Angular resolution of terrestrial laser scanners

Knowledge of a laser scanner's spatial resolution is necessary in order to prevent aliasing and estimate the level of detail that can be resolved from a scanned point cloud. Spatial resolution can be decoupled into range and angular components. The latter is the focus of this paper and is governed primarily by sampling interval and laser beamwidth. However, emphasis is often placed on one of these—typically sampling interval—as an indicator of resolution. Since both affect the resolution of a scanned point cloud, consideration of only one factor independent of the other can lead to a misunderstanding of a system's capabilities. This will be demonstrated to be inappropriate except under very specific conditions. A new, more appropriate resolution measure for laser scanners, the effective instantaneous field of view (EIFOV), is proposed. It is derived by modelling the shift variance of the equal angular increment sampling process, laser beamwidth-induced positional uncertainty and observed angle quantisation with ensemble average modulation transfer functions (AMTFs). Several commercially available terrestrial laser scanner systems are modelled and analysed in terms of their angular resolution capabilities using the EIFOV.     

A unified approach to self-calibration of terrestrial laser scanners

In recent years, the method of self-calibration widely used in photogrammetry has been found suitable for the estimation of systematic errors in terrestrial laser scanners. Since high correlations can be present between the estimated parameters, ways to reduce them have to be found. This paper presents a unified approach to self-calibration of terrestrial laser scanners, where the parameters in a least-squares adjustment are treated as observations by assigning appropriate weights to them. The higher these weights are the lower the parameter correlations are expected to be. Self-calibration of a pulsed laser scanner Leica Scan Station was performed with the unified approach. The scanner position and orientation were determined during the measurements with the help of a total station, and the point clouds were directly georeferenced. The significant systematic errors were zero error in the laser rangefinder and vertical circle index error. Most parameter correlations were comparatively low. In part, precise knowledge of the horizontal coordinates of the scanner centre helped greatly to achieve low correlation between these parameters and the zero error. The approach was shown to be advantageous to the use of adjustment with stochastic (weighted) inner constraints where the parameter correlations were higher. At the same time, the collimation error could not be estimated reliably due to its high correlation with the scanner azimuth because of a limited vertical distribution of the targets in the calibration field. While this problem can be solved for a scanner with a nearly spherical field-of-view, it will complicate the calibration of scanners with limited vertical field-of-view. Investigations into the influence of precision of the scanner position and levelling on the adjustment results lead to two important findings. First, it is not necessary to level the scanner during the measurements when using the unified approach since the parameter correlations are relatively low anyway. Second, the scanner position has to be known with a precision of about 1 mm in order to get a reliable estimate of the zero error.     

Sensor modeling,self-calibration and accuracy testing of panoramic cameras and laser scanners

Terrestrial Linear Array CCD-based panoramic cameras have been used for purely imaging purposes, but they also have a high potential for use in high accuracy measurement applications. The imaging geometry and the high information content of those images make them suitable candidates for quantitative image analysis. For that a particular sensor model has to be established and the inherent accuracy potential has to be investigated. We developed a sensor model for terrestrial Linear Array-based panoramic cameras by means of a modified bundle adjustment with additional parameters, which models substantial deviations of a real camera from the ideal one. We used 3D straight-line information in addition to tie points to conduct a full calibration and orientation without control point information. Due to the similarity of the operation of laser scanners to panoramic cameras the sensor model of the panoramic cameras was extended for the self-calibration of laser scanners. We present the joint sensor model for panoramic cameras and laser scanners and the results of self-calibration, which indicate a subpixel accuracy level for such highly dynamic systems. Finally we demonstrate the systems’ accuracy of two typical panoramic cameras in 3D point positioning, using both a minimal number of control points and a free network adjustment. With these new panoramic imaging devices we have additional powerful sensors for image recording and efficient 3D object modeling.     

Geometric calibration of a terrestrial laser scanner with local additional parameters: An automatic strategy

Terrestrial laser scanning systems are steadily increasing in many fields of engineering, geoscience and architecture namely for fast data acquisition, 3-D modeling and mapping. Similarly to other precision instruments, these systems provide measurements with implicit systematic errors. Systematic errors are physically corrected by manufacturers before delivery and sporadically afterwards. The approach presented herein tackles the raw observables acquired by a laser scanner with additional parameters, a set of geometric calibration parameters that model the systematic error of the instrument to achieve the most accurate point cloud outputs, improving eventual workflow owing to less filtering, better registration and best 3D modeling. This paper presents a fully automatic strategy to calibrate geometrically terrestrial laser scanning datasets. The strategy is tested with multiple scans taken by a FARO FOCUS 3D, a phase-based terrestrial laser scanner. A calibration with local parameters for datasets is undertaken to improve the raw observables and a weighted mathematical index is proposed to select the most significant set of additional parameters. The improvements achieved are exposed, highlighting the necessity of correcting the terrestrial laser scanner before handling multiple data sets.     

几种常见数字航摄仪的分析与比较

数字航摄仪是直接获取高精度数字影像的重要手段之一。文中介绍当前国际上3种主流数字航摄仪ADS40（Airborne Digital Sensor 40）、DMC（Digital Mapping Camera）及Ultra CamD（UCD）,并分析三者的成像原理及关键技术,同时从多个方面对三者进行评估和比较。     

基于罗德里格矩阵的三维激光扫描点云配准算法

本文提出了一种基于罗德里格矩阵的激光扫描点云配准直接计算方法。利用反对称矩阵和罗德里格矩阵的性质,用3个独立参数代替3个旋转角参数建立一种新旋转矩阵解算模型,推导出旋转变换误差方程,确定平移参数的计算公式。通过实验分析了坐标转换模型的精度和点云配准效果,结果表明该算法精度高,计算过程简单,可以准确地解算出三维坐标转换参数。     

Mathematical basis for large scale GIS and terrestrial digital products

The problem of spatial mathematical basis has been encountered by both large scale GIS and spatial digital products theoretically and practically. It is also a basic problem in the development of the whole geo-information science. After analyzing the status quo and the limitations of the space mathematical base of GIS, this paper points out definitely that the geodetic coordinate system is uniform, which can show the location of any point of the global exactly and uniquely in form of (B, L, H) and is the most proper reference system of largescale GIS and Digital Earth. Moreover, this paper also puts forward a set of practical model of the standard “map projection”. Finally, this paper introduces a DRG system based on this model.     

Mathematical basis for large scale GIS and terrestrial digital products

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基于数字图像的车辆行驶跑偏在线测量方法

保证车辆在正常情况下沿直线行驶是汽车制造的基本要求,汽车制造厂商高度重视车辆行驶跑偏的检测.文章分析了车辆行驶跑偏量测量的一般方法并提出了一种基于数字图像的汽车行驶跑偏检测方法,实现了车辆行驶跑偏量的自动测量.通过实验,验证了该方法的可行性,且具有自动化程度高、效率高、测量精度高以及可靠性强等特点.基于数字图像的车辆行驶跑偏在线测量系统已投入汽车制造公司的实际生产使用.     

数码航测中多拼CCD相机同步曝光方法及其实验分析

多拼相机组合成等效大面阵相机,可以形成宽角视场,对于数码航测具有重要意义,其中同步曝光是其核心技术之一。本文研究了一种光耦继电器为核心部件的同步曝光方法,对同步曝光的性能进行了实验,利用统计分析的方法进行了数据分析,验证了相对于传统的电磁继电器方案的优越性,实验表明可以满足大比例尺数码航测的要求。     

A package for digital processing and automatic contouring of aeromagnetic data

Aeromagnetic data processing refers to the processing of magnetic data acquired through airborne surveys. The total magnetic field at various points along the predetermined flight path is recorded using the on board cesium magnetometer. At each of these points, the positional information in terms of latitude, longitude obtained from Inertial Navigation System (INS) and attitude, time and date are also recorded. The track flown by the aircraft while data acquisition is also recorded using video flight path camera. A software package has been developed to process this data and generate outputs in a form amenable to visual interpretation. It is developed on a VAX 11/780 system using VAX FORTRAN and PLOT 10 GKS software. This paper gives an outline of the various functions available in this package and also highlights the problems encountered in choosing the most appropriate techniques/methods to be used in the gridding and contouring of the data.     

地面激光扫描中激光强度值的影响因素及改正方法

激光强度作为地面三维激光扫描仪特有的测量值,在现有三维激光扫描仪中并没有得到有效利用.鉴于此,文章从理论上推导了激光强度值的影响因素,根据强度值的影响因素提出了一种强度值的改正方法,并通过实验对理论模型进行了验证分析.实验结果表明:本文提出的改正方法能较好地对强度值进行改正,对相关的硬件制造和应用具有一定的价值.