Road Environment Mapping System of the Finnish Geodetic Institute - Fgi Roamer -

The Finnish Geodetic Institute has been developing a mobile road environment mapping system, named as ROAMER, since 2003. The vehicle-borne ROAMER system consists of a carrying platform, positioning and navigation systems, and a 3D data acquisition system. The system employed a 3D laser scanner operated in a profiling mode. The laser scanner can be mounted in several different positions to meet the special needs of some planned applications of the mobile mapping system. In order to be able to accomplish the high automation in 3D modeling, a laser scanner capable to provide dense point clouds was set as the requirement for the system. Additionally, the system is aimed to be a flexible moving laboratory for various road environment applications. The wide field of view and a high point measurement frequency of 120 kHz provided by the laser scanner in use, makes the ROAMER unique. This paper describes the hardware and the navigation solution of the FGI ROAMER. We also discuss the applicability of mobile mapping system in the field of traffic engineering as data source. There is a wide range of laser sensors applicable, as the MMS presented in this paper, but also static laser profilers could be used for real-time traffic flow measurements. This data could be used as input to the MMS based 3D virtual models of the different traffic places to help traffic planners to increase the traffic safety. The detailed 3D models of the transport systems can be used for traffic modeling and traffic simulation systems. In 3D models the interactions between vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles can be examined in high detail. Also the interaction with traffic environment can be studied. * Corresponding author.