SOLDEO: a New Solution for 3D GIS Data Recording

The 3D data recording for 3D GIS is one of the main aims of scientific researchers and those who manage the environment and territory. Terrestrial LiDAR and photogrammetric techniques are effective methods of acquiring environmental data and of integrating their in digital products (i.e. solid images and solid true orthophotos). These techniques have shown remarkable effectiveness in many case studies or when the area of interest is limited. This integration is powerful, but it is not available for large area because a lot of time for the acquisition is required. A possible solution is to use a mobile system where LiDAR, GPS and camera sensors are contained. Different commercial solutions are available, but the cost (>300k€), the requirement of high skill and the low flexibility of the system reduce the number of potential application fields. The Geomatic group of the Politecnico di Torino has realized a mobile metallic platform that can be installed on any vehicle, where several sensors could be installed (i.e. GPS antenna, webcams, IMU, etc.). In this paper, the authors explain their attempts to use a mobile vehicle that was instrumented only with low cost sensors (i.e. LiDAR, GPS receivers and webcams) in order to have extensive use the LiDAR-photogrammetric integrated techniques for 3D data recording. This kind of system requires dedicated procedures, in particular devoted to calibrating the system (absolute reference system), to elaborate the raw data with dedicated algorithms. A novel produce was realized to be able to make a deeper analysis: the SOLid viDEO (SOLDEO). The SOLDEO was born from the solid image experience (i.e. solid image), but in this case a continuous sequences of images were three-dimensional spatial information are contained and some measurements (points, lines, distances, angles,..) with coding can be done. The used procedures and the significant results obtained during the conducted survey campaign, are described, focusing the attention to the practical aspects.