Verification of a 3-D terrain mapping LADAR on various materials in different environments

摘要

A field validation of a laser detection and ranging (LA-nDAR) system was conducted by the U.S. Army Engineer Researchnand Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, Mississippi. The LA-nDAR system, a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) LADAR systemncustom-modified by Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI), was testednfor accuracy in measuring terrain geometry. A verification methodnwas developed to compare the LADAR dataset to a ground-truthndataset that consisted of total station measurements. Three controlnpoints were measured and used to align the two datasets. The in-nfluence of slopes, surface materials, light, fog, and dust were inves-ntigated. The study revealed that slopes only affected measurementsnwhen the terrain was obscured from the LADAR system, and ambi-nent light conditions did not significantly affect the LADAR measure-nments. The accuracy of the LADAR system, which was equippednwith fog correction, was adversely affected by particles suspendednin air, such as fog or dust. Also, in some cases the material type hadnan effect on the accuracy of the LADAR measurements.