry techniques. Structure from Motion(SfM) is a photogrammetric technique focused on the digital spatial reconstruction of objects based on a sequence of images. The benefit of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms allowed the ability to acquire high fidelity imagery intended for environmental mapping. This way, UAV platforms became a heavily adopted method of survey. The combination of SfM and the recent improvements of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms granted greater flexibility and applicability, opening a new path for a new remote sensing technique aimed to replace more traditional and laborious approaches often associated with high monetary costs. The continued development of digital reconstruction software and advances in the field of computer processing allowed for a more affordable and higher resolution solution when compared to the traditional methods. The present work proposed a digital reconstruction algorithm based on images taken by a UAV platform inspired by the work made available by the open-source project OpenDroneMap. The aerial images are inserted in the computer vision program and several operations are applied to them, including detection and matching of features, point cloud reconstruction, meshing, and texturing, which results in a final product that represents the surveyed site. Additionally, from the study, it was concluded that an implementation which addresses the processing of thermal images was not integrated in the works of OpenDroneMap. By this point, their work was altered to allow for the reconstruction of thermal maps without sacrificing the resolution of the final model. Standard methods to process thermal images required a larger image footprint (or area of ground capture in a frame), the reason for this is that these types of images lack the presence of invariable features and by increasing the image’s footprint, the number of features present in each frame also rises. However, this method of image capture results in a lower resolution of the final product. The algorithm was developed using open-source libraries. In order to validate the obtained results, this model was compared to data obtained from commercial products, like Pix4D. Furthermore, due to circumstances brought about by the current pandemic, it was not possible to conduct a field study for the comparison and assessment of our results, as such the validation of the models was performed by verifying if the geographic location of the model was performed correctly and by visually assessing the generated maps.Avanços no campo da visão computacional permitiu o desenvolvimento de algoritmos mais eficientes de fotogrametria. Structure from Motion (SfM) é uma técnica de fotogrametria que tem como objetivo a reconstrução digital de objectos no espaço derivados de uma sequência de imagens. A característica importante que os Veículos Aérios não-tripulados (UAV) conseguem fornecer, a nível de mapeamento, é a sua capacidade de obter um conjunto de imagens de alta resolução. Devido a isto, UAV tornaram-se num dos métodos adotados no estudo de topografia. A combinação entre SfM e recentes avanços nos UAV permitiram uma melhor flexibilidade e aplicabilidade, permitindo deste modo desenvolver um novo método de Remote Sensing. Este método pretende substituir técnicas tradicionais, as quais estão associadas a mão-de-obra intensiva e a custos monetários elevados. Avanços contínuos feitos em softwares de reconstrução digital e no poder de processamento resultou em modelos de maior resolução e menos dispendiosos comparando a métodos tradicionais. O presente estudo propõe um algoritmo de reconstrução digital baseado em imagens obtidas através de UAV inspiradas no estudo disponibilizado pela OpenDroneMap. Estas imagens são inseridas no programa de visão computacional, onde várias operações são realizadas, incluindo: deteção e correspondência de caracteristicas, geração da point cloud, meshing e texturação dos quais resulta o produto final que representa o local em estudo. De forma complementar, concluiu-se que o trabalho da OpenDroneMap não incluia um processo de tratamento de imagens térmicas. Desta forma, alterações foram efetuadas que permitissem a criação de mapas térmicos sem sacrificar resolução do produto final, pois métodos típicos para processamento de imagens térmicas requerem uma área de captura maior, devido à falta de características invariantes neste tipo de imagens, o que leva a uma redução de resolução. Desta forma, o programa proposto foi desenvolvido através de bibliotecas open-source e os resultados foram comparados com modelos gerados através de software comerciais. Além do mais, devido à situação pandémica atual, não foi possível efetuar um estudo de campo para validar os modelos obtidos, como tal esta verificação foi feita através da correta localização geográfica do modelo, bem como avaliação visual dos modelos criados

PPMExplorer: Using Information Retrieval, Computer Vision and Transfer Learning Methods to Index and Explore Images of Pompeii

In this dissertation, we present and analyze the technology used in the making of PPMExplorer: Search, Find, and Explore Pompeii. PPMExplorer is a software tool made with data extracted from the Pompei: Pitture e Mosaic (PPM) volumes. PPM is a valuable set of volumes containing 20,000 historical annotated images of the archaeological site of Pompeii, Italy accompanied by extensive captions. We transformed the volumes from paper, to digital, to searchable. PPMExplorer enables archaeologist researchers to conduct and check hypotheses on historical findings. We present a theory that such a concept is possible by leveraging computer generated correlations between artifacts using image data, text data, and a combination of both. The acquisition and interconnection of the data are proposed and executed using image processing, natural language processing, data mining, and machine learning methods

Robust and Accurate Camera Localisation at a Large Scale

The task of camera-based localization aims to quickly and precisely pinpoint at which location (and viewing direction) the image was taken, against a pre-stored large-scale map of the environment. This technique can be used in many 3D computer vision applications, e.g., AR/VR and autonomous driving. Mapping the world is the first step to enable camera-based localization since a pre-stored map serves as a reference for a query image/sequence. In this thesis, we exploit three readily available sources: (i) satellite images; (ii) ground-view images; (iii) 3D points cloud. Based on the above three sources, we propose solutions to localize a query camera both effectively and efficiently, i.e., accurately localizing a query camera under a variety of lighting and viewing conditions within a small amount of time. The main contributions are summarized as follows. In chapter 3, we separately present a minimal 4-point and 2-point solver to estimate a relative and absolute camera pose. The core idea is exploiting the vertical direction from IMU or vanishing point to derive a closed-form solution of a quartic equation and a quadratic equation for the relative and absolute camera pose, respectively. In chapter 4, we localize a ground-view query image against a satellite map. Inspired by the insight that humans commonly use orientation information as an important cue for spatial localization, we propose a method that endows deep neural networks with the 'commonsense' of orientation. We design a Siamese network that explicitly encodes each pixel's orientation of the ground-view and satellite images. Our method boosts the learned deep features' discriminative power, outperforming all previous methods. In chapter 5, we localize a ground-view query image against a ground-view image database. We propose a representation learning method having higher location-discriminating power. The core idea is learning discriminative image embedding. Similarities among intra-place images (viewing the same landmarks) are maximized while similarities among inter-place images (viewing different landmarks) are minimized. The method is easy to implement and pluggable into any CNN. Experiments show that our method outperforms all previous methods. In chapter 6, we localize a ground-view query image against a large-scale 3D points cloud with visual descriptors. To address the ambiguities in direct 2D--3D feature matching, we introduce a global matching method that harnesses global contextual information exhibited both within the query image and among all the 3D points in the map. The core idea is to find the optimal 2D set to 3D set matching. Tests on standard benchmark datasets show the effectiveness of our method. In chapter 7, we localize a ground-view query image against a 3D points cloud with only coordinates. The problem is also known as blind Perspective-n-Point. We propose a deep CNN model that simultaneously solves for both the 6-DoF absolute camera pose and 2D--3D correspondences. The core idea is extracting point-wise 2D and 3D features from their coordinates and matching 2D and 3D features effectively in a global feature matching module. Extensive tests on both real and simulated data have shown that our method substantially outperforms existing approaches. Last, in chapter 8, we study the potential of using 3D lines. Specifically, we study the problem of aligning two partially overlapping 3D line reconstructions in Euclidean space. This technique can be used for localization with respect to a 3D line database when query 3D line reconstructions are available (e.g., from stereo triangulation). We propose a neural network, taking Pluecker representations of lines as input, and solving for line-to-line matches and estimate a 6-DoF rigid transformation. Experiments on indoor and outdoor datasets show that our method's registration (rotation and translation) precision outperforms baselines significantly

Unsupervised object candidate discovery for activity recognition

Die automatische Interpretation menschlicher Bewegungsabläufe auf Basis von Videos ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil vieler Anwendungen im Bereich des Maschinellen Sehens, wie zum Beispiel Mensch-Roboter Interaktion, Videoüberwachung, und inhaltsbasierte Analyse von Multimedia Daten. Anders als die meisten Ansätze auf diesem Gebiet, die hauptsächlich auf die Klassifikation von einfachen Aktionen, wie Aufstehen, oder Gehen ausgerichtet sind, liegt der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit auf der Erkennung menschlicher Aktivitäten, d.h. komplexer Aktionssequenzen, die meist Interaktionen des Menschen mit Objekten beinhalten. Gemäß der Aktionsidentifikationstheorie leiten menschliche Aktivitäten ihre Bedeutung nicht nur von den involvierten Bewegungsmustern ab, sondern vor allem vom generellen Kontext, in dem sie stattfinden. Zu diesen kontextuellen Informationen gehören unter anderem die Gesamtheit aller vorher furchgeführter Aktionen, der Ort an dem sich die aktive Person befindet, sowie die Menge der Objekte, die von ihr manipuliert werden. Es ist zum Beispiel nicht möglich auf alleiniger Basis von Bewegungsmustern und ohne jeglicher Miteinbeziehung von Objektwissen zu entschieden ob eine Person, die ihre Hand zum Mund führt gerade etwas isst oder trinkt, raucht, oder bloß die Lippen abwischt. Die meisten Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der computergestützten Aktons- und Aktivitätserkennung ignorieren allerdings jegliche durch den Kontext bedingte Informationen und beschränken sich auf die Identifikation menschlicher Aktivitäten auf Basis der beobachteten Bewegung. Wird jedoch Objektwissen für die Klassifikation miteinbezogen, so geschieht dies meist unter Zuhilfenahme von überwachten Detektoren, für deren Einrichtung widerum eine erhebliche Menge an Trainingsdaten erforderlich ist. Bedingt durch die hohen zeitlichen Kosten, die die Annotation dieser Trainingsdaten mit sich bringt, wird das Erweitern solcher Systeme, zum Beispiel durch das Hinzufügen neuer Typen von Aktionen, zum eigentlichen Flaschenhals. Ein weiterer Nachteil des Hinzuziehens von überwacht trainierten Objektdetektoren, ist deren Fehleranfälligkeit, selbst wenn die verwendeten Algorithmen dem neuesten Stand der Technik entsprechen. Basierend auf dieser Beobachtung ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit die Leistungsfähigkeit computergestützter Aktivitätserkennung zu verbessern mit Hilfe der Hinzunahme von Objektwissen, welches im Gegensatz zu den bisherigen Ansätzen ohne überwachten Trainings gewonnen werden kann. Wir Menschen haben die bemerkenswerte Fähigkeit selektiv die Aufmerksamkeit auf bestimmte Regionen im Blickfeld zu fokussieren und gleichzeitig nicht relevante Regionen auszublenden. Dieser kognitive Prozess erlaubt es uns unsere beschränkten Bewusstseinsressourcen unbewusst auf Inhalte zu richten, die anschließend durch das Gehirn ausgewertet werden. Zum Beispiel zur Interpretation visueller Muster als Objekte eines bestimmten Typs. Die Regionen im Blickfeld, die unsere Aufmerksamkeit unbewusst anziehen werden als Proto-Objekte bezeichnet. Sie sind definiert als unbestimmte Teile des visuellen Informationsspektrums, die zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt durch den Menschen als tatsächliche Objekte wahrgenommen werden können, wenn er seine Aufmerksamkeit auf diese richtet. Einfacher ausgedrückt: Proto-Objekte sind Kandidaten für Objekte, oder deren Bestandteile, die zwar lokalisiert aber noch nicht identifiziert wurden. Angeregt durch die menschliche Fähigkeit solche visuell hervorstechenden (salienten) Regionen zuverlässig vom Hintergrund zu unterscheiden, haben viele Wissenschaftler Methoden entwickelt, die es erlauben Proto-Objekte zu lokalisieren. Allen diesen Algorithmen ist gemein, dass möglichst wenig statistisches Wissens über tatsächliche Objekte vorausgesetzt wird. Visuelle Aufmerksamkeit und Objekterkennung sind sehr eng miteinander vernküpfte Prozesse im visuellen System des Menschen. Aus diesem Grund herrscht auf dem Gebiet des Maschinellen Sehens ein reges Interesse an der Integration beider Konzepte zur Erhöhung der Leistung aktueller Bilderkennungssysteme. Die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelten Methoden gehen in eine ähnliche Richtung: wir demonstrieren, dass die Lokalisation von Proto-Objekten es erlaubt Objektkandidaten zu finden, die geeignet sind als zusätzliche Modalität zu dienen für die bewegungsbasierte Erkennung menschlicher Aktivitäten. Die Grundlage dieser Arbeit bildet dabei ein sehr effizienter Algorithmus, der die visuelle Salienz mit Hilfe von quaternionenbasierten DCT Bildsignaturen approximiert. Zur Extraktion einer Menge geeigneter Objektkandidaten (d.h. Proto-Objekten) aus den resultierenden Salienzkarten, haben wir eine Methode entwickelt, die den kognitiven Mechanismus des Inhibition of Return implementiert. Die auf diese Weise gewonnenen Objektkandidaten nutzen wir anschliessend in Kombination mit state-of-the-art Bag-of-Words Methoden zur Merkmalsbeschreibung von Bewegungsmustern um komplexe Aktivitäten des täglichen Lebens zu klassifizieren. Wir evaluieren das im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte System auf diversen häufig genutzten Benchmark-Datensätzen und zeigen experimentell, dass das Miteinbeziehen von Proto-Objekten für die Aktivitätserkennung zu einer erheblichen Leistungssteigerung führt im Vergleich zu rein bewegungsbasierten Ansätzen. Zudem demonstrieren wir, dass das vorgestellte System bei der Erkennung menschlicher Aktivitäten deutlich weniger Fehler macht als eine Vielzahl von Methoden, die dem aktuellen Stand der Technik entsprechen. Überraschenderweise übertrifft unser System leistungsmäßig sogar Verfahren, die auf Objektwissen aufbauen, welches von überwacht trainierten Detektoren, oder manuell erstellten Annotationen stammt. Benchmark-Datensätze sind ein sehr wichtiges Mittel zum quantitativen Vergleich von computergestützten Mustererkennungsverfahren. Nach einer Überprüfung aller öffentlich verfügbaren, relevanten Benchmarks, haben wir jedoch festgestellt, dass keiner davon geeignet war für eine detaillierte Evaluation von Methoden zur Erkennung komplexer, menschlicher Aktivitäten. Aus diesem Grund bestand ein Teil dieser Arbeit aus der Konzeption und Aufnahme eines solchen Datensatzes, des KIT Robo-kitchen Benchmarks. Wie der Name vermuten lässt haben wir uns dabei für ein Küchenszenario entschieden, da es ermöglicht einen großen Umfang an Aktivitäten des täglichen Lebens einzufangen, von denen viele Objektmanipulationen enthalten. Um eine möglichst umfangreiche Menge natürlicher Bewegungen zu erhalten, wurden die Teilnehmer während der Aufnahmen kaum eingeschränkt in der Art und Weise wie die diversen Aktivitäten auszuführen sind. Zu diesem Zweck haben wir den Probanden nur die Art der auszuführenden Aktivität mitgeteilt, sowie wo die benötigten Gegenstände zu finden sind, und ob die jeweilige Tätigkeit am Küchentisch oder auf der Arbeitsplatte auszuführen ist. Dies hebt KIT Robo-kitchen deutlich hervor gegenüber den meisten existierenden Datensätzen, die sehr unrealistisch gespielte Aktivitäten enthalten, welche unter Laborbedingungen aufgenommen wurden. Seit seiner Veröffentlichung wurde der resultierende Benchmark mehrfach verwendet zur Evaluation von Algorithmen, die darauf abzielen lang andauerne, realistische, komplexe, und quasi-periodische menschliche Aktivitäten zu erkennen

Development of high-precision snow mapping tools for Arctic environments

Le manteau neigeux varie grandement dans le temps et l’espace, il faut donc de nombreux points d’observation pour le décrire précisément et ponctuellement, ce qui permet de valider et d’améliorer la modélisation de la neige et les applications en télédétection. L’analyse traditionnelle par des coupes de neige dévoile des détails pointus sur l’état de la neige à un endroit et un moment précis, mais est une méthode chronophage à laquelle la distribution dans le temps et l’espace font défaut. À l’opposé sur la fourchette de la précision, on retrouve les solutions orbitales qui couvrent la surface de la Terre à intervalles réguliers, mais à plus faible résolution. Dans l’optique de recueillir efficacement des données spatiales sur la neige durant les campagnes de terrain, nous avons développé sur mesure un système d’aéronef télépiloté (RPAS) qui fournit des cartes d’épaisseur de neige pour quelques centaines de mètres carrés, selon la méthode Structure from motion (SfM). Notre RPAS peut voler dans des températures extrêmement froides, au contraire des autres systèmes sur le marché. Il atteint une résolution horizontale de 6 cm et un écart-type d’épaisseur de neige de 39 % sans végétation (48,5 % avec végétation). Comme la méthode SfM ne permet pas de distinguer les différentes couches de neige, j’ai développé un algorithme pour un radar à onde continue à modulation de fréquence (FM-CW) qui permet de distinguer les deux couches principales de neige que l’on retrouve régulièrement en Arctique : le givre de profondeur et la plaque à vent. Les distinguer est crucial puisque les caractéristiques différentes des couches de neige font varier la quantité d’eau disponible pour l’écosystème lors de la fonte. Selon les conditions sur place, le radar arrive à estimer l’épaisseur de neige selon un écart-type entre 13 et 39 %. vii Finalement, j’ai équipé le radar d’un système de géolocalisation à haute précision. Ainsi équipé, le radar a une marge d’erreur de géolocalisation d’en moyenne <5 cm. À partir de la mesure radar, on peut déduire la distance entre le haut et le bas du manteau neigeux. En plus de l’épaisseur de neige, on obtient également des points de données qui permettent d’interpoler un modèle d’élévation de la surface solide sous-jacente. J’ai utilisé la méthode de structure triangulaire (TIN) pour toutes les interpolations. Le système offre beaucoup de flexibilité puisqu’il peut être installé sur un RPAS ou une motoneige. Ces outils épaulent la modélisation du couvert neigeux en fournissant des données sur un secteur, plutôt que sur un seul point. Les données peuvent servir à entraîner et à valider les modèles. Ainsi améliorés, ils peuvent, par exemple, permettre de prédire la taille, le niveau de santé et les déplacements de populations d’ongulés, dont la survie dépend de la qualité de la neige. (Langlois et coll., 2017.) Au même titre que la validation de modèles de neige, les outils présentés permettent de comparer et de valider d’autres données de télédétection (par ex. satellites) et d’élargir notre champ de compréhension. Finalement, les cartes ainsi créées peuvent aider les écologistes à évaluer l’état d’un écosystème en leur donnant accès à une plus grande quantité d’information sur le manteau neigeux qu’avec les coupes de neige traditionnelles.Abstract: Snow is highly variable in time and space and thus many observation points are needed to describe the present state of the snowpack accurately. This description of the state of the snowpack is necessary to validate and improve snow modeling efforts and remote sensing applications. The traditional snowpit analysis delivers a highly detailed picture of the present state of the snow in a particular location but lacks the distribution in space and time as it is a time-consuming method. On the opposite end of the spatial scale are orbital solutions covering the surface of the Earth in regular intervals, but at the cost of a much lower resolution. To improve the ability to collect spatial snow data efficiently during a field campaign, we developed a custom-made, remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) to deliver snow depth maps over a few hundred square meters by using Structure-from-Motion (SfM). The RPAS is capable of flying in extremely low temperatures where no commercial solutions are available. The system achieves a horizontal resolution of 6 cm with snow depth RMSE of 39% without vegetation (48.5% with vegetation) As the SfM method does not distinguish between different snow layers, I developed an algorithm for a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar that distinguishes between the two main snow layers that are found regularly in the Arctic: “Depth Hoar” and “Wind Slab”. The distinction is important as these characteristics allow to determine the amount of water stored in the snow that will be available for the ecosystem during the melt season. Depending on site conditions, the radar estimates the snow depth with an RMSE between 13% and 39%. v Finally, I equipped the radar with a high precision geolocation system. With this setup, the geolocation uncertainty of the radar on average < 5 cm. From the radar measurement, the distance to the top and the bottom of the snowpack can be extracted. In addition to snow depth, it also delivers data points to interpolate an elevation model of the underlying solid surface. I used the Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) method for any interpolation. The system can be mounted on RPAS and snowmobiles and thus delivers a lot of flexibility. These tools will assist snow modeling as they provide data from an area instead of a single point. The data can be used to force or validate the models. Improved models will help to predict the size, health, and movements of ungulate populations, as their survival depends on it (Langlois et al., 2017). Similar to the validation of snow models, the presented tools allow a comparison and validation of other remote sensing data (e.g. satellite) and improve the understanding limitations. Finally, the resulting maps can be used by ecologist to better asses the state of the ecosystem as they have a more complete picture of the snow cover on a larger scale that it could be achieved with traditional snowpits