EuroCOW 2016: 3D corridor mapping without ground control points anticipated by GeoNumerics
Corridor mapping ̶ i.e., mapping of roadways, railways and waterways̶ without traditional ground control points (GCPs) was presented and analysed by GeoNumerics at the recent EuroCOW 2016 conference organized by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Écublens, Lausanne, Switzerland.
GeoNumerics researchers invented the mapKITE surveying concept, a 3D corridor mapping technique based on tandem geodata acquisition missions. In a mapKITE mission, a terrestrial mobile mapping system (TMMS) and an unmanned aerial mapping system (UAMS), simultaneously collect data, from ground and from above., where the unmanned aircraft (UA) follows from above the terrestrial mapping vehicle (TV). The latter, carries an INS/GNSS-based motion sensing acquisition system, mapping sensors and, on its roof, an optical target of known size, shape and painting. Each time that an image is taken from the UA, the optical target is imaged so that, later on, a photogrammetric observation of the target (point-and-scale measurement) can be made. Thus, every image contains a Kinematic Ground Control Point (KGCP) materialized by the centre of the optical target.