Basics of Airborne Laser Scanning

DI Peter Rieger
Product Manager ALS
RIEGL LMS GmbH

www.riegl.com
 Airborne Scanning

Terrestrial Scanning

Mobile Scanning Industrial Scanning

www.riegl.com RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems

Contents:

● Airborne laser scanners and systems

● Bathymetric applications
● Measurements on snow and Ice

www.riegl.com RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems

Airborne Laser Scanners and Systems
 Airborne laser scanning is a rapid, highly accurate
and efficient method of capturing 3D data of large
areas and corridors.

The main applications are:

• Large area mapping

• City modeling

• Power line inspection

• Flood plain mapping

• Agriculutre and Forestry

• Glacier and Snowfield mapping

• Bathymetry

• …

www.riegl.com Airborne Laser Scanning

 VQ-480 LMS-Q680i DR680

VQ-820-G VQ-580

www.riegl.com RIEGL Airborne Laser Scanners

www.riegl.com Dedicated Software for ALS
 RiPROCESS Key Features:
• Project oriented data management
• Parallel data processing in LAN‘s
• Fast visualization of large areas
• System calibration
• Spatial transformation and projection

www.riegl.com
ALS Data Processing Workflow
 ECEF

SOCS
?
 − sin(λ ) − cos(λ ) sin(φ ) cos(λ ) cos(φ ) X WGS 84 
 
 cos(λ ) − sin(λ ) sin(φ ) sin(λ ) cos(φ ) YWGS 84 
ENU
C ECEF (TUTC ) = 
0 cos(φ ) sin(φ ) Z WGS 84 
 
 0 1 
 0 0

www.riegl.com ECEF Coordinate System

 SOCS IMU / GPS BODY
Z Y
Y
Y
X
Z X
SOCS IMU Z
X C IMU C BODY

BODY
ECEF NED
C NED

NED
C ECEF

www.riegl.com
Coordinate transformations
 APPLANIX POS AV
IXSEA AIRINS

IGI AEROControl & IGI CCNS

www.riegl.com
3rd party IMU/GPS systems
 Trajectory
GPS RiACQUIRE
Data logger
Receiver
Flight Guidance
Pilot Display

Operator workstation

Camera
Data Storage
IMU

Synchronization RIEGL DR680

CAM
Monitoring & Ctrl
RIEGL Q680i
Data stream

www.riegl.com Block diagram ALS System

ALS System Integration
RIEGL LMS-Q680i

medium-format camera

shock absorber

solid mounting plate

inertial measurement unit

www.riegl.com
Typical ALS Platform Setup
www.riegl.com
RIEGL NP680i - Diamond DA-42MPP
www.riegl.com
RIEGL LMS-Q560 – Diamond HK36
www.riegl.com
RIEGL CP680i - MBB BK117
www.riegl.com Custom Integration RIEGL Q560 – Bell Jet Ranger
 system integration by

www.riegl.com
RIEGL CP680i - VulcanAir P68
www.riegl.com
RIEGL CP680i - Mil Mi-8
RIEGL VQ-820-G
Laser scanner for
bathymetric applications
 Laser scanner for combined topographic and
hydrographic airborne surveys
Wavelength 532 nm (visible green light)
Measurment range 10 – 2000 m at ρ ≥ 20%
Topography 10 – 3000 m at ρ ≥ 60%
Measurment range 1 Secchi depth
Hydrography
Ranging accuracy 25 mm
FOV 42°
Beam divergence 1 mrad
Measurement rate up to 250 kHz
Scan speed 50 – 200 lines/s
Laser Safety Laser Class 3B

www.riegl.com
RIEGL VQ-820-G
 • European Water Framework Directive
• Inland water bodies & coastal regions
• Specialized instrument for shallow water
– Short laser pulses
– High measurement bandwidth
– High sampling rate
→ excelent multi target resolution < 0.2m

www.riegl.com
Motivation
System Integration: CASA 212 www.riegl.com
www.riegl.com
Recently acquired test data
 sea surface

true target position

raw target position

www.riegl.com Correction for refraction

 point cloud profile exemplary waveform

water surface
echo
distributed reflection
from turbid water
body

ground echo

www.riegl.com
Echo Waveform
RIEGL VQ-580
Laser scanner for
measurements on snow and ice
 Laser Scanner especially suited for
measurments on snow & ice
Wavelength 1064 nm
Measurement range 10 – 1500 m at ρ ≥ 20%
10 – 2350 m at ρ ≥ 60%
Ranging accuracy 25 mm

FOV 60°
Beam divergence 0.2 mrad
Measurement rate up to 380 kHz
Scan speed 10 – 150 lines/s
MTA data acquisition Yes
Laser Safety Laser Class 3B

www.riegl.com
RIEGL VQ-580
 dry snow @ 1064nm visibility 23 km

visibility 15 km

visibility 8 km

dry snow @ 1550nm

PRR = 380 kHz

www.riegl.com
VQ-580 Instrument sensitivity
 Reflectance

dB
+4

-8

www.riegl.com
VQ-580 Scan data on snow
LMS-Q680i, 1550nm VQ-580, 1064nm VQ-820G, 532nm

The world looks different…

www.riegl.com
…at different wavelengths.