A preliminary simulation to study the potential of integration of LIDAR and imagery

LIDAR has revolutionized the acquisition of digital elevation data for large scale mapping applications. Integrated with airborne GPS/IMU, it is possible to compile DTM from an aircraft platform through laser distance measurements. The precision of laserscanner slant distance measurement is primarily determined by the precision of time-of-flight measurement. But the distance measurement accuracy is not equivalent to the final 3D coordinate measurement accuracy. The final accuracy also depends on the precision of airborne GPS and IMU. This accuracy varies with flying height. The height precision of a single ground point is often in the order of 10-15 cm, with a typical planimetric precision in the order of 0.5-1.0 meter at a flying height of 1000 meter. Generally, Airborne LIDAR system integrates a digital camera hard hounded to the LIDAR sensor. Images captured by the integrated digital camera are mainly used to provide the necessary visual coverage of the area and generate the orthimages. We want to find a way to integrate LIDAR and imagery, so that the final 3D measurement errors can be suppressed. A simple simulation system is developed, and the preliminary result shows that the proposed method improves the 3D coordinate measurement accuracy.