Vexcel Imaging recently presented a new feature called Adaptive Motion Compensation (AMC) for its 4th generation UltraCam aerial sensors.
AMC is a motion compensation approach that, in addition to correcting ‘image blur’ in the direction of flight (the so-called Forward Motion Compensation or FMC), also addresses blur caused by multi-directional camera movements during the flight. Additionally, AMC compensates for ground sampling distance variations in oblique imagery. Utilizing a software-based approach to compensate for multi-directional motion is a game-changer for the industry. Compensating the motion blur of an aerial platform while capturing aerial imagery is a challenge that different implementations have addressed throughout the history of using aerial cameras. Solutions have ranged from moving film in analog cameras, time-delayed integration (TDI) on CCD sensors, mechanically moving CMOS sensors to simply using fast shutter speeds. The dynamic environment of aerial camera operations leads to several limitations of the existing Forward Motion Compensation (FMC) approaches.
In the picture below, the results of AMC are easily visible. The differences to FMC by AMC are of particular interest because it is obvious that the rolling movement of the aircraft, which caused a blur along the vertical axis of the image, cannot be compensated by FMC methods. Only AMC is capable of correcting multi-directional blur after the imagery is captured.
The first aerial camera that offers this industry-leading new feature is the UltraCam Osprey 4.1. The 4th generation aerial camera has been launched in 2020 and pushes flight collection efficiency to new levels. The Osprey 4.1 is a highly versatile system that can simultaneously collect photogrammetric-grade nadir images (PAN, RGB, and NIR) and oblique images (RGB) in four directions. Typical applications range from Smart City projects and 3D city modeling to traditional mapping.
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