Ortiz Sanz, JuanBastos Costas, GuillermoGil Docampo, María de la Luz2025-08-052025-08-052025Ortiz-Sanz, J., Bastos, G. & Gil-Docampo, M. Deformation measurement of twisted timber beam using UAV SfM photogrammetry and a new feature extraction algorithm. Eur. J. Wood Prod. 83, 88 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-025-02245-9https://hdl.handle.net/10347/42655Drones facilitate the monitoring of large structures through feature extraction from point clouds generated through Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry. In the present study, we determined the deformation of a structural timber strip subjected to simultaneous bending and torsion. Three cameras were used. Two of them are pre-installed on the UAVs utilized, and the third is a consumer-grade Canon camera. All three were configured in flight mode. The geometry of the timber strip was generated through photogrammetry from the photos taken with each camera at a height of 1.5 m. The results were compared with the reference geometry, which was also created using the Canon camera on the ground at an average distance of 0.92 m. This reference geometry was previously validated in a preparatory project using extensometers with 1-µm precision. A Python-based algorithm was developed to automatically extract the position of the centroid and the rotation of each cross-sectional segment of the strip from UAV-based photogrammetric point clouds. Deformations measured by each of the three devices and the new algorithm are compared with actual deformation. The accuracy in measuring displacement and rotation of the centroid of strip cross-sections ranged between − 0.05 and 0.09 mm and between 0.00° and 0.24°, respectively.eng© The Author(s) 2025, corrected publication 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/journal article10.1007/s00107-025-02245-9open access