Uav Borne Mapping by Multi Sensor Integration

Three dimensional data is in great demand for disaster and environmental monitoring. In order to represent 3D space in details, it is indispensable to acquire 3D shape and texture together efficiently. However, they still lack a reliable, quick, cheap and handy method of acquiring three dimensional data of objects at higher resolution and accuracy in outdoors and moving environments. In this research, utilization of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is proposed. UAV is often used in military purpose, but also UAV is currently used in civil purpose such as mapping and disaster monitoring. UAV can fly lower altitude to get precise information and it is good for dangerous situation, however UAV has some limitations in terms of payload. It is difficult to mount aerial remote sensing sensors, so UAV mapping is still at the level of monitoring, not at the level of surveying. In this research, a combination of CCD cameras and a small (cheap) laser scanner with inexpensive IMU and GPS is proposed for an UAV borne 3D mapping system. Direct geo-referencing is achieved automatically using all the sensors without any ground control points. A new method of direct geo-referencing by the combination of bundle block adjustment and Kalman filter is proposed. This is the way of rendering objects with rich shape and detailed texture automatically by using an UAV.