Study of the heterogeneous matching potential between 3D lidar point clouds and 2D SAL images

Abstract

This research aims to design a new matching approach between terrestrial LiDAR (Light detection and Ranging) data and Synthetic Aperture Ladar (SAL) images. SAL is the extension of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) to much shorter wavelengths, thus providing higher resolution. SAL acquires 2D images that are continuous representations of an environment during day and night times. LiDAR is commonly used to produce 3D maps with a high level of detail. This technology acquires scattered point clouds that result in object boundary indeterminations. In this context, using 2D SAL images could help better distinguish objects. Thus, SAL and LiDAR provide complementary data sets to have better detection capacity towards applications of cartography and urban monitoring.