Proceedings of National Seminar - REDECON 2005

Laser Altimetry for

Corridor Surveys
RAVI GEORGE
paradigm Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Introduction

Corridor Surveys also called as Route

Surveys are conducted for the study, planning,
design and construction of any route for
transportation or movement of materials or
energy. In a broad sense it would be the
physical measurements conducted for roads,
railway, rivers, transmission lines, pipe lines,
etc.

Corridor surveys involve some or all of the following four operations depending on
the requirements of the project.
• Reconnaissance
• Preliminary Survey
• Location Survey
• Construction Survey

Of these, detailed field measurements are taken during the preliminary survey and
the route design can commence only after the results of this survey are available. Therefore,
the need for comprehensive data collection and speed, reliability and accuracy of
measurements during the preliminary survey are very important for an efficient design
process.

We will be discussing Laser Altimetry, a Recent Development in the Technologies for

conducting and data processing for the Preliminary Survey part of Corridor Surveys. For
this, we assume that you are vaguely familiar with the methods used for setting up horizontal
and vertical control points, traversing, triangulation etc. You might have also seen how
these surveys are conducted along existing and proposed road, railway, canal routes and
some knowledge of the instrumentation involved.

These days the results of a survey are available digitally. Earlier when the results
were mapped on paper the accuracy of the survey depended on the scale of the drawings
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as well. The thinnest line that could be recognized is about 0.25mm. On a drawing to
1:1000 scale, this would mean an accuracy of 25cm even if the surveying instrument was
capable of delivering up to 5cm accuracy.

The initial result that anyone would need out of a topographic survey of a corridor
would be a Digital Terrain Model (DTM). Digital Terrain Model or Digital Elevation Model
(DEM) is a digital three dimensional representation of the terrain surveyed. This could
be furnished in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) format on an ASCII format with the x,y,
z coordinates of the nodes of a grid laid along the corridor.

The DTM is the starting point of any design. Vertical planes cutting the DTM are
the Cross Sections and Longitudinal Profiles and horizontal planes are the contour lines.
Subsequent to the DTM maps are needed to align the proposed route to study the land
use and other characteristics of the corridor and to export the data to GIS or other systems.

The need for Laser Altimetry in corridor surveys

While developing Laser Altimetry for land surveys, the following problems with
traditional methods of surveying were recognized.
• Time and man power requirement for surveying long corridors were extensive
• Problems with accessibility of corridor during surveys like,
- Difficult terrain
- Wild Animals
- Traffic restrictions
- Access to private property
• Ortho rectified photographic maps (or photographic maps drawn to scale) of the terrain
are not available
• Post-processed data is most often not digitally available

Advantages of Laser Altimetry survey measurements

• Data is collected and processed very fast. It is possible to survey 100 to 150KM of
a corridor per day
• Since the data is acquired by flying over the land problems connected with accessibility
are not encountered
• Data acquired includes digital time stamped photos and videos synchronized with the
land measurements. Software component of the surveying system can output ortho
rectified images almost immediately
• DTM of the corridor is immediately available after the post processing of the laser
data
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• All data is digital and compatible with major CAD and GIS systems
• Depending on the height of the flight, it is possible to collect data for 4 to 16 points
for every square meter of land surveyed
• The accuracy of measurements are similar to EDMs — +/- 5cm accuracy is guaranteed
by the system vendors.

Technologies involved
The LiDAR technology for laser altimetry is the result of research work done by NASA
since the 1970s and has been made possible due to the maturing of three technologies,
viz. LiDAR, INS and GPS. What follows is a brief explanation of all the acronyms involved:
• LASER is Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
• LiDAR is Light Detection And Ranging. This uses the same principle as RADAR. The
LiDAR instrument transmits light out to a target. The transmitted light interacts with
and is changed by the target. Some of this light is reflected / scattered back to the
instrument where it is analyzed. The change in the properties of the light enables
some property of the target to be determined. The time for the light to travel out
to the target and back to the LiDAR is used to determine the range to the target.
Airborne laser Altimetry uses LiDAR technology for Laser scanning and measuring
the ground topography from air.
• IMU or Inertial Measurement Unit is a “clump” of six inertial sensors which can
accurately determine the orientation of a system in space by measuring rotations of
the 3 spatial axis as well as the velocities and accelerations in three dimension.
• INS is Inertial Navigation System. Every object that is free to move has six(6) “degrees
of freedom” – or ways it can move. The three linear degrees of freedom (x,y,z) specifies
the position and three rotational degrees of freedom, theta(pitch), psi(roll) and phi(roll)
specifies the attitude of an object. The measurements made by the IMU are used by
the INS to calculate the accurate attitude.
• GPS is Global Positioning System. The problem with IMUs are the error from sensors.
Although the error can be minute they can become serious as the errors accumulate
over time. GPS receivers gives an absolute data point of the position once a second.
GPS errors can be minimized with a Differential GPS (DGPS). This way the IMU
drift error can be “nulled” out. Joining an INS and GPS into a single unit, however,
is definitely the first step towards a real Inertial Navigation System.

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Commercial Airborne Laser Altimetry

The current generation of commercial airborne laser altimetry equipment integrate

the above three mature technologies into a single instrument. Similar to aerial cameras,
the instruments can be installed in small single or twin-engine planes or helicopters. These
commercial instruments belong to two categories.

1. Off The Shelf (OTS)

These instruments can be purchased by any company or organization wanting to acquire

airborne laser altimetry capabilities. The three major suppliers of OTS instruments are:

Azimuth Corporation (USA) – Now Leica Systems: The Leica ALS50 Airborne scanner
can yield results under tree cover, record data at night and ortho rectify imagery using
specialized software. This tool is efficient for surveying over a large area.

Optech Inc. (Canada): Here also the high accuracy laser range finder is designed
to be mounted over an opening on the aircraft floor. This is also a tool useful for surveying
large terrain, and

Saab TopEye AB (Sweden): This is a helicopter mounted laser range finder, measuring
the distance to the ground with up to 6000 laser pulses per second. With this system,
five different distances can be identified and recorded within a single laser pulse. The laser
will find the ground even through a dense canopy.

2. Proprietary

These are custom designed systems which may incorporate commercial OTS subsystems
or components and designed, developed and maintained as an unique proprietary system
or systems not available for purchase by a third party. Examples include:

ALTMS by Terrapoint: Terrapoint is a company that was formed to convert LiDAR

technology developed by NASA and the Houston Advance Research center to commercial
applications. The Airborne Laser Topographic Mapping System (ATLMS) is carried along
a flight line at 140 knots by a dedicated twin engine aircraft, directs 20,000 laser pulses
a second from a height of 3,000 feet. The data captured is downloaded and processed on
the ground on SGI 200 servers.

FLI-MAP by John Chance Surveyors and Fugro Inpark: We will go into detail
of the Fast Laser Imaging and Mapping Airborne Platform (FLI-MAP) system since I am
professionally involved in post processing of LIDAR data captured by this system in Europe.

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FLI-MAP

Now I will introduce FLI-MAP in more detail and will show some actual FLI-MAP
projectsin order to illustrate the capabilities and possible fields of application of laser altimetry.
The FLI-MAP system integrates several high-tech components into an extremely effective
survey tool. There are two main components — the ground component and the airborne
component.

1. Ground Component

The ground component of FLI-

MAP consists of several base station
units and processing computers. The
base station units contain GPS antenna
and receiver, power supply and data
logger. During the survey these units
will log GPS data on reference points
with known co-ordinates. The processing computers will be used to check and backup all
data collected by the base stations and the airborne system, to perform GPS baseline
computations and INS/GPS integration, and to analyze the quality of the acquired data.

2. Airborne Component

The airborne component of FLI-MAP consists of a frame attached to the helicopter,

a computer box and a pilot interface. The frame contains all the sensors described below.
The computers inside the computer box take care of logging the acquired data, computing
real time navigation information and provide feedback to the pilot on the flight path using
a special interface. The whole system is controlled and monitored by the operator using
a laptop computer connected to the network of the computer box.

GPS: The FLI-MAP frame is equipped with two arms on which the GPS antennas
are located. This construction minimizes the noise, multipath effects and possible obstruction
of the GPS signal by the helicopter’s engine. The use of two GPS antennas ensures the
satellite data can be received permanently, without loss of lock. This also will introduce
redundancy, which contributes to the reliability of the determined position. The GPS data
is logged 2 times per second, by both the airborne system and the base station units.

2. Airborne Component

The airborne component of FLI-MAP consists of a frame attached to the helicopter,

a computer box and a pilot interface. The frame contains all the sensors described below.
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The computers inside the computer box take care of logging the acquired data, computing
real time navigation information and provide feedback to the pilot on the flight path using
a special interface. The whole system is controlled and monitored by the operator using
a laptop computer connected to the network of the computer box.

GPS: The FLI-MAP frame is equipped with two arms on which the GPS antennas
are located. This construction minimizes the noise, multipath effects and possible obstruction
of the GPS signal by the helicopter’s engine. The use of two GPS antennas ensures the
satellite data can be received permanently, without loss of lock. This also will introduce
redundancy, which contributes to the reliability of the determined position. The GPS data
is logged 2 times per second, by both the airborne system and the base station units.

Alongside the GPS antenna a separate

Omnistar antenna is located. Omnistar is
a Fugro service providing world-wide sub-
meter accurate real-time D-GPS corrections.
Using the Omnistar signal, FLI-MAP can
be navigated along predefined flight lines,
independently of local available D-GPS
services or radio link to the base stations.

INS: The system’s attitude is

determined at a rate of 200 times per second
by a solid state IMU mounted in the FLI-MAP frame. The measurements by the IMU
are used by the integrated Inertial Navigation System (INS) to calculate accurate attitude
of the helicopter. The computed position and IMU attitude are integrated using Kalman
filter techniques (Applanix -PosProc). Result of this process is an accurate position and
attitude of the system every 0.02 second (50 times per second)

Laser Scanner: The FLI-MAP system utilizes 2 scanning lasers, accomplishing

redundancy as well as ensuring accuracy and quality of data. The scanning lasers are eye
safe, reflectionless, rangefinders capable of measuring first return ranges from 15 - 200
meters. Every scan of each laser contains 200 range measurements, has a width of 60 degrees
and therefore, a coverage that is equal to 1.15 times the height of the helicopter above
ground.. Each scan record contains timing, laser attitude, data verification/error detection
information, and intensity information, which provide an active infrared imaging capability.
Operationally, the lasers scan at a rate of 53 times per second, resulting in more than

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21,000 points per second. The required point density is calculated to suit the clients needs
and will vary between 4 laser hits per square meter at very high altitudes to well over
25 hits per square meter if desired for high detail, high accuracy surveys. The lasers are
mounted 7 degrees rotated forward and backwards. In this way shadowing effects are
minimized.

Video: Two rigid mounted, fixed focused digital video cameras are used in the system
to identify objects in the survey corridor. The video is slaved to GPS time and converted
on board into an MPEG1 digital video stream that is recorded onto rugged hard drives.
The bit rate is configurable between 1.2 – 3 Mbits per second. One camera is facing forward
in an oblique angle. The other one is facing down showing roughly the covered area by
the two lasers. Using the synchronization and known offsets between the sensors, the video
can be fused with the laser data to supply geo-referenced images, with the pixels corrected
for local height differences.

Digital Cameras: Two digital, ½ “ CCD high resolution photo cameras are mounted
alongside the video cameras in the down and forward looking perspectives configured to
capture an image at regular intervals. Normally this will be once every second, but is
configurable to one image every other second or less. The image resolution achieved in
a typical mission is 3-5cm per pixel, depending on the survey altitude. The images are
stored in a raw loss-less data format onto rugged hard drives and can be ortho-rectified
in the office. Using an enhanced image-caching feature, these ortho-rectified images can
be used for building mosaics in the Fugro FLIP7 Processing Software. These images can
also be used by other mosaicking software packages

Helicopter FLI-MAP is fully certified for operations with the following helicopter types:
• Bell 206 L (LongRanger)
• Bell 206 A/B (JetRanger)
• MD 500, Eurocopter AS350 (A-star) and AS355 (Twinstar).
Mounting of the airborne component of FLI-MAP to any of these helicopter types takes
about 4 hours.

The software and processing components involved with FLI-MAP include:

Data Processing: The processing of FLI-MAP is divided into two parts; the
preprocessing and post-processing. The pre-processing of the data is done on site during
the survey.

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Post-processing is the combination of all efforts to derive the final information from
the FLI-MAP data, according to the project specifications. The main software for the data
processing is the FLI-MAP processing package ‘FLIP7’, developed by Fugro especially to
view, manipulate and analyze FLI-MAP laser data and video images.

FLIP7: The main component of the software package merges the helicopter position
and attitude information with the LiDAR sensor data. FLIP7 provides full CAD capabilities
“on top of” the LiDAR data, providing additional capabilities to the operator for extraction
of valuable information from the FLI-MAP data.

DVController (Digital Video Controller): This component of FLIP7 controls the

special time coded digital video images, allowing the user to coordinate video with the
processed LiDAR data to get a full multimedia presentation of the surveyed area. FLIP7
also provides a means to view and ortho-rectify the video images to gain additional visual
information.

Image Viewer: This component of FLIP7, like DVController, controls the integration
of digital still images with the processed LiDAR data to further enhance the information
that can be extracted from the surveyed area. FLIP7 also provides a means to fuse the
still images to gain additional visual information.

Filters: FLIP7 is equipped with a variety of configurable filters that may be used
individually or in conjunction with each other. These filters allow the user to automatically
extract specific information of interest from the FLI-MAP LiDAR data. These filters are
capable of extracting ground, wire, rail, and a range of other features. The filters classify
the LiDAR data into subsets of the original data and allow visualization and exportation
of each subset.

The features of FLIP7 are

Projections and Datum: FLIP7 has the capability of working in a wide variety of
horizontal and vertical reference datums. FLIP7 supports Transverse Mercator and Lambert
Conformal map projections including all the US State plane grid projections (FLIP7 can
also handle local projections if necessary).

Reduction of the LiDAR Data: The delivery of 100% of the FLI-MAP data to the
customer is often not one of the end products as this would be too much information to
manage. FLIP7 uses the many JCLS developed filters to reduce the original data set to
a more manageable collection of points.

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CAD: Once the user has extracted the data, the processor can draw “on top of” the
LiDAR background (digitize). FLIP7 supports simple points and multi-segmented polylines
that can be defined as “drawing objects”. By exporting the different layers to CAD packages
like MicroStation or AutoCad, the client can import the end product into their own
environment.

Import and Export of Data: Drawing objects can be imported into FLIP7 by using
the industry standard AutoCad DXF file format or a simple user defined flexible field ASCII
text file format. Drawing objects can also be exported out of FLIP7 using the DXF and
ASCII file formats.

Practical applications
Water Management

Most of the Dutch Delta is

below sea level. Two
phenomenon threaten this Delta:
Rise in sea level and increase in
discharge from Rhine and
Meuse. In order to safeguard the
inhabitants and the landowners,
the 400 odd kilometers of these
dikes must be regularly
monitored for height and
stability. Government
regulations say that the main
river dikes have to be checked at five year intervals. This was done using traditional land
surveys measuring cross sections at every
50m. This process was labor intensive and
lasted a few months. From the year 2001,
the water board, HHSAV decided to deploy
laser scanning.

The laser scanning was done through

FLIMAP with helicopters flying at heights
of 60-70meters at a low speed of 55 km/
hour. A corridor of 70m in width was

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possible with the proposed height of flying. The accuracy achieved was within 5 cms.

The first FLIMAP project for HHSAV resulted in over a half a billion points over
300 kilometers of dikes. Processing this large data requires specialized software. Figure
1 below shows the resulting DTM over a grid of 0.5m x 0.5m. Cross and longitudinal sections
taken through FLIP7 software is in figure 2. The video and photographs were also
implemented within the GIS system.

The data is now used for:

• Completing the monitoring system required by law.
• Maintenance of vegetation.
• Locating and classifying buildings etc. within the protected zones.
• Provide uniform and detailed means to check building and land use permits.

Transmission Powerlines

One of the main questions for

transmission powerline maintenance today
is ‘How could more energy be transported,
without too much investments’. The
answer to this question is ‘Increase
capacity of the existing lines’. In order
to do this, accurate information about the
existing lines is essential. Depending on
regulations and to avoid potential
dangerous and damaging situations,
various objects should have specific clearances to the conductors of the powerline.
Transporting more energy over the same line will cause the temperature of the conductors
to rise. Because of temperature expansion the sag of the conductors will increase and this
effect will influence the available clearances to the surrounding objects. Based on these
facts, the need to have knowledge about the current clearances and available safety margins
is necessary for the analysis of the maximum capacity of the line. Accurate and up-todate
information of the corridor, including height of buildings and vegetation is unknown. In
most cases only the original design drawings or in best case the ‘as-built’ drawings are
available of the complete line.

Traditional survey to collect the required information of the lines will take long and
will be, in most cases, very difficult due to the remote areas the line runs through. Moreover

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not all the necessary information can be

acquired this way. The high density and
accurate data of FLIMAP offers all
necessary spatial information at a rate of
up to 150 km per day.

From the FLI-MAP data, the location

and height of the powerline poles can be
determined precisely. The high density of
the laser points enables accurate detection
of the conductors. Furthermore the
attachment points of the conductor to the
poles can be derived from the data. These parameters can reconstruct the exact form and
shape of the sag of the conductors at time of survey. Combined with available data of the
conductor (tension, energy load) and the
environmental conditions (temperature, wind
speed, etc) at time of survey, specialized software
is capable of computing the actual condition of
the conductor for different environmental
situations and energy loads.

The FLI-MAP data also contains

information about the location, form and shape
of buildings and other objects in the powerline
zone and the actual height of terrain and
vegetation. Combining the conductor calculations
with this accurate object and terrain information, the clearance of the conductors can be
analyzed. Based on this analysis the right decisions can be made to safely increase the
energy capacity of the lines. The computation of clearance of objects to the conductor can
also be done with FLIP7. A special filter is capable of computing the distance of objects
to the conductor. The computed distances are visualized using selectable color palette settings.

The Malaysian North South Expressway

The Malaysian North South Expressway-Central Link (NSCL), is a 48 kilometre 3-

lane dual carriageway expressway linking the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the
Kuala Lumpur City.

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It was possible to survey this entire

Expressway, including interchanges, in
two days. The survey method was used
to collect three-dimensional co-ordinates,
with data coverage of about one point per
300 mm. A flying altitude of approximately
60 metres was used to obtain a survey
corridor of approximately 60 metres wide.
On the NSCL survey project, two passes
were used in order to obtain a survey
corridor of 120 metres, which is the
normal scenario on roads if earthworks
(cut and fill) information is required. This data density is required to differentiate objects
such as: roadside and cross drainage structures;
light poles; overhead lines; guardrails; mileposts;
etc. by recognizing patterns of points with spatial
relationships. After data processing, it was found
that an absolute (closing) accuracy of the system
is 5 cm and a relative accuracy of 2 cm (on the
pavement surface) was obtained on the NSCL
project

On the NSCL the asset database and survey

data was filtered and imported into Inroads
geometric road design software to develop “as-built” road drawings. The as-built drawings
included the road surface contours, vertical and horizontal road profiles, earthworks plans
and cross sections, drainage structure locations and road furniture. An example of an Inroads
output drawing is shown in Figure 3.

Application of the 3D Altimetry Survey Road Data

After processing the altimetry survey data “as-built” road geometric details were
developed in Inroads and the information was used cost effectively for the following
applications on the NSCL:
• Assessment of the pavement geometry in wet weather accident areas
• Preparation of preliminary design drawings, quantities and cost estimates for geometric
reprofiling work and accident locations and

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• Compilation of road asset database.

The data processing and DTM model of the 48 kilometer 3 lane dual carriageway
expressway were generated within 6 weeks of the survey, and the first remedial design
for an accident location was completed within a 10 weeks of the survey. The relatively
fast turn around time was possible, because all the information (survey and video) was
collected in digital format, and it was possible to processes and manipulate data within
FLIP7® and the Inroads design package fairly seamlessly. This level of productivity was
achieved with approximately 80 percent utilization of one highway engineer.

Wet weather accident locations along the expressway were identified for engineering
evaluation from the accident statistics. The primary cause of the wet weather accidents
was identified as hydro-planning due to poor surface drainage. For the continuously graded
asphalt surface used on the NSCL a water film thickness of approximately 8mm was considered
the warning trigger for hydro-planning . This trigger is dependent on other factors, such
as: the vehicle speed; surface texture depth; and the rut depth. All these factors were taken
into consideration in the evaluation process and the rutting and pavement texture data
was collected separately.

On the NSCL, the following geometric factors contributing to the increased length
of water flow path and subsequent water film thickness on the road surface, were identified
from the surface contour DTM as the primary accident causes:
• steep downhill gradients, with relatively small road crossfall;
• zero vertical gradient areas over soft ground;
• the apex of vertical curve and the transition in the super-elevation coincide, which
resulted in a “flat spot” (i.e. zero crossfall) at the apex of the vertical curve; and
• the transition in the super elevation occurring at the toe of a steep vertical gradient.

In order to conduct the evaluation the contours

for the road surface and earthworks were overlayed
on the digital images. This enabled the engineer to
easily assess the impact of roadside and cross drainage
on the accident site or the influence of external
topographic features. An example output from this
process is provided in Figure 4.

An example where the apex of vertical curve and

the transition in the super elevation coincide is shown

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in Figure 5. After the initial identification of Km 32.0 NB as an accident and drainage

problem site, using the accident statistics, a digital terrain model of the affected site was
developed from the survey information. Using this information it was possible to determine
the primary causation factors for the accidents. The remedial solution was then developed
to address these factors. The remedial measures used to improve the road surface drainage
at this location were as follows:
• The transition in the super elevation
was moved so that it did not coincide
with the apex of the vertical curve
(i.e. moving the transition point to
a section of road where there is an
effective vertical gradient); and
• the macro and micro texture of the
pavement surface was improved
using a friction course. Based on the
analysis of the surface drainage it was determined that moving the apex of the vertical
curve and adding a friction course was sufficient to correct the pavement surface drainage
problems at this location as the pavement surface run-off “catchment” was not large.

Conclusion

The cases discussed in this paper make it clear that for many typical engineering
activities accurate and up-to-date geographic and topographic information is of key
importance. The ability to collect this data in a fast, reliable and cost efficient way is essence
for the practical use of this information. The ability of FLI-MAP to collect the necessary
data with sufficient accuracy in a fast and reliable way makes it an excellent survey system
to support various engineering applications. The ease of integration, its compatibility with
various GIS systems and the re-usability of the data are additional benefit of this robust
survey system.

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