Verification of a 3-D terrain mapping LADAR on various materials in different environments

Abstract

A field validation of a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) system was conducted by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, Mississippi. The LADAR system, a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) LADAR system custom-modified by Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI), was tested for accuracy in measuring terrain geometry. A verification method was developed to compare the LADAR dataset to a ground-truth dataset that consisted of total station measurements. Three control points were measured and used to align the two datasets. The influence of slopes, surface materials, light, fog, and dust were investigated. The study revealed that slopes only affected measurements when the terrain was obscured from the LADAR system, and ambient light conditions did not significantly affect the LADAR measurements. The accuracy of the LADAR system, which was equipped with fog correction, was adversely affected by particles suspended in air, such as fog or dust. Also, in some cases the material type had an effect on the accuracy of the LADAR measurements.