Photogrammetry Versus LiDAR: Clearing the Air

July 22, 2009 Alexander Wiechert Managing Director

Life Cycles Lidar vs. Photogrammetry

Market Size

2 0 0 9

PG Lidar

Years

Bill Gates:
Creating A Virtual Earth
You'll be walking around in a city and be able to see the shops, the stores, see what the traffic is like.

Not in the flat, 2D interface, but in a virtual reality walkthrough.

Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft
from a 2005 speech in London on his 50th birthday

Oblique Image
Pizzeria Irish Pub Bus Stop

Supermarket

My Appartement

Seattle

Bing maps (Virtual Earth)

Why has Microsoft chosen Multi-Ray Photogrammetry for the possibly world largest mapping project?

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry DSM Processing

Multi Ray Photogrammetry

90/60 flight pattern: up to 15 rays per ground pixel Effective occlusion avoidance Robust and highly automated

DSM by Multi-Ray Photogrammetry

Source
Set of high resolution images 90/60 overlap Up to 15 rays per point

DSM by Multi-Ray Photogrammetry

Process
Automated matching (dense matching) Extremely robust due to high redundancy

Result
High res. DSM > 50 points/sqm << 10cm accuracy

Apartment complex in Atlanta

Coca-cola building

True-Ortho Image Processing

UCL, Automated DSM

UCL, Automated DSM

UCL, True-Ortho, 10cm GSD, Graz

UCL, DSM + True-Ortho

UCL, DSM + True-Ortho

UCL, DSM + True-Ortho

DTM Filtering, Classification And Ortho Image Processing

Lidar DTM Processing

Point cloud out of the last echo (assumption: last echo = bare earth) Filtering of this point cloud by
Gradient detection based point removal Manual correction by an operator
Based on the shared relief only Supported by maps and/or images

Automated classification into ground, nonground and uncertain Further classification requires manual interaction

Photogrammetric Workflow
Classification Map automatically generated by Computer Vision Result: 10-15 classes such as buildings, vegetation A, vegetation B, road, concrete, sand ,

DTM Generation By WinstonSalem Filtering

Point Density And Efficiency

Technology Comparison
Lidar
Direct 3D measurement 3D point cloud Multiple echoes DTM by last echo and filtering

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry
Overlapping images DSM automatically by aerotriangulation and matching Multi-Rays DTM by ground pixel classification map and filtering

Point Density
Lidar Point Density
1 / 5 / <20 p/sqm

Point Density MultiRay Photogrammetry

25 cm GSD -> 16 p/sqm 10 cm GSD -> 100 p/sqm 5 cm GSD -> 400 p/sqm

Point Density
Lidar Point Density
1 / 5 / <20 p/sqm

Point Density MultiRay Photogrammetry Approx. 50% pixels match automatically

25 cm GSD -> 8 p/sqm 10 cm GSD -> 50 p/sqm 5 cm GSD -> 200 p/sqm

Point Density

Point Density
Image
10cm GSD

Dense matching result (DSM)

> 50 points/sqm

Lidar DSM
6 point/sqm

Collection Efficiency
Lidar:
8 points/sqm 30 deg. FOV Height: 750 m Speed: 60 m/s Eff. pulse rate: 193 kHz Scan rate: 170 scans/s Strip width: 403m 20% overlap Effective strip width: 322 meter

UCXp Multi-Ray Photogrammetry

25 cm GSD Height: 4,188 m Speed: < 141 m/s Strip width: 4,328 meter 60% overlap Effective strip width: 1,731 meter

Collection Efficiency
Lidar:
8 points/sqm 30 deg. FOV Height: 750 m Speed: 60 m/s Eff. pulse rate: 193 kHz Scan rate: 170 scans/s Strip width: 403m 20% overlap Effective strip: 322 meter

UCLp Multi-Ray Photogrammetry

25 cm GSD Height: 2,917 m Speed: < 99 m/s Strip width: 2,926 meter 60% overlap Effective strip: 1,170 meter

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry Requirements

Camera System
Good base/height ratio Capable to produce high frontlap frame images (footprint + max. frame rate) Geometric accurate and stable images (PAN, no Bayern pattern) High dynamic range PAN images (>7000 grey values, >> 12bit) Paralaxe free multi spectral images (syntopic exposure)

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry Requirements

Camera System
Good base/height ratio

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry Requirements

Camera System
Good base/height ratio Capable to produce high frontlap frame images (footprint + max. frame rate) Geometric accurate and stable images (PAN, no Bayern pattern) High dynamic range PAN images (>7000 grey values, >> 12bit) Paralaxe free multi spectral images (syntopic exposure)

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry Requirements

Workflow
Integrated photogrammetric workflow (image processing + AT) High performance workflow (automated distributed processing) Dense matching algorithm

Conclusion

Multi-Ray Photogrammetry
Enables robust automated dense matching (pointcloud generation) for DSM production
Significantly higher point density With a superior collection efficiency With sub-pixel accuracy

Result
High resolution mapping grade images (PAN, RGB, NIR) High resolution precise digital surface model (DSM)

Can be used to
Directly process high quality true-ortho images DTM and ortho image processing

Conclusiom
Multi-Ray extends the capabilities of photogrammetry An already existing photogrammetric workflow can be used The camera supports images and - in addition most 3D data needs with higher quality, accuracy and collection efficiency Relaunch of photogrammetry - digital multi-ray photogrammetry

Life Cycles Lidar vs. Photogrammetry

Market Size

2 0 0 9

PG Lidar

Years

Thank You Very Much

Alexander Wiechert Vexcel Imaging GmbH | a Microsoft company Managing Director alwieche@microsoft.com