PPK point extractor software

I didn’t quite understood, what do you mean by aggregate groups from the CSV. Like many CSV and POS files at one time? I plan to make automatic point extraction, but it will be just from one POS file and one CSV file (usually from a survey day I have 1 log file and 1 csv file from the project). For now I just made a proof of concept. I have a plan for next features, which will include automatic processing, as well as editing points on chart (moving centroid around).

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Yes for single files/survey, it was the automatic processing I was not clear on from video as it appeared very manual (did it for each point rather than batch). By aggregate I mean to automatically group your .POS points based on extracting time stamps from each survey point within its .CSV file, time being the aggregate/grouping parameter. This is where I left off in my attempt using only QGIS tools and sounds like what you are doing to automate the process. I was just slightly confused by the videos manual-“ness”. Nice work keep it coming.

Absolutely how do I get a link to download for windows. Once I’ve tested I’ll leave feedback on all the good points and crashes if any.

For now there will be a lot of crashes. :slight_smile: I will implement batch process today and then will send you a link to exe. The software is not large, but, since I am using Electron.js with it’s npm system, approx. size now is ~300 Mb. Hopefully, I will deal with that problem soon and software will be smaller.

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All I can say, it’s a great idea and forward thinking. It’s an honor to become a beta tester.

Sounds good to have a more user-friendly tool. FYI, I implemented a Python solution last year:

It was buried in this thread: Rms?. It met our needs at the time, but there is definitely room for improvement.

With conda install of essentials (python, pandas and numpy), this potentially offers a cross-platform solution.

hi guys, excellent job Jurijs, could you try your software?
I installed a reach rm + to a phantom 3, and after doing the flight registration to perform ppk I wanted to collate the .pos file obtained in the trajectory correction with the UTC times extracted from the log file generated by the drone, and your program could be very useful for it.
regards!

jeraldoproyectos@gmail.com

I see, that you are not computing correction for GPST time. You have POS file also in UTC? Mine out of RTKlib is in GPST time (as it is said in pos file header).

Great effort guys! I am looking forward to this tool!

I never even thought about this problem as I am still new to PPK and have only used it on the drone and receive the events log. This is where I am happy I am fortunate enough to already have Carlson Survey. If I need to extract points from a full track I would bring the whole log in with each point as a symbol. Then there is a function to clean up the drawing and remove all but one of any duplicate symbols. And then select those and export to CSV.
As an alternative, shouldn’t there be a fairly easy way to create events in a survey like we are doing with the M+ and drone?

I saw on some thread, that probably Emlid is working on it. As an alternative, you can make a physical button, that will work like a hotshoe adapter and press it on every point. In such way you will get events record in the file. I don’t like this approach, because I am measuring every point for ~ a minute and I want all measurements for this period of time, but events will give me only a momentum.

That is along the lines of what I was thinking. How is it then that I get the specific points from the drone? It is much easier to extract the points from that POS. I don’t understand what you mean by only getting the momentum?

I mean, that events record is per picture on your drone. That means, that you can extract only one or a couple records from pos file, based on that record (depends on your update rate, though). In my example, I have update rate 5Hz. It means, that I have 5 records per second. If I am measuring a point for 20 seconds, I have 100 records in POS file and it is statistically more confident. Though, after PPK sometimes I don’t have any records in that 100 that will be fixed.

Ok. So with the drone rtklib is estimating the position by using the direction and velocity, then put a point at the event time stamp? Difference with survey is that it is somewhat averaging multiple shots?

With the drone it is putting a record in events file, that contains a timestamp. After PPK, you can extract points from big POS file based on the timestamps. It is not estimating position, based on velocity and direction. Difference with survey is in the collection time, survey collection usually is much longer.

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Sorry to muddy up the post all. I guess I should have tried to PPK a survey before commenting. I guess I don’t understand where the “point” is in the POS. Thanks for the explanations!

Yeah. I always try to export in UTC when possible. Would be nice to have a tool that could handle both.

Ok, so here is the software. It is the first version, so please, be patient. :slight_smile:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XMWNmNe0g1spZd8y96uj6aWILTCmfO5A

To start the software just run electron.exe file. You will see the window, where you must choose CSV file, which is survey exported in CSV format. Then, you will have to choose pos file (output from RTKlib) and after that proceed to extraction. Batch process is still under development. You will see the button, but nothing will happen, if you will click it.

For now, you can go each point and click Process button. New window will appear, where you have to choose fields, that correspond to collection time and collection end values. Then press “Filter POS data” button and wait a bit. The wait time depends on the amount of data, that you are processing. Just be patient. In future, I will add some process bar here.

Once the records are filtered, you will see the graph with all the points (records), that are filtered, as well as red point, that corresponds to centroid of the filtered points. In “Centroid coordinates” you will see coordinates and altitude. Just press “Save point” and continue to the next point.

After processing of all the points, simply press “Export CSV” button, and all the points will be exported.

There are no checks in the software, cause it is still a beta version. Software will crash, if you will input any other files or if you will choose any other columns, except collection time and collection end. If you will encounter any errors or you will have some suggestions, please write them in this thread, or privately to me.

There is also sample data, which you can find in the folder sample_data. I tested everything on these files. If you will have problems with your files, consider comparing them with sample_data or just send me your files, I will have a look.

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Thanks for all you time and efforts !!