Vehicle-borne Laser Mapping System (VLMS)-a new observation system for 3-D mapping of urban areas

We have developed a new observation system for mapping urban areas in three dimensions. This. system is called Vehicle-borne Laser Mapping System (VLMS). The system consists of three laser scanners and six line cameras for data acquisition. GPS, INS and Odometer are used for position data. Laser scanners are used as primary data source for building 3-D spatial data. Line camera images are used only for texture. In this paper, we present system architecture, accuracy analysis of the system and feature extraction from range data. Features are basically categorized as man-made features (buildings, roads, utility facilities, tunnels etc), natural features (trees, plants etc) and dynamic/static features (parked vehicle, moving vehicles, pedestrians).