Quantitative and Qualitative Assessments of Geometric Feature Accuracy Using a UAS-Lidar System for Building Surveying Applications
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 1
Abstract
Equipping unmanned aerial systems (UASs) with light detection and ranging (lidar) has been made possible with recent advancements, which has made these sensors compact and gradually more cost-effective. Despite the increased proliferation of UAS-lidar in several fields, the geometric accuracy of lidar-generated point clouds, together with their visual qualities, needs to be explored for building surveying applications. Considering that red−blue−green (RGB) cameras are the most prevalent UAS sensors in building surveying, a lidar- and an RGB camera-equipped UAS was deployed on a mixed infrastructure to simultaneously collect data and generate corresponding point clouds. Different geometric features from both RGB and lidar point clouds were measured and compared quantitatively against benchmark field observations. A qualitative analysis on the point clouds’ visual qualities was also performed and a sensor recommendation matrix was proposed based on desired application accuracy. Lidar has proven to be a viable alternative, providing better geometric accuracy, data quality, and clarity in all three dimensions.
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Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 1 • March 2023
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: May 6, 2022
Accepted: Oct 3, 2022
Published online: Dec 22, 2022
Published in print: Mar 1, 2023
Discussion open until: May 22, 2023
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