Quantitatively Evaluating Random Attitude Measurement Errors' Impacts on DSM Elevation Accuracy From Airborne Laser Scanning

Abstract

Impacts of random attitude measurement errors (RAME) made by the global positioning system (GPS)/inertial measurement unit (IMU) integrated system on elevation accuracy of a digital surface model (DSM) reconstructed from an airborne laser scanning (ALS) system were evaluated. By numerical simulation, three common terrain models, i.e., a planar, a rectangular, and a hemispheric terrain model, were established, and the scanning processes of the ALS system for the three terrain models were simulated to analyze the effects of RAME on reconstructed DSMs. Furthermore, a semiphysical simulation experimental setup was constructed to verify the results obtained from the numerical simulation. A physical terrain model was scanned to quantitatively evaluate the impacts of RAME on positioning accuracy of a laser point cloud and elevation accuracy of a reconstructed DSM. Experimental results show that under the condition of experimental "flight" height of 1310 mm and affected by two kinds of RAME with different standard deviations, i.e., 0.01°and 0.1°, the RMS values of elevation error of reconstructed DSMs increase 0.04 and 1.56 mm, respectively, corresponding to 0.015 and 0.595 m at actual flight height of 500 m. Therefore, if the elevation error of a reconstructed DSM caused by RAME is requested to be lower than 1 cm under the condition of flight height of 500 m, the random attitude measurement accuracy of the GPS/IMU integrated system should be higher than 0.01°(1σ) at least.Index Terms-Remote sensing, airborne laser scanning, laser point cloud, digital surface model, attitude measurement, random error, elevation accuracy, positioning accuracy.

Evaluation and optimization of parameters in the measurement for airborne scanner using response surface method

“…For example, such works include the influence of laser ranging error, 24,25 the influence of attitude angle on measurement error of airborne platform, [26][27][28] ability of high-density laser scanning, 29,30 and random measurement errors on airborne laser scanning (ALS) accuracy. 31,32 Among these, Yang et al 19 constructed a DSM by the global positioning system (GPS) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) integrated system, and evaluated the elevation accuracy of an ALS system. The conclusion showed the random attitude measurement accuracy of GPS, or IMU integrated system should be higher than 0.01 degrees (1 sigma) at least.…”

A Novel Multi-View-Angle Range Images Generation Method for Measurement of Complicated Polyhedron in 3D Space

“…With development of instrument science and technology, a new generation of such kind, laser scanning, emerged to acquire 3D surface characteristics of measured objects with high spatial and temporal resolutions [1]. During scanning procedure, dense high-precision laser points can be obtained from measured object [2]. The obtained laser points contain a large amount of surface texture information of the measured object [3].…”