Chapter 1b

Introduction to Airborne LiDAR and
Physical Principles of LiDAR Technology
(Lectures 1 and 5)
E. Baltsavias
Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry

ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
manos@geod.baug.ethz.ch
www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch
International School on LiDAR Technology, IIT Kanpur, India, 31 March - 4 April 2008
1
1
Acknowledgements
For this presentation material has been used, without or with modifications, from various
colleagues organisations and companies
colleagues, companies, who I want to thank:
- C. Brenner, Leibniz University of Hannover
- D. Fritsch, J. Kilian, A. Wehr (Univ. of Stuttgart)
- G. Vosselman (ITC)
- U. Lohr ((at that time with firm Toposys)
p y )
- A. Streilein (Swisstopo = Swiss Federal Office of Topography)
- N. Pfeifer (Technical University of Vienna)
- Firms Leica, Riegl, Optech, IGI, Toposys, Fugro, Swissphoto
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2
Contents
- History
- Basic components of ALS and functioning
- Range measurement principles
- Interaction of laser beam with targets and full waveform digitising
- Basic error sources
- Processing overview, point classification (filtering) and strip adjustment
- Quality control of data
- Overview of commercial systems
- Overview of applications and examples
- Bathymetric lidar
- A short comparison of airborne laser scanning to other remote sensing technologies
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3
History
First optical laser developed in 1960 (Maiman, USA)
First airborne laser ranging tried out in 1960s
Started to be developed from early and middle 1970s, espec. in N. America, particularly
for hydrographic and bathymetric applications
First in late 1980s, the use of GPS made accurate range measurements from airborne laser
profilers possible (Univ. of Stuttgart, Prof. Ackerman)
Beginning of 90s profilers replaced by scanners (ALS), and GPS combined with INS
1996 ISPRS Congress in Viennna: one ALS manufacturer, some reports and tests with ALS
1996-2000: work of several ISPRS Working Groups (WG) and one OEEPE WG on ALS.
Publication of a special issue of ISPRS Journal of Photo & RS gives a good overview.
Since 2000: ALS increasinglyg y used in p
practice and in various applications;
pp ; increasing
g
scientific investigations and tests and better methods; continuously improving ALS systems,
incl. waveform digitizing (espec. from 2004) and simultaneous double ALS (from 2006);
more and better software; more service providers and users
Often the term LiDAR is used: Light Detection And Ranging
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4
Basic components and functioning
- Active sensor: a very narrow, high energy ray is sent from a source (laser) to the scene,
reflected
fl t d bbackk and
d recorded.
d d AActive
ti means it worksk day
d and d night
i ht (even
( b
better
tt att night
i ht due
d
to no sun interference). Active also means it can measure in textureless areas including
shadows
- Here we treat only airborne Lidar. What is recorded is the Time of Flight (TOF) or rarely
the phase (called also continuous wave (CW) lasers), and almost always the intensity,
although intensity is rarely used. All commercial ALS systems use TOF. There is one
experimental CW ALS, called SCALARS (Univ. of Stuttgart).
- Basically: measurement of distance via polar technique, e.g. the direction of the ray and
the distance from the ray source to the scene are measured
- Most ALS work in near infrared (NIR), so are influenced by clouds, snow, rain etc. (no
weather independence, as radar)
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5
Basic components
- Laser transmitter and detector/receiver = range measuring unit
- Deflection mechanism of the laser ray, e.g. mirror, polygon
- GPS/INS (offset and misalignment angles between GPS/INS and laser unit must be known
-> for INS called boresight calibration). GPS is in differential modus with GPS reference
stations closeby. Dual frequency GPS is mostly used.
- Computer,
Computer onboard software (e (e.g.
g for navigation and flight management) and storage
devices (data size is huge), including precise timing device that synchronises all sensors
- Optionally: other film-based (e.g. RC30) or more often optoelectronic cameras (frame or
line) -> especially for generation of orthoimages, also video or standard CCDs for
attributation or annotation (see powerline example in applications).
p , helicopters
- Platforms: airplanes, p ((espec.
p for mapping
pp g of corridors or small areas),
), also
Unpiloted Airborne Vehicles (UAVs), including small ones (developments underway from
firm Riegl)
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6
Basic components of an ALS system
DGPS
Laser
transmitter
Deflection
INS Detector/ unit
Control &
Receiver
g
data recording
Ground
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7
Basic components of an ALS system
No fix rules exist for distance of

ground reference GPS stations
from airplane. Often 10-50 km,
depending on topography (GPS
satellite visibility) and possible
GPS signal disturbances.
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8
Platforms
- Aerial
Mostly airplanes, then helicopters. Also Unpiloted Airborne Vehicles (with
small weight ALS, e.g. planned from Riegl), even balloons.
- Terrestrial
- Satellites
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9
Some definitions
- Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) or pulse rate: number of pulses sent per second
- Echoes (some call them also pulses): number of received pulse reflections recorded
for one sent pulse
- Minimum vertical object separation: minimum distance between 2 separable echoes
- Scan rate: number of scan patterns (e.g. scan lines) per second
- Field of View (FOV) or scan angle: across-flight angle that laser beam can cover
- Beam divergence: the angle showing the deviation of the laser beam from parallelity
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10
Other important parameters
- Minimum and maximum flying height: maximum depends mainly on transmitted power, minimum on
national/local regulations and eyesafe distance
- Maximum swath width: depends on flying height and FOV
- Laser footprint (ground area illuminated by laser beam): depends on beam divergence and flying
height. In ideal case a circle, in reality an ellipse or even more irregular pattern
- Wavelength: important for measuring certain objects (object should reflect well at laser wavelength)
- Across and along track point density (these 2 define also the average point density): they depend on
manyy parameters,
p like scan ppattern, PRF, scan rate, flying
y g height,
g aircraft velocity,
y FOV etc. ->
necessity for good flight planning and selection of acquisition parameters
- Number of echoes for which intensity is recorded
- GPS/INS measurement frequency and accuracy (accuracy espec. for INS)
- Use of additional imaging sensors (digital cameras, video, etc.)
- Weight, dimensions, power consumption, environmental operational conditions (T, H etc.)
- Range resolution and accuracy
- Software! (flight planning, post-processing etc.)
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Basic components – The laser ray
Spectral properties
- Mostly user laser: Nd:YAG = neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet
Emits at 1064 nm wavelength
- Other systems: e.g. 810 nm (ScaLARS), 900 nm (FLI-MAP), 1540 nm (TopoSys, Riegl)
- Laser systems emit in one wavelength only. Exception bathymetric lasers emit at
1064 and 532 nm, to measure both water surface and water bottom
- Emitted light has very narrow spectral width, e.g. for Nd:YAG 0.1-0.5 nm
Laser beam properties
- High power, so that enough energy can return back to the detector (high flying height)
- Very narrow beam: laser can illuminate and measure small targets, more energy per area
- For TOF, a very narrow high energy pulse is emitted, with a width of under 10 ns
(note 1 ns means 0.3 m distance). The narrower the pulse, the better the range accuracy
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Chapter 1b

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Introduction to Airborne LiDAR and

Physical Principles of LiDAR Technology

Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry

No fix rules exist for distance of

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