GeoFlight Planner (QGIS Plugin)

GeoFlight Planner is a QGIS plugin for drone mission planning focused on photogrammetry and inspections.
It creates ready-to-fly CSV missions (Litchi-compatible) and QGIS layers (flight lines + waypoints), with tools for terrain following, linear corridor mapping, CSV waypoint optimization, and a built-in mission calculator (GSD/overlap/spacing/ideal speed).

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Table of contents

• Key features
• Installation
• Tools
  • Horizontal Flight
  • Vertical Flight
  • CSV Tools
  • Mission Calculator
• Requirements
• Tips
• How to contribute
• Authors
• License

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Key features

• ✅ Horizontal missions with terrain following (DEM-based) or fixed altitude.
• ✅ Linear corridor missions (roads, channels, pipelines, coastlines) with 2–5 parallel routes.
• ✅ Vertical missions for facades and circular structures.
• ✅ CSV waypoint simplification (reduce waypoint count while preserving the path shape).
• ✅ Merge CSV missions (execute two areas sequentially in one continuous flight).
• ✅ Mission Calculator for GSD, overlap, spacing, altitude, and ideal speed (motion blur / shooting interval / optional PPK constraints).

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Installation

1. Download or clone this repository.
2. Copy the folder qgis-drone-flight-planner into your QGIS plugins directory:
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\QGIS\QGIS3\profiles\default\python\plugins
   • Linux: ~/.local/share/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins
   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins
3. Restart QGIS → Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins… → enable GeoFlight Planner.

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Tools

Horizontal Flight

These tools generate horizontal (nadir) missions and export a Litchi-compatible CSV plus optional QGIS layers.

• 1. Following terrain – Sensor
  Terrain-following workflow using DEM and flight parameters derived from sensor/GSD logic.

• 2. Following terrain – Manual
  Same goal, but you manually provide key distances (side/front spacing) and flight attributes.

• 3. Following terrain – RC2 Controller
  Mission preparation designed for workflows using an RC2-style controller logic.

• 4. Following terrain – Line
  Create a linear corridor mission from a single axis line, generating 2–5 parallel routes (optionally including the axis) and automatically placing photo waypoints along each route.
  If a DEM is provided and Above Ground (Follow Terrain) is enabled, waypoint altitude is adjusted to keep a consistent height above ground.

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Vertical Flight

Vertical tools are designed for inspections and 3D capture of structures.

• Facade (Vertical 1)
  Plans a façade mission with vertical progression and point placement suitable for 3D reconstruction/inspection.

• Circular (Vertical 2)
  Generates circular missions around an object/structure.

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CSV Tools

• 1. Simplify Waypoints
  Reduces the number of waypoints from an existing mission CSV, keeping the overall path shape.
  Useful for drones/apps with waypoint limits or when missions become unstable due to excessive points.
  Optionally loads: original points, flight line, and simplified points into QGIS.

• 2. Merge CSV files
  Combines two mission CSV files into one output CSV so they can be executed sequentially (e.g., area A → area B) without returning to the takeoff point, saving time and battery.
  Optionally loads the merged points layer into QGIS for quick validation.

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Mission Calculator

Accessible from the plugin menu as “GSD and Overlap – Mission Calculator”.

Includes practical calculators for planning:

• GSD (from sensor parameters) and Altitude from target GSD
• Ideal spacing from desired overlap (%)
• Overlap from an existing spacing
• Ideal flight speed guidance (motion blur limit, shooting interval limit, and optional PPK/GNSS constraint)

Reference docs bundled with the plugin:

• calculator/calculator.html
• calculator/ideal_speed_calculator_docs.html

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Requirements

• QGIS 3.x (plugin is built for QGIS Processing and supports modern QGIS versions).
• For some tools:
  • DEM raster (GeoTIFF, etc.) is required for terrain following.
  • LFTools plugin is required for the 3D simplification workflow that samples DEM values for waypoints.

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Tips

• Keep your input layers saved to disk and not in edit mode (the plugin validates this to avoid broken outputs).
• For terrain following, prefer a DEM with resolution compatible with your mission scale.
• For CSV tools, ensure your CSV contains the standard fields (e.g., latitude, longitude, and altitude fields used by your app/workflow).

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How to contribute

• Report issues and suggestions using the GitHub tracker.
• Share test datasets (CSV + DEM + expected behavior) to help reproduce issues.
• If you want to support development, consider learning the full workflow and sharing feedback from real projects.

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Authors

• Prof. Cazaroli
• Dr. Leandro França
• Prof. Ilton Freitas (contributor)

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License

See LICENSE.