Compute Optimal Coverage Lines

When the above button is pressed, optimal flight lines are computed given a sensor and a polygon, representing an area of interest, are selected. These lines can be used as a template for a flight plan over the area of interest which for the selected sensor has some amount of overlap with as few turns as possible.

The flight altitude can be changed in the flight altitude SpinBox in the toolbar and sensors can be added, deleted or changed in the plugin settings (see FAQ).

The amount of overlap which is considered when creating the optimal flight lines can also be changed in the plugin settings. Overlap means how much adjacent coverage segments overlap each other (see example below).

0% overlap

50% overlap

Additionally, it is possible to use two different settings for the line computations. The default setting, which we strongly suggest to use, is called "optimal". In this case the lines are optimal w.r.t. the criteria described above. Choosing "90° rotated" means that the lines are 90° rotated from the optimal orientation. Therefore, they are no longer optimal but depending on the flight plan and use case this might still be useful.

In order to use this feature for the first time it is necessary to set the CRS used for coverage computations in the plugin settings. The CRS should be compatible with the region of the QGIS project.