Relevance of airborne lidar and multispectral image data for urban scene classification using Random Forests

Airborne lidar systems have become a source for the acquisition of elevation data. They provide georeferenced, irregularly distributed 3D point clouds of high altimetric accuracy. Moreover, these systems can provide for a single laser pulse, multiple returns or echoes, which correspond to different illuminated objects. In addition to multi-echo laser scanners, full-waveform systems are able to record 1D signals representing a train of echoes caused by reflections at different targets. These systems provide more information about the structure and the physical characteristics of the targets. Many approaches have been developed, for urban mapping, based on aerial lidar solely or combined with multispectral image data. However, they have not assessed the importance of input features. In this paper, we focus on a multi-source framework using aerial lidar (multi-echo and full waveform) and aerial multispectral image data. We aim to study the feature relevance for dense urban scenes. The Random Forests algorithm is chosen as a classifier: it runs efficiently on large datasets, and provides measures of feature importance for each class. The margin theory is used as a confidence measure of the classifier, and to confirm the relevance of input features for urban classification. The quantitative results confirm the importance of the joint use of optical multispectral and lidar data. Moreover, the relevance of full-waveform lidar features is demonstrated for building and vegetation area discrimination.     

对地观测高光谱激光雷达发展及展望

对目标空间三维—光谱信息的高分辨一体化获取与应用,是对地观测技术发展的前沿科学问题.结合高光谱成像与激光雷达测距的技术优势,对地观测多光谱/高光谱激光雷达遥感技术手段应运而生,并成为遥感技术未来发展的重要方向.本文分3个阶段详细回顾了对地观测高光谱激光雷达系统的发展历程,并针对其独有数据类型阐述了数据处理研究方面的探索...     

Backscatter coefficient as an attribute for the classification of full-waveform airborne laser scanning data in urban areas

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data are increasingly being used for land cover classification. The amplitudes of echoes from targets, available from full-waveform ALS data, have been found to be useful in the classification of land cover. However, the amplitude of an echo is dependent on various factors such as the range and incidence angle, which makes it difficult to develop a classification method which can be applied to full-waveform ALS data from different sites, scanning geometries and sensors. Additional information available from full-waveform ALS data, such as range and echo width, can be used for radiometric calibration, and to derive backscatter cross section. The backscatter cross section of a target is the physical cross sectional area of an idealised isotropic target, which has the same intensity as the selected target. The backscatter coefficient is the backscatter cross section per unit area. In this study, the amplitude, backscatter cross section and backscatter coefficient of echoes from ALS point cloud data collected from two different sites are analysed based on urban land cover classes. The application of decision tree classifiers developed using data from the first study area on the second demonstrates the advantage of using the backscatter coefficient in classification methods, along with spatial attributes. It is shown that the accuracy of classification of the second study area using the backscatter coefficient (kappa coefficient 0.89) is higher than those using the amplitude (kappa coefficient 0.67) or backscatter cross section (kappa coefficient 0.68). This attribute is especially useful for separating road and grass.     

Visualizing Distributions from Multi-Return Lidar Data to Understand Forest Structure

Abstract

Spatially distributed probability density functions (pdfs) are becoming more relevant to Earth scientists and ecologists because of stochastic models and new sensors that provide numerous realizations or data points per unit area. One source of these data is from multi-return airborne lidar, a type of laser that records multiple returns for each pulse of light sent towards the ground. Data from multi-return lidar is a vital tool in helping us understand the structure of forest canopies over large extents. This paper presents visualization tools to allow scientists to rapidly explore, interpret and discover characteristic distributions within the entire spatial field. The major contribution of this work is a paradigm shift which allows ecologists to think of and analyse their data in terms of full distributions, not just summary statistics. The tools allow scientists to depart from traditional parametric statistical analyses and to associate multimodal distribution characteristics to forest structures. Information on the modality and shape of distributions, previously ignored, can now be visualized as well. Examples are given using data from High Island, southeast Alaska.     

Quantifying the Size of a Lidar Footprint: A Set of Generalized Equations

Light detection and ranging (lidar) technologies provide a practical solution to 3-D terrain mapping through laser ranging and scanning technologies. A lidar footprint, which is the critical parameter describing the size of laser sampling area, varies with the scanning geometry and the local topography encountered. Integrating the effects of the scanning geometry and terrain orientations, this letter analyzes the intersection geometry of a laser beam and the terrain and develops a set of rigorous generalized footprint equations on inclined terrain for both across-track and Palmer scanning systems.      

基于高斯滤波的回波信号去噪方法的研究

当采用高斯滤波的方法对全波形激光雷达回波数据去噪处理时,高斯函数宽度和高斯滤波模板长度不同,去噪效果不同。本文通过设定不同的高斯函数宽度和高斯滤波模板长度,对回波信号进行去噪处理。实验结果表明,将激光雷达的发射脉冲半宽作为高斯函数宽度,高斯滤波模板长度设为9,对回波数信号进行去噪处理,滤波后的数据既保留了原有的信息,又得到了很好的平滑处理,取得了较为理想的去噪效果。     

Status and future of laser scanning, synthetic aperture radar and hyperspectral remote sensing data for forest biomass assessment

This is a review of the latest developments in different fields of remote sensing for forest biomass mapping. The main fields of research within the last decade have focused on the use of small footprint airborne laser scanning systems, polarimetric synthetic radar interferometry and hyperspectral data. Parallel developments in the field of digital airborne camera systems, digital photogrammetry and very high resolution multispectral data have taken place and have also proven themselves suitable for forest mapping issues. Forest mapping is a wide field and a variety of forest parameters can be mapped or modelled based on remote sensing information alone or combined with field data. The most common information required about a forest is related to its wood production and environmental aspects. In this paper, we will focus on the potential of advanced remote sensing techniques to assess forest biomass. This information is especially required by the REDD (reducing of emission from avoided deforestation and degradation) process. For this reason, new types of remote sensing data such as fullwave laser scanning data, polarimetric radar interferometry (polarimetric systhetic aperture interferometry, PolInSAR) and hyperspectral data are the focus of the research. In recent times, a few state-of-the-art articles in the field of airborne laser scanning for forest applications have been published. The current paper will provide a state-of-the-art review of remote sensing with a particular focus on biomass estimation, including new findings with fullwave airborne laser scanning, hyperspectral and polarimetric synthetic aperture radar interferometry. A synthesis of the actual findings and an outline of future developments will be presented.     

An adaptive approach for the segmentation and extraction of planar and linear/cylindrical features from laser scanning data

Laser scanning systems have been established as leading tools for the collection of high density three-dimensional data over physical surfaces. The collected point cloud does not provide semantic information about the characteristics of the scanned surfaces. Therefore, different processing techniques have been developed for the extraction of useful information from this data which could be applied for diverse civil, industrial, and military applications. Planar and linear/cylindrical features are among the most important primitive information to be extracted from laser scanning data, especially those collected in urban areas. This paper introduces a new approach for the identification, parameterization, and segmentation of these features from laser scanning data while considering the internal characteristics of the utilized point cloud – i.e., local point density variation and noise level in the dataset. In the first step of this approach, a Principal Component Analysis of the local neighborhood of individual points is implemented to identify the points that belong to planar and linear/cylindrical features and select their appropriate representation model. For the detected planar features, the segmentation attributes are then computed through an adaptive cylinder neighborhood definition. Two clustering approaches are then introduced to segment and extract individual planar features in the reconstructed parameter domain. For the linear/cylindrical features, their directional and positional parameters are utilized as the segmentation attributes. A sequential clustering technique is proposed to isolate the points which belong to individual linear/cylindrical features through directional and positional attribute subspaces. Experimental results from simulated and real datasets demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach for the extraction of planar and linear/cylindrical features from laser scanning data.     

面向森林植被的星载大光斑激光雷达回波仿真

利用星载激光雷达的大光斑全波形数据估测植被结构参数、监测森林生态已受到广泛关注。为了更准确地理解森林植被的结构参数和光学特性对激光雷达回波波形的影响,利用实测森林植被数据提取植被空间分布的统计规律,考虑地形坡度变化和植被冠层反射特性的影响,生成参数化的森林植被空间轮廓反射模型,结合星载激光雷达的回波理论,建立了面向植被的星载激光雷达波形仿真器。由大兴安岭地区的实测植被数据提取的统计规律生成的森林目标仿真波形与地球科学激光测高仪系统（Geoscience Laser Altimeter System,GLAS）真实回波波形具有较好的一致性,平均相关系数R2达到0.91。通过波形仿真分析发现,光斑尺寸减小有利于大坡度地形的森林信息反演,研究成果对中国未来研制星载激光雷达载荷的系统参数设计具有参考意义。     

机载激光测深海面扫描轨迹计算与分析

介绍了机载激光测控技术的椭圆扫描原理，推导出在椭圆扫描方式下计算激光海面扫描轨迹的数学模型，并进行了编程模拟运算，绘图和扫描特征分析。     

激光扫描测高技术的发展与现状

回顾了机载激光扫描测高技术的发展历史，总结了当前国内外的研究现状，展望了今后发展趋势及应用前景，并指出了机载激光扫描测高目前还有待于进一步解决的关键问题，最后对我国发展研究应用这一技术提出了若干建议。     

Inversion of a lidar waveform model for forest biophysical parameter estimation

Due to its measurement principle, light detection and ranging (lidar) is particularly suited to estimate the horizontal as well as vertical distribution of forest structure. Quantification and characterization of forest structure is important for the understanding of the forest ecosystem functioning and, moreover, will help to assess carbon sequestration within forests. The relationship between the signal recorded by a lidar system and the canopy structure of a forest can be accurately characterized by physically based radiative transfer models (RTMs). A three-dimensional RTM is capable of representing the complex forest canopy structure as well as the involved physical processes of the lidar pulse interactions with the vegetation. Consequently, the inversion of such an RTM presents a novel concept to retrieve biophysical forest parameters that exploits the full lidar signal and underlying physical processes. A synthetic dataset and data acquired in the Swiss National Park (SNP) successfully demonstrated the feasibility and the potential of RTM inversion to retrieve forest structure from large-footprint lidar waveform data. The SNP lidar data consist of waveforms generated from the aggregation of small-footprint lidar returns. Derived forest biophysical parameters, such as fractional cover, leaf area index, maximum tree height, and the vertical crown extension, were able to describe the horizontal and vertical forest canopy structure.     

机载激光雷达测深数据处理与应用

机载激光雷达测深系统(ALB)是除声呐测深系统之外最可靠的遥感水深测量系统。随着ALB的商业化,越来越多的研究机构能够获取到水体全回波数据,对水体全回波数据的处理方法也越来越多。本文首先介绍ALB测量原理的基础上,对全波数据的预处理和波峰搜索算法进行概述,并对这些处理方法的优缺点进行总结。考虑到激光脉冲和水面、水体以及水底的作用是个复杂的过程,所以文章接着分析了影响ALB测深精度的主要因素(水深、水质和水下底质反射率),并在最后总结归纳了ALB系统在水下地物分类中的最新应用现状和未来应用的发展趋势。     

A comparison between photogrammetry and laser scanning

A comparison between data acquisition and processing from passive optical sensors and airborne laser scanning is presented. A short overview and the major differences between the two technologies are outlined. Advantages and disadvantages with respect to various aspects are discussed, like sensors, platforms, flight planning, data acquisition conditions, imaging, object reflectance, automation, accuracy, flexibility and maturity, production time and costs. A more detailed comparison is presented with respect to DTM and DSM generation. Strengths of laser scanning with respect to certain applications are outlined. Although airborne laser scanning competes to a certain extent with photogrammetry and will replace it in certain cases, the two technologies are fairly complementary and their integration can lead to more accurate and complete products, and open up new areas of application.     

低成本大视场深度相机阵列系统

在测距传感器不断轻量化、小型化以及室内外地图一体化导航应用的驱动下,三维（3D）室内移动测量成为当今研究和应用的热点,在室内建模、室内定位等新兴领域中的应用越来越广泛。3D室内移动测量系统通常配备激光扫描仪、全景相机、惯性测量单元（inertial measurement unit,IMU）系统和里程计等传感器,虽能实现3D室内点云数据的采集,但其距离传感器-激光扫描仪价格昂贵且便携性较差。彩色深度（RGB depth,RGB-D）相机为低成本3D室内移动测量系统构建提供了新的距离成像传感器选择,但主流型号RGB-D相机视场角小,继而导致数据采集效率远低于传统激光扫描仪,难以做到点云数据的完整覆盖与稳健采集,且易造成同时定位与制图（simultaneous localization and mapping,SLAM）过程中跟踪失败。针对以上问题,构建了一种低成本室内3D移动测量系统采集设备,通过组合多台消费级RGB-D相机构成大视场RGB-D相机阵列,提出了一种阵列RGB-D相机内外参数标定方法,并通过实验检验了设计系统采集的点云数据的精度。     

Airborne laser scanning—an introduction and overview

This tutorial paper gives an introduction and overview of various topics related to airborne laser scanning (ALS) as used to measure range to and reflectance of objects on the earth surface. After a short introduction, the basic principles of laser, the two main classes, i.e., pulse and continuous-wave lasers, and relations with respect to time-of-flight, range, resolution, and precision are presented. The main laser components and the role of the laser wavelength, including eye safety considerations, are explained. Different scanning mechanisms and the integration of laser with GPS and INS for position and orientation determination are presented. The data processing chain for producing digital terrain and surface models is outlined. Finally, a short overview of applications is given.     

Effects of laser beam alignment tolerance on lidar accuracy

One of the major lidar error sources not yet analyzed in the literature is the tolerance of the laser beam alignment with respect to the scanning mirror. In this paper, the problem of quantifying these errors is solved for rotating polygon mirror type lidar systems. An arbitrary deviation of the beam from its design direction–the vector of beam misalignment–can be described by two independent parameters. We choose these as horizontal and vertical components of the misalignment vector in the body frame. Either component affects both, horizontal and vertical lidar accuracy. Horizontal lidar errors appear as scan line distortions—along and across track shifts, rotations and scaling. It is shown that the horizontal component of misalignment results in a scan line first being shifted across the track and then rotated around the vertical at the new center of the scan line. Resulting vertical lidar error, being a linear function of the scan angle, is similar to that produced by a roll bias. The vertical component of the beam misalignment causes scan line scaling and an along track shift. The corresponding vertical error is quadratic with respect to the scan angle. The magnitude of these effects is significant even at tight alignment tolerances and cannot be realistically accounted for in the conventional calibration model, which includes only range, attitude and GPS biases. Therefore, in order to attain better accuracy, this model must be expanded to include the beam misalignment parameters as well. Addition of new parameters into the model raises a question of whether they can be reliably solved for. To give a positive answer to this question, a calibration method must utilize not only ground control information, which is typically very limited, but also the relative accuracy information from the overlapping flight lines.     

移动三维激光扫描技术在盾构隧道收敛监测中的应用

盾构隧道收敛监测是地铁运营检测的重要监测部分。针对收敛尺、全站仪、断面仪和巴塞特收敛系统、站式扫描仪等传统监测设备和监测方法的缺陷,本文提出一种基于移动三维激光扫描的新型收敛监测方法。移动三维激光扫描技术是利用二维断面扫描仪结合移动轨道车、惯性导航定位及编码器等多种传感器协同作业,通过人工推行扫描的方式全面获取隧道结构点云数据。结合自动化点云处理软件对管片断面收敛进行分析,实现地铁隧道收敛的快速全面监测,弥补了传统收敛监测效率低、断面监测不完善的缺点。工程应用实例结果表明,该方法不仅可以实现隧道收敛快速、高效监测,而且获取的海量点云数据可进一步深度挖掘,为地铁隧道的安全监测提供基础数据,保障地铁安全运行。     

3维激光扫描技术在墓葬保护中的应用

3维扫描技术可以说的是21世纪又一项测绘技术新突破,本文介绍了3维激光扫描技术的工作原理,通过结合实际的墓葬保护工程,重点阐述了3维激光扫描技术数据的采集、处理、建模过程和方法,同时总结3维扫描技术的优点和现阶段存在的问题,为数字考古和文物保护提供新的技术支持。