A Spatial Data Pipeline for Streaming Smart City Data

• Main Authors: Carthen, Chase, Zaremehrjardi, Araam, Le, Vinh, Cardillo, Carlos, Strachan, Scotty, Tavakkoli, Alireza, Dascalu, Sergiu M., Harris, Frederick C.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: big data; data pipeline; data streaming; data transfer; edge computing; IoT; Laser radar; LiDAR; MQTT; Pedestrians; Pipelines; Point cloud compression; ROS; Smart cities; smart city; Spatial databases; Web services
• ISSN: 2770-8209
• DOI: 10.1109/SERA61261.2024.10685604

Point cloud data in the form of LiDAR is often utilized for its spatial qualities, especially in smart city projects for tasks involving vehicles and pedestrians. However, the process in which LiDAR data is acquired can be cumbersome to setup and automate. In this paper, we introduce a streaming and an on-demand pipeline for capturing LiDAR data from Velodyne Ultra Pucks placed along northern Nevada intersections known as the Living Lab as part of a smart city project for the city of Reno. The data coming from these intersections consist of the following formats: ROS 2 bag file, PCD, LAZ, Google Draco, and PCAP. A streaming point cloud service with PCD, LAZ, and Draco was implemented to stream any of these formats, as well as to allow the user to capture the current monitored point cloud. Additionally, two on-demand web services were implemented for both the PCAP and ROS 2 bag file to enable a user to start and stop the acquisition of LiDAR data in these formats. Through our analysis, it was discovered that Draco provided the best processing time and had a wider range of options that affected the quality of the point cloud. To evaluate this pipeline, the features of existing software were compared and a discussion was provided with an analysis of the point cloud formats.