Aerial photos are the best support to detect changes in the landscape over the time, particularly when associated with GIS based analyses. Since all metrics calculated on a landscape (from area coverage by vegetation classes to patches shape and size) are sensible to geometric distortions, the geometric correction of aerial photos is due to allow a realistic multi-temporal study. In this paper ...

Studies of DEM error have consistently found a link between terrain characteristics such as slope shape or steepness and error. This link is explored by looking at error in relation to various geomorphometric measures for a study area in Scotland. The magnitude of error is found to vary systematically between convex, planar and convex areas and measures of terrain roughness show some degree of ...

This paper presents a diffusion method for generating terrains from a set of parameterized curves that characterize the landform features such as ridge lines, riverbeds or cliffs. Our approach provides the user with an intuitive vector-based feature-oriented control over the terrain. Different types of constraints (such as elevation, slope angle and roughness) can be attached to the curves so a...

The Autonomous Planetary Rover Project at Carnegie Melion University is investigating the use of geometric information obtained from terrain elevation maps for mobile robot planning and control. We review how surface geometry has been characterized by surface roughness parameters, and why several of these parameten must be combined to form a vector roughness measurement. Next we propose a techn...

As an active remote sensing technique airborne laser scanning (ALS) is able to capture the topography with high precision even for densely forested areas. Due to the high pulse repetition frequency of up to 400 kHz a high sampling rate on the ground can be achieved, which allows the description of the terrain surface in decimeter scale. In this contribution two approaches to characterize terrai...

In this paper a simple terrain evaluation method for hexapod robot is introduced. This method is based on feet coordinate evaluation when all are on the ground. Depending on the feet coordinate differences the local terrain evaluation is possible. Terrain evaluation is necessary for right gait selection and/or body position correction. For terrain roughness evaluation three planes are plotted: ...

Roughness is an important input parameter for modeling of natural hazards such as floods, rock falls and avalanches, where it is basically assumed that flow velocities decrease with increasing roughness. Seeing roughness as a multi-scale level concept (i.e., ranging from fine-scale soil characteristics to description of understory and lower tree layer) various roughness raster products were der...

The U.S. Anny currently uses the root mean square of elevation and power spectral density to characterize road/terrain (off-road) roughness for durability. This paper describes research aimed toward improving these metrics. One method currently under consideration involves running a relatively simple, yet vehicle class specific, model over a given terrain and using predicted vehicle response(s)...

The ability to measure terrain roughness is essential for safe and e cient navigation of outdoor mobile robots. This paper describes a prototype system consisting of a colour camera and a laser stripe generator for the measurement of ground surface roughness. With outdoor mobile robotic applications in mind, the system provides a cheap, fast and robust alternative to other methods of roughness ...