TOWARDS THE FULL AUTOMATION OF LASER SCANNING AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY DATA PROCESSING

摘要

The theoretical conclusions and practical results described in this article are based on the extensive experience of geodetic, photogrammetry and aerial survey works that are being implemented by Geokosmos in Russia and globally as well. Being a commercial service providing company, Geokosmos is greatly interested in obtaining technologies for aerial survey data processing with extremely short duration of technological cycle while applying such data for generating up to 1:1000 topographical maps. The time factor is rather critical in modern Russia, taking into account the huge Russian territory and the strong demand for various topographical and remote sensing data provoked by intense post-Soviet economic processes. Aerial data acquisition is implemented using Geokosmos' helicopter or fix-wing platforms equipped with Optech airborne laser terrain mappers ALTM 2050, 30/70, digital aerial cameras, infra-red sensors, GPS/GLONASS systems and some auxiliary devices. Joint collecting and ultimate combining of LIDAR and aerial photography data is the crucial point of the company's strategy in both methodological and marketing aspects. Specifically, such an approach makes it possible to reduce the entire processing time and therefore dramatically increase productivity. All these considerations lead to the necessity of automation of all stages of combined LIDAR & aerial photography data processing aimed at topography map making. The proposed approach to realising the complete automatic technology have been described in this paper based on the experience gained by Geokosmos during the last 5 years. The main achievements and disadvantages have been discussed, especially concerning the maximum achievable accuracy of the method.