Tutroial: LiDAR Mapping

By Prof. Ayman Habib, University of Calgary

(free to all registered participants)

Recently, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems have emerged as a fast, accurate, and cost-effective technology for direct acquisition of highly dense3D positional data from physical surfaces. The widespread adoption of LiDAR systems has been propelled by the improved erformance and lower cost of modern direct geo-referencing technology (Global Navigation Satellite Systems – GNSS, Inertial Measurement Units – IMU, and GNSS/IMU integration techniques). A LiDAR system is a combination of two main components: the direct geo-referencing and laser ranging components. The direct geo-referencing component provides the position and the attitude of the mapping platform. The laser ranging component, on the other hand, provides the distance between the laser beam firing point and its footprint. The geo-referencing and ranging information are combined to provide the ground coordinates of the laser beam footprints leading to a highly dense and accurate point cloud covering the mapped area. The main objective of this tutorial is to provide an overview of LiDAR principles, mathematics, error sources, quality assurance and quality control procedures, data processing techniques, and applications.

The following list provides the covered topics:

1. LiDAR principles:
a. Laser principles
b. LiDAR positioning equation
c. LiDAR and Photogrammetric mapping: comparative analysis
d. LiDAR applications

2. Quality Assurance and Quality Control of LiDAR mapping
a. Error sources
b. Quality Assurance
c. System Calibration
d. Quality Control

3. LiDAR Data Processing
a. Classification
b. Segmentation
c. 3D city modeling