UAV-BASED ACQUISITION OF 3D POINT CLOUD – A COMPARISON OF A LOW-COST LASER SCANNER AND SFM-TOOLS

• Published in: International archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences. remote sensing and spatial information sciences., 2015-01, Vol.XL-3/W3 (3), p.335-341
• Main Authors: Mader, D., Blaskow, R., Westfeld, P., Maas, H.-G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2194-9034; 1682-1750; 2194-9034
• DOI: 10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-3-W3-335-2015

The Project ADFEX (Adaptive Federative 3D Exploration of Multi Robot System) pursues the goal to develop a time- and cost-efficient system for exploration and monitoring task of unknown areas or buildings. A fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with appropriate sensors (laser scanner, RGB camera, near infrared camera, thermal camera) were designed and built. A typical operational scenario may include the exploration of the object or area of investigation by an UAV equipped with a laser scanning range finder to generate a rough point cloud in real time to provide an overview of the object on a ground station as well as an obstacle map. The data about the object enables the path planning for the robot fleet. Subsequently, the object will be captured by a RGB camera mounted on the second flying robot for the generation of a dense and accurate 3D point cloud by using of structure from motion techniques. In addition, the detailed image data serves as basis for a visual damage detection on the investigated building. This paper focuses on our experience with use of a low-cost light-weight Hokuyo laser scanner onboard an UAV. The hardware components for laser scanner based 3D point cloud acquisition are discussed, problems are demonstrated and analyzed, and a quantitative analysis of the accuracy potential is shown as well as in comparison with structure from motion-tools presented.