Advanced Lidar Data Processing with Lastools

This paper introduces LasTools, a new software suite for the operational processing of data from advanced airborne lidar sensor systems. LasTools provides the tools required to generate DSMs and DTMs from raw or basically preprocessed lidar data in a stand-alone application. It features intelligent management of project data, import and geocoding of raw lidar and image data, system calibration, filtering and classification of lidar data, generation of elevation models, and the export of the results in various common formats. Special emphasis is laid on an intuitive graphical user interface and streamlined workflow to enable efficient and rapid production. Additionally, LasTools provides features for the handling and processing of advanced lidar data like return signal waveforms and true surface color, as well as the rapid integration of lidar and digital image data into digital orthoimages. The paper describes the approach taken by LasTools to efficiently organize and handle the large amounts of data generated by emerging advanced lidar systems with waveform sampling and digital image registration. It discusses the segmentation-based objectoriented filtering technique at the heart of the LasTools classification engine that achieves a high degree of automation for lidar point classification and feature extraction. The user interface philosophy for rapid data visualization and highly efficient interactive editing is highlighted. Finally, the instruments for quality control incorporated into LasTools at all stages of the processing workflow are presented. * Corresponding author.