3D Reconstruction of Bridges from Airborne Laser Scanning Data and Cadastral Footprints

Abstract

The given paper describes a method for automatic 3D reconstruction of bridges from cadastral footprints and airborne laser scanning point clouds. The reconstructed bridges are used to enrich 3D city models. Unlike roofs, decks of bridges are typically smooth without ridge lines or step edges. Therefore, established methods for roof reconstruction are not suitable for bridges. The standard description language for semantic city models is CityGML. This specification of the Open Geospatial Consortium assumes that surfaces are composed of planar polygons. The approximation of smooth decks by planar polygons is achieved by using a medial axis tree. Instead of the medial axis of the footprint, a modified medial axis is computed that does not consider counter bearing edges. The resulting tree represents centerline connections between all counter bearing edges and, in conjunction with filtered height values of a point cloud, serves as the basis for approximation with polygons. In addition to modeling decks, superstructures such as pylons and cables are also derived from the point cloud. For this purpose, planes carrying many superstructure points are detected using the Random Sampling Consensus Algorithm (RANSAC). Images are generated by projecting points onto these planes. Then, image processing methods are used to find connected contours that are extruded to form 3D objects. The presented method was successfully applied to all bridges of two German cities as well as to large bridges built over the Rhine River.