Software User Manual

GeoTagZ
Software User Manual

February 20, 2017

Applicable to GeoTagZ v4.1.8

© Copyright 2000-2017 Septentrio NV/SA. All rights reserved.

Septentrio NV
Greenhill Campus, Interleuvenlaan 15i
3001 Leuven, Belgium

http://www.septentrio.com
support@septentrio.com
Phone: +32 16 300 800
Fax: +32 16 221 640
@Septentrio

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 LIST OF CONTENTS

List of Contents

CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1 Introduction 5
1.1 GEOTAGZ OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.1 Ingredients for cm-level positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.2 Key features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.3 GeoTagZ deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Getting started with GeoTagZ 7

2.1 INSTALLING GEOTAGZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 LAUNCHING GEOTAGZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 CONFIGURING GEOTAGZ SETTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4 DID GEOTAGZ PROCESSING WORK? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.1 GeoTagZ troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3 A worked example: photogrammetry processing using GeoTagZ data 13

3.1 GEOTAGZ WITH PIX4D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1.1 Installing Pix4D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1.2 Running Pix4D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1.3 Adding Ground Control/Check Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1.4 Running Pix4D Initial Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.5 Adding marks using the rayCloud Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.5.1 Exporting and Uploading marks from file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.6 Reoptimizing Pix4D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 GEOTAGZ WITH AGISOFT PHOTOSCAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2.1 Loading photographs and their locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2.2 Align photographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2.3 Upload Ground Control Points/markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2.3.1 Build a mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2.3.2 Upload the GCP positions file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2.3.3 Convert the reference frame of the GPCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.3.4 Mark the visual GCPs in the photographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2.3.5 Exporting and Uploading marks from a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2.4 Optimise camera alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2.4.1 Setting an antenna offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.4.2 Build a dense cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2.4.3 Build a mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

A GeoTagZ command line options 26

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 LIST OF CONTENTS

B GeoTagZ advanced details 29

B.1 CSV OUTPUT (IMAGE GEOLOCATION FILE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
B.1.1 CSV GeoTagZ output format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
B.2 PICTURE AND EVENTS SYNCHRONIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
B.2.1 Limitation of camera time resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
B.3 THE GEOTAGZ LOG FILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

C EXIF Tags update description 31

C.1 SUPPORTED PHOTOGRAPH FORMATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

D Some known Reference Networks 32

E Setting the position of the Altus NR2 base station 33

F Logging data for GeoTagZ reprocessing 35

F.1 CONFIGURING DATA LOGGING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
F.1.1 ... on an Altus NR2 Base station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
F.1.2 ... on the AsteRx-m UAS rover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
F.2 DOWNLOADING DATA FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

G Troubleshooting 37

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 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

Introduction

A revolution in survey
Using GeoTagZ in combination with the AsteRx-m UAS receiver, it is now possible to obtain
centimetre-level RTK position precision on the ground from aerial survey. Compared to tra-
ditional survey methods, aerial survey using UAVs is significantly faster and cheaper. With
GeoTagZ in your workflow, there is now no longer any need for Ground Control Points or
indeed, a real-time data link to the UAS.

1.1 GeoTagZ Overview

While UAS applications already use high-resolution cameras for aerial survey, high-precision
cm-level RTK positioning is now also possible thanks to Septentrio’s AsteRx-m UAS combined
with GeoTagZ. The AsteRx-m UAS is an ultra-low power GNSS receiver board of credit-card
dimensions designed specifically for ease of integration with the most common UAS and
auto-pilot platforms.

The AsteRx-m UAS receiver time-stamps shutter events from the camera to precisely identify
the times when photographs were taken. These event markers along with the GNSS mea-
surements can be logged during the flight on the on-board SD card of the AsteRx-m UAS in
SBF (Septentrio Binary Format).

After the flight, GeoTagZ combines SBF data from the UAV with the data from a Base station
reference receiver on the ground, replacing the positions embedded in the photographs with
more precise cm-level RTK values.

RTK positioning requires differential corrections from a Base station reference receiver with
a known position. In most applications, these differential corrections are passed to the rover
receiver in real time necessitating a reliable communication link between Base and rover.
For UAV applications, this can be problematic. The instrumentation required for an addi-
tional communication link to a base station can add significantly to the payload and power
consumption of the UAV. The AsteRx-m UAS can work with real-time differential corrections
when available and when they are not, GeoTagz can provide the positioning precision re-
quired. Reprocessing the UAV rover data with the Base station data after the flight in this
way eliminates the need for a real-time data link between the UAV and a Base station which
simplifies the on-board setup considerably. It also reduces the payload and power drain of
the UAV as well as removing a potential source of interference.

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 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

The cm-level positions embedded in the EXIF data of the photographs along with the same
position data in CSV format allows for seamless integration with image processing software
(e.g. Pix4D, PhotoScan, Drone2Map etc.). This improves the quality of image stitching while
removing the need for ground control points during data collection. Placing and measuring
ground control points is always time consuming but in mines, landfills or at altitude it can
be far more cumbersome, dangerous or even impossible. To overcome these obstacles,
Septentrio developed the ReProcessed Kinematic (RPK) technology implemented in GeoTagZ.

1.1.1 Ingredients for cm-level positioning

For offline image processing using GeoTagZ you will need:

• AsteRx-m UAS mounted on the UAV

• High-resolution photographs
• SBF data from the AsteRx-m UAS receiver containing GNSS measurements and camera
shutter events
• Base station data in SBF or RINEX format. This can be downloaded from a nearby base
station from either a reference network or from a second Septentrio receiver, such as
an Altus NR2, configured as a Base station

GeoTagZ can then combine the GNSS measurement data from the Rover and Base receivers
to ReProcess the positioning. The photographs will then be automatically re-tagged with the
new positions and can be easily imported to photogrammetry software applications such as
Pix4D, PhotoScan or Drone2Map.

1.1.2 Key features

The main technical features of GeoTagZ are listed below:

• GPS+GLO reprocessing for cm-level RTK precision

• GUI and command line versions offering identical functionality
• SBF input for the UAV Rover file
• SBF or RINEX input for the Base station reference file
• EXIF Image output with updated reprocessed cm-level positions
• CSV format output with reprocessed cm-level positions

1.1.3 GeoTagZ deliverables

GeoTagZ is currently only available as part of the full-configuration AsteRx-m UAS option and
includes the following items:

• USB dongle
• Permission license file for the USB dongle
• GeoTagZ installer
• GeoTagZ Software User Manual (this document)

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 CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED WITH GEOTAGZ

Chapter 2

Getting started with GeoTagZ

This section details how to install and use the GeoTagZ Graphical User Interface (GUI). Geo-
TagZ can also be used as a command line tool as described in Appendix A

2.1 Installing GeoTagZ

Before starting ...
To install the GeoTagZ software on you PC you will need to have:

• A USB dongle and a license file (.bin) from Septentrio

• The GeoTagZ executable file ‘geotagz_4_1_8_installer’

Double click on the installer file to launch the installation

Download the GeoTagZ installer file and license file to your pc. Insert the GeoTagZ dongle
into a USB connection on your PC then double click on the installer file to launch the instal-
lation procedure.

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 CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED WITH GEOTAGZ

Follow the sequence of installation windows and select to ‘accept’ the GeoTagZ license agree-
ment.

Point the installer to the GeoTagZ license (.bin) file

During installation, you will be prompted to input the location of the license file (.bin) for the
GeoTagZ dongle. Select this file then click ‘Apply’. If the license file is the correct one for the
connected dongle, the message, ‘License matches the found dongle’ will appear. You can
then click ‘Exit’ to finish off the installation.

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 CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED WITH GEOTAGZ

2.2 Launching GeoTagZ

• Insert the GeoTagZ dongle into one of the USB connectors on your PC
• Double click the ‘GeoTagZ GUI’ icon

2.3 Configuring GeoTagZ settings

You can select input files and configure all GeoTagZ settings on the GeoTagZ GUI as shown in
Figure 2-5.

Figure 2-5: The GeoTagZ GUI

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 CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED WITH GEOTAGZ

Description of the GeoTagZ settings and information fields

The Input SBF File is the rover file that was recorded by the AsteRx-m UAS on-board the
UAV

The Pictures Directory is the location of the photographs taken during the flight

The Output Directory is the location where the geotagged photographs and/or CSV pho-
tograph position file will be output

Rover Antenna Type: used to select the type of antenna used by the rover receiver which
allows GeoTagZ to take the phase center offset of the selected antenna into account.
Offset: the Up Offset is the vertical distance between the antenna phase centre and the
principle focus of the camera. If this setting was not configured on the rover receiver, it
can be set in GeoTagZ.

Generate only the CSV file: checking this box will tell GeoTagZ to only write the pho-
tograph positions to a CSV file. The EXIF data in the photographs will not be updated.

Do not overwrite existing files: when this box is checked, the EXIF data in existing pho-
tographs will not be updated instead, the updated photographs will saved under a file-
name with an added suffix.

Use reference file: check this box to tell GeoTagZ to use the base station file given here
as a reference for cm-level RTK positioning. The base station data can be either sbf or
RINEX file formats.

Set reference position: by checking this box you can manually insert the position of
the base station. Please note that in this case, GeoTagZ will not use the offset in the
RINEX file so any offset between the ARP and marker (see Figure 2-6) should be inserted
manually in field . GeoTagZ will however still use the antenna type in the RINEX file.

When the ’Set reference position’ box is not checked, GeoTagZ will:
a. in the case of RINEX files, use the position in the RINEX header
b. in the case of SBF files, the static position in the SBF file will be used or
c. when not configured as static, a position similar to the real-time ‘auto’ setting will
be used as the base station position. In this case, it is advisable to manually enter
the base station position to ensure repeatability.

Reference Antenna Type: used to select the type of antenna used by the base station
receiver which allows GeoTagZ to take the phase center offset of the selected antenna
into account. By selecting Offset, the East, North and Up offset between the antenna
reference point (ARP) and the position marker can be configured. When these boxes
are not checked, GeoTagZ will use the antenna information contained in the selected
reference file. Figure 2-6 shows a schematic of the reference antenna setup.

Output: this field contains the information written to the log file (geotagz.log). In this
example, although there were an excess of events, GeoTagZ was still able to correctly
assign the 143 photographs to their correct event. All the photographs were geotagged
with the cm-level RTK positioning. More information on the log file can be found in
Appendix B.3.

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Figure 2-6: The reference station antenna mounting

2.4 Did GeoTagZ processing work?

If all went well with GeoTagZ processing, you should see output messages similar to those
shown in field in Figure 2-5.

2.4.1 GeoTagZ troubleshooting

If something went during processing, GeoTagZ will report errors or warnings. The list below
details some of the most common errors reported.

Not enough valid data to compute a PVT solution.

This message indicates that the rover file did not contain the necessary data for GeoTagZ to
be able to make position calculations. Appendix F.1.2 details how to configure data logging
on the rover receiver to include the necessary SBF data blocks.

This message will also appear if you have selected to use a Reference file in field but,
the RINEX observation file is either missing or corrupt.

o PVT Statistics:
* 143 matches updated with Stand-Alone PVT
o Match details:
* Event #147 -> R0013503.JPG: Stand-Alone PVT
* Event #148 -> R0013504.JPG: Stand-Alone PVT
When GeoTagZ only reports standalone positions and fails to calculate an augmented GNSS
position (e.g. DGNSS or RTK) for any of the photographs, this tends to indicate a problem
with the base station reference data. If you are using an Altus NR2 base station, you may
not have selected all the data blocks necessary for RTK post processing - seen Appendix F.1
for more details. If the manually entered position is a large distance from the correct base
station distance then GeoTagZ may also not be able to calculate RTK positions.

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 CHAPTER 2. GETTING STARTED WITH GEOTAGZ

There is no match found between the pictures and the events in the input
SBF file.
This error message means that GeoTagZ was unable to match up the times reported in the
photographs with the shutter events in the rover SBF file. This may be due to excess events
in the SBF file for example, from spurious pulses resulting from signal crosstalk. The problem
may also be due to missing photographs which can happen if the camera fails to recognise
pulse signals telling it to take photographs. In this way, you can end up with more shutter
events than photographs which can cause problems for GeoTagZ during the matching stage.
This problem can be avoided by using the shutter signal from the camera as an event signal
input for the rover receiver.

o Warning: RTK positions have not been compensated for base antenna
phase center offsets.
This warning message means that the calculated positions have not been compensated for
the phase centre offset of the base station antenna because the antenna was not found in
the GeoTagZ antenna library. When this happens, the phase centre offset, as indicated in
Figure 2-6 can be entered manually as an offset in field .

GeoTagZ is able to detect photographs with anomalous time stamps. When this happens,
the user will be prompted to select one of several proposed courses of action each of which
is given a match score.

- Picture issues:
o Error: Error: kabo.csv has an unsupported extension.
If there are files in the photograph directory that don’t have standard file extensions, Geo-
TagZ will list them under ’Picture issues’.

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 CHAPTER 3. A WORKED EXAMPLE: PHOTOGRAMMETRY PROCESSING USING GEOTAGZ DATA

Chapter 3

A worked example: photogrammetry

processing using GeoTagZ data

The diagram in Figure 3-1 shows schematically the typical work flow of an aerial survey anal-
ysis. The main steps are:

1. Data Collection from both the AsteRx-m UAS rover receiver and camera on-board the
UAS as well as data from a Base station reference receiver on the ground
2. Reprocess the rover and Base station data using GeoTagZ to update the positions of
the photographs with cm-level RTK precision
3. Process the photographs with the updated positions using photogrammetry software
tool (e.g. Pix4D, PhotoScan, Drone2Map)

This chapter describes the third step in the process using the software tools Pix4D and Pho-
toScan from Agisoft. The sample data used in this example can be found here.

Figure 3-1: Aerial survey workflow

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3.1 GeoTagZ with Pix4D

3.1.1 Installing Pix4D
You can sign up for 15-days of full access to Pix4DMapper Pro at
https://cloud.pix4d.com/signup/.

3.1.2 Running Pix4D

• Open a new project and give it a name
• Load the photographs you want to use by clicking on the Add Images... button
• Edit the coordinate system of the in the Image Geolocation field
• Load the geo-referencing for the photographs from a separate file by clicking on From
File.... Loading the georeferencing from a file has the advantage that the accuracy
values are automatically updated.

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3.1.3 Adding Ground Control/Check Points

GCPs are used in the analysis whereas check points are not. Pix4D does however output the
errors and standard deviations of the check points.

• On the Project menu, select GCP/Manual Tie Point Manager

• Edit the coordinate system of the control points via the Edit... button
• Add the control points. This can be done manually using the Add Point button. In
this case, the control points had been saved to a CSV file so could be loaded using the
Import GCPs... button.

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3.1.4 Running Pix4D Initial Processing

• The first step is to run the Initial Processing. Make sure that processing steps 2 and 3
are deselected as shown below.
• When this step is finished, a Quality Report will appear

3.1.5 Adding marks using the rayCloud Editor

Marks associate the coordinates of a GCP with a visual mark on one or more photographs.
Marks can be added using the Basic Editor however, it is much faster and reliable to use the
rayCloud Editor.

• Go through each of the GCPs in turn and mark the precise location of the ground
marker.
• The initial processing step will already have made preliminary marks of the GCP in the
photograph and so the visual ground marker should be close by.

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3.1.5.1 Exporting and Uploading marks from file

When the marks identifying the GCP have been added to the photographs, they can be ex-
ported to a text file using the Export Marks... button. The same file can then be uploaded
to another project using the Import Marks... button.

The zoom level when the photograph was marked can be taken into account. This means
that control points marked with a larger zoom level will be considered more precise and will
carry more weight in the processing.

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3.1.6 Reoptimizing Pix4D

Having marked the photographs with the position of visual markers of the GCP, Pix4D should
be run again to reoptomize the results.

• In the Process menu, select Reoptimize

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3.2 GeoTagZ with Agisoft PhotoScan

3.2.1 Loading photographs and their locations
You can request 30-days of full access to Agisoft PhotoScan at
http://www.agisoft.com/downloads/request-trial/.

• Upload the photos by clicking on the icon in the Workspace tab

• Change the Accuracy of the photo georeferencing in the Reference tab. GeoTagZ uses
2cm horizontal and 4cm vertical but only one accuracy can be set. Here 2cm was used.

3.2.2 Align photographs

This step finds matching points in overlapping images. Is also estimates the camera position
for each phot and builds a sparse point cloud model.

• In the workflow menu select Align Photos.... This will generate a sparse point cloud
model

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3.2.3 Upload Ground Control Points/markers

3.2.3.1 Build a mesh
To be able to follow the guided GCP placement approach which is faster and easier, the
geometry should first be reconstructed.

• On the Workflow menu select Build Mesh...

3.2.3.2 Upload the GCP positions file

• Click on the Markers area then click the icon to upload the GCP positions
• Make sure that the correct Coordinate System is selected

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3.2.3.3 Convert the reference frame of the GPCs

• The photograph and GCPs should have the same Coordinate System. You can convert
the Coordinate System by clicking on the convert icon

3.2.3.4 Mark the visual GCPs in the photographs

• Via the View menu, open the Photos Pane
• Right-click on the first marker and select Filter Photos by Markers
• Click on the first photo in the Photos pane and you will see any GCPs labelled

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• The visual ground marker should be close to the estimated position.

• Find the marker in the photograph and drag the marker to correct position
• Do the same on each of the photographs containing the same marker

• The errors should be low

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3.2.3.5 Exporting and Uploading marks from a file

When the marks identifying the GCP visual targets have been added to the photographs,
they can be exported to an XML file using on the Tools menu by selecting Export then Export
Markers....

The same file can then be uploaded to another project by selecting Tools then Import.

3.2.4 Optimise camera alignment

To achieve higher accuracy in calculating camera external and internal parameters and to
correct possible distortion (e.g. ‘bowl effect’, etc.) optimization procedure should be run. This
step is especially recommended if the ground control point coordinates are known almost
precisely (several centimeters accuracy).

• In the Reference pane click the settings icon and lower the value for the camera
accuracy

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3.2.4.1 Setting an antenna offset

There is normally an offset between the GPS antenna and the camera. The position of the
GPS antenna relative to the camera can be set by selecting Tools > Camera Calibration...
then, in the GPS/INS Offset tab, you can insert the offsets.

• Uncheck all photos and leave the markers to be used checked

• Click on the optimize cameras icon and click ok

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 CHAPTER 3. A WORKED EXAMPLE: PHOTOGRAMMETRY PROCESSING USING GEOTAGZ DATA

3.2.4.2 Build a dense cloud

Based on the estimated camera positions the program calculates depth information for each
camera to be combined into a single dense point cloud.

• On the Workflow menu, select Build Dense Cloud...

3.2.4.3 Build a mesh

After dense point cloud has been reconstructed it is possible to generate polygonal mesh
model based on the dense cloud data. This step plays no part in refining precision.

25
 APPENDIX A. GEOTAGZ COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

Appendix A

GeoTagZ command line options

After installation, the GeoTagZ command-line application can be found in the folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Septentrio\GeoTagZ\bin

You can see the command-line options by typing ’GeoTagZ’ at the prompt as shown in Fig-
ure A-1.

Figure A-1: viewing the command line options

26
 APPENDIX A. GEOTAGZ COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

The following options are available in the GeoTagZ application:

Option Description Status Example

-f Input rover SBF file recorded on the Mandatory -f Rover.sbf
AsteRx-m UAS
-p Directory containing the photographs Mandatory -p c:\prj1\camerapics\
-o Directory where the updated pictures and Mandatory -o
CSV file will be output (should be different c:\prj1\camerapics_rtp\
from the input pictures directory)
-r Input reference file from a base station in Optional -r Reference.sbf
SBF format
-R Input reference file from a base station Optional -R ”HRNE0740.16O,
in RINEX format. For multiple RINEX files, HRNE0740.16G,
the list is separated by commas. HRNE0740.16N”
-X X Cartesian position of Base station Optional -X 4019953.337052
-Y Y Cartesian position of Base station Optional -Y 331452.007587
-Z Z Cartesian position of Base station Optional -Z 4924305.642441
-I The East offset between the antenna ref- Optional -I 0.42
erence point (ARP) and position marker
(m)
-J The Up offset between the antenna refer- Optional -J 0.03
ence point (ARP) and position marker (m)
-K The East offset between the antenna ref- Optional -K 1.20
erence point (ARP) and position marker
(m)
-A The IGS name of the reference antenna. Optional -A ”SEPPOLANT_X_MF
A list of IGS calibrated antennas can be NONE”
found at:
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ANTCAL/
-u Vertical offset between the principle Optional -u 0.12
focus of the camera and the antenna
phase centre (m)
-a The IGS name of the rover antenna. Optional -a ”AERAT1675_120 SPKE”
A list of IGS calibrated antennas can be
found at:
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ANTCAL/
-c Generate only the CSV file and do not Optional -c
update/output the photographs
-s Do not overwrite existing files. If the files Optional -s
already exist a suffix will be added.
-v Verbose mode will output status and Optional -v
progress information
Continued on next page

27
 APPENDIX A. GEOTAGZ COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

concluded from previous page

Option Description Status Example
-D Check for the presence of a dongle and in Optional -D
case of a demo license, for the number of
runs remaining
-V Show GeoTagZ versions Optional -V

28
 APPENDIX B. GEOTAGZ ADVANCED DETAILS

Appendix B

GeoTagZ advanced details

B.1 CSV output (Image Geolocation file)

Besides updating the EXIF information from the original pictures, GeoTagZ also creates a
comma separated file which is an alternative input for the photogrammetry software. The
CSV format contains accuracy information not available in the embedded EXIF data.

Both Pix4D and PhotoScan support the input of CSV files containing the photographs po-
sitions and their estimated accuracy. This accuracy information is used by the software to
determine the level of confidence the software can have in the camera position.

The contents of the CSV file generated by GeoTagZ are described in Appendix B.1.1. The
entries in the CSV file are separated by a comma and the file contains no header information.

B.1.1 CSV GeoTagZ output format

The Table below lists the column contents in the CSV file generated by GeoTagZ.

Column Description Example

Imagename Image name with extension name Picture1.jpg
Latitude Re-processed Latitude in decimal degrees format 63.637963712
Longitude Re-processed Longitude in decimal degrees format 19.783821777
Altitude Re-processed Ellipsoidal height in metres 140.4750
Reserved Placeholder reserved for future use. Currently set to ‘0’. 0
Reserved Placeholder reserved for future use. Currently set to ‘0’. 0
Reserved Placeholder reserved for future use. Currently set to ‘0’. 0
Accuracy Horz Horizontal Accuracy expressed in metres 0.010
Accuracy Vert Vertical Accuracy expressed in metres 0.020

Example
R0013503.JPG,63.63796371204951,19.78382177791501,140.47505992092192,0,0,0,0.05,0.12
R0013504.JPG,63.63819494346080,19.78380916932126,143.20155135076493,0,0,0,0.05,0.10
R0013505.JPG,63.63836320010001,19.78421438442383,141.57268891483545,0,0,0,0.05,0.11

29
 APPENDIX B. GEOTAGZ ADVANCED DETAILS

B.2 Picture and events synchronization

To synchronize the pictures with the events in the SBF file, GeoTagZ uses the EXIF times-
tamps. More specifically, GeoTagZ uses the pattern of intervals between the EXIF time
stamps and the event time stamps to find the most likely match. In this way, GeoTagZ can
tolerate a certain number of missing events or photographs. The log file (See Appendix B.3)
reports details of the matching procedure including the number of events and photographs,
the quality of the matching between them and the time offset between GPS time and the
camera time.

B.2.1 Limitation of camera time resolution

Unless the camera can time stamp photographs using the SubSecTime EXIF tag, photographs
taken within one second of each other may have the same time stamp which can result
in ambiguity when determining which photograph belongs to which time stamp. In this
situation when matching is not clear, none of the photographs with the same time stamp
will be updated by GeoTagZ.

If the camera does write the SubSecTime EXIF tag with a precision of 0.1 s for example then,
up to 10 photographs per second can be used as they will each have a unique time stamp.

B.3 The GeoTagZ log file

GeoTagZ generates a log file (geotagz.log) which contains details on the processing as well
as any warning messages. The output field in Figure 2-5 shows an example of the contents
of a log file.

The log file contains the following pieces of information:

• The various files used in the processing

• A list of any problems encountered in the processing
• Whether or not a match was found between the photograph EXIF time stamps and the
events logged in the AsteRx-m UAS receiver SBF file
• A matching score. Due to the camera time resolution, this will never be 100%.
• The average time difference between the camera clock and GPS time
• The number of unmatched events
• The number of photographs that were updated for each positioning mode. Ideally, all
photographs will be updated with an RTK fixed position.
• A list of every matched photograph with its positioning mode

30
 APPENDIX C. EXIF TAGS UPDATE DESCRIPTION

Appendix C

EXIF Tags update description

The table below gives an overview of the EXIF fields embedded in the photographs that get
updated when GeoTagZ is run.

Tag name Type Count SBF Comment

block
used by
GeoTagZ
GPSLatitudeRef ASCII 2 ExtEvent Indicates whether the latitude is ‘N’ North or ‘S’
South
GPSLatitude RATIONAL∗ 3 ExtEvent The latitude is expressed as three RATIONAL
values giving the degrees, minutes and sec-
onds
GPSLongitudeRef ASCII 2 ExtEvent Indicates whether the longitude is ‘E’ East or ‘W’
West
GPSLongitude RATIONAL∗ 3 ExtEvent The longitude is expressed as three RATIONAL
values giving the degrees, minutes and
seconds
GPSAltitudeRef BYTE 1 ExtEvent If the reference is ‘Sea level’ and the altitude
is above sea level, 0 is given. If the altitude is
below sea level, a value of 1 is given and the
altitude is indicated as an absolute value.
GPSAltitude RATIONAL∗ 1 ExtEvent Indicates the altitude in metres
∗
Rational: 2 longs. The first long is the numerator and the second the denominator

C.1 Supported photograph formats

GeoTagZ supports the following picture formats:

• JPG
• TIFF
• DNG

When the pictures have been updated then they can immediately be used by a photogrammetry
software such as Pix4D, Agisoft PhotoScan or Drone2Map.

31
 APPENDIX D. SOME KNOWN REFERENCE NETWORKS

Appendix D

Some known Reference Networks

Septentrio supplies Base station receivers, such as the Altus NR2 however, RINEX data from other
Base stations or Reference Networks can also be used. Many countries operate CORS (Continuously
Operating Reference Stations) networks and make their RINEX data available for download. Where
possible, use use a Base station that provides both GPS and Glonass data at a high recroding rate -
ideally 1s. You can find a list of some popular reference networks below.

Reference Coverage Link

Network
UREF Europe http://www.epncb.oma.be/_networkdata/stationlist.php
CORS USA http://geodesy.noaa.gov/CORS/
NGRS Australia http://www.ga.gov.au/ngrs/
RBMC Brazil http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/geociencias/geodesia/
rbmc/rbmc.shtm
CACS Canada https://webapp.geod.nrcan.gc.ca/geod/data-donnees/
cacs-scca.php?locale=en
RGP France http://rgp.ign.fr/
GREF Germany https://igs.bkg.bund.de/
FinnRef Finland http://euref-fin.fgi.fi/fgi/en/positioning-service
06-GPS Holland http://www.06-gps.nl/index.php/english
Flepos Belgium http://ntrip.flepos.be/
(Flanders)
Walcor Belgium http://gnss.wallonie.be/walcors.html
(Wallonia)
GPSBru Belgium http://www.ngi.be/agn/NL/NL0.shtm
(Brussels)

32
 APPENDIX E. SETTING THE POSITION OF THE ALTUS NR2 BASE STATION

Appendix E

Setting the position of the Altus NR2 base

station

An Altus NR2 can be configured as a Base station receiver. A rover receiver in RTK mode calculates
a position relative to the Base station receiver. For this reason, it is always recommended to use a
properly surveyed position for the Base station receiver.

Set the Base station position as static

To work as a Base station, the position of the Altus NR2 should be configured as static. The ‘Static’
position mode should be selected in the ‘GNSS’ tab as shown in Figure E-1.

Figure E-1: Setting the Altus NR2 base station position to static

33
 APPENDIX E. SETTING THE POSITION OF THE ALTUS NR2 BASE STATION

Set the correct position1

The next step is to set the antenna position of the Altus NR2. The default setting of ‘auto’ can be used
for demonstration or for relative positioning however, for most other purposes, a properly surveyed
position is advisable. In the example shown in Figure E-2, the position stored under ‘Geodetic1’ is
used. The stored positions can be entered via the ‘Advanced Settings’ link on the same page. Pre-set
positions can be entered in either Geodetic or Cartesian coordinates as shown.

Figure E-2: Setting the static position to the pre-set ‘Geodetic1’ position

1
If you do not have an accurate position for the Altus NR2 Base station, Septentrio Support Department can
provide an application note on how this can be done.

34
 APPENDIX F. LOGGING DATA FOR GEOTAGZ REPROCESSING

Appendix F

Logging data for GeoTagZ reprocessing

F.1 Configuring data logging

For both the AsteRx-m UAS rover and Altus NR2 Base station receivers, you can record the SBF data
blocks required by GeoTagZ by checking the ‘Rinex’ and ‘Support’ boxes in the Logging window of the
web interface. This option will automatically select the individual SBF blocks required for GeoTagZ
ReProcessing. In the case of the Base station, select to log data at 1 sec intervals and for the rover,
select 100 msec interval as shown in Figures F-1 and F-2.

F.1.1 ... on an Altus NR2 Base station

Figure F-1: Check the ‘Rinex and’ ‘Support’ boxes in the Logging window and a
logging interval of 1 sec

35
 APPENDIX F. LOGGING DATA FOR GEOTAGZ REPROCESSING

F.1.2 ... on the AsteRx-m UAS rover

To configure data logging on the AsteRx-m UAS, follow the same procedure as above selecting a
logging interval of 100 msec (10Hz) and check the ‘PostProcess’ and ‘ExtEvent’ boxes1 as shown in
Figure F-2.

Figure F-2: Check the ‘PostProcess’ and ‘ExtEvent’ boxes and select a logging in-
terval of 100 msec

F.2 Downloading data files

Files logged on both the AsteRx-m UAS rover and Altus NR2 Base station receivers can be downloaded
using the Web Interface. For the rover files however, it may be more convenient to remove the SD
card from the AsteRx-m UAS and insert it in a PC. Simply connect the receiver to a PC and click on the
green, download icon next to the logged file as shown in Figure F-3.

Figure F-3: Click the green arrow to download a logged file

1
Please note that the ‘Support’ blocks can be logged if the AsteRx-m UAS behaves unexpectedly and you wish
to send a sample of data to Septentrio’s Support Department for problem diagnosis

36

Appendix G
Troubleshooting
The Table below lists some of the more common errors that may crop up while using GeoTagZ and
what you can do about them.
Error
No dongle found
Invalid license
The folder <foldername> doesn’t
contain valid pictures
There are pictures with equal times-
tamps so the correct order of the pic-
tures cannot be determined.
There is no match found between
the pictures and the Events in the
SBF file
SBF block [MeasEpoch, ExtEvent, GP-
SNav] is not present in the input files.
could not parse the updates feed
APPENDIX G. TROUBLESHOOTING
Troubleshooting
Make sure the USB security dongle is properly plugged
into your PC
GeoTagZ installation will make sure that the necessary
environment variables and the required license file is in-
stalled. Please make sure you have used the GeoTagZ
installer.
Make sure that the UAS pictures are stored in this folder.
Also make sure you use the correct picture format: JPG,
TIFF or DNG
Make sure your camera supports the necessary time tag-
ging resolution so that multiple pictures can be tagged
within a collection interval. See Appendix B.2.1 for more
information.
GeoTagZ tries to match pictures with Event markers in
the SBF Rover file. Make sure you are using the pictures
that corresponding to the Rover SBF file.
GeoTagZ requires some specific SBF blocks in order to
have the best re-processing performance. Please make
sure that your AsteRx-m UAS is properly configured for
logging the necessary SBF blocks.
The feed notifying the user of available updates could
not be downloaded
37