Digital Surface Model Generation Research Articles

Evaluation of the performance of KOMPSAT-3 stereo images in terms of positioning and the generation of digital surface models

ABSTRACTKOMPSAT-3 is an optical high-resolution earth observation satellite launched on 19 May 2012. It provides panchromatic optical images at a nominal ground sampling distance (GSD) of 70 cm. This letter provides geometric accuracy evaluation of KOMPSAT-3 stereo images, including position determination and automated digital surface model (DSM) generation. Bias-compensated KOMPSAT-3 stereo achieved positioning accuracy of 0.65 m and 0.70 m in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Bias-compensated KOMPSAT-3 images were utilized for automated DSM generation. A DSM showed height errors of about 3.8 m (RMS) when all grids were compared with reference LIDAR data. Geometric performance of KOMPSAT-3 images was also compared with that of WorldView-1 images whose nominal GSD is 46 cm, over the same test area. The positioning accuracy and the accuracy of DSM generation from KOMPSAT-3 were slightly inferior to those of WorldView-1. However, overall performance of the two satellite images was comparable, when the difference of GSD is taken into account.

UPGRADE OF FOSS DATE PLUG-IN: IMPLEMENTATION OF A NEW RADARGRAMMETRIC DSM GENERATION CAPABILITY

Abstract. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite systems may give important contribution in terms of Digital Surface Models (DSMs) generation considering their complete independence from logistic constraints on the ground and weather conditions. In recent years, the new availability of very high resolution SAR data (up to 20 cm Ground Sample Distance) gave a new impulse to radargrammetry and allowed new applications and developments. Besides, to date, among the software aimed to radargrammetric applications only few show as free and open source. It is in this context that it has been decided to widen DATE (Digital Automatic Terrain Extractor) plug-in capabilities and additionally include the possibility to use SAR imagery for DSM stereo reconstruction (i.e. radargrammetry), besides to the optical workflow already developed. DATE is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developed at the Geodesy and Geomatics Division, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and conceived as an OSSIM (Open Source Software Image Map) plug-in. It has been developed starting from May 2014 in the framework of 2014 Google Summer of Code, having as early purpose a fully automatic DSMs generation from high resolution optical satellite imagery acquired by the most common sensors. Here, the results achieved through this new capability applied to two stacks (one ascending and one descending) of three TerraSAR-X images each, acquired over Trento (Northern Italy) testfield, are presented. Global accuracies achieved are around 6 metres. These first results are promising and further analysis are expected for a more complete assessment of DATE application to SAR imagery.

UPGRADE OF FOSS DATE PLUG-IN: IMPLEMENTATION OF A NEW RADARGRAMMETRIC DSM GENERATION CAPABILITY

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite systems may give important contribution in terms of Digital Surface Models (DSMs) generation considering their complete independence from logistic constraints on the ground and weather conditions. In recent years, the new availability of very high resolution SAR data (up to 20 cm Ground Sample Distance) gave a new impulse to radargrammetry and allowed new applications and developments. Besides, to date, among the software aimed to radargrammetric applications only few show as free and open source. It is in this context that it has been decided to widen DATE (Digital Automatic Terrain Extractor) plug-in capabilities and additionally include the possibility to use SAR imagery for DSM stereo reconstruction (i.e. radargrammetry), besides to the optical workflow already developed. <br><br> DATE is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developed at the Geodesy and Geomatics Division, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and conceived as an OSSIM (Open Source Software Image Map) plug-in. It has been developed starting from May 2014 in the framework of 2014 Google Summer of Code, having as early purpose a fully automatic DSMs generation from high resolution optical satellite imagery acquired by the most common sensors. <br><br> Here, the results achieved through this new capability applied to two stacks (one ascending and one descending) of three TerraSAR-X images each, acquired over Trento (Northern Italy) testfield, are presented. Global accuracies achieved are around 6 metres. These first results are promising and further analysis are expected for a more complete assessment of DATE application to SAR imagery.

UAV AERIAL SURVEY: ACCURACY ESTIMATION FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED DENSE DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL AND ORTHOTHOTO PLAN

Abstract. A dense digital surface model is one of the products generated by using UAV aerial survey data. Today more and more specialized software are supplied with modules for generating such kind of models. The procedure for dense digital model generation can be completely or partly automated. Due to the lack of reliable criterion of accuracy estimation it is rather complicated to judge the generation validity of such models. One of such criterion can be mobile laser scanning data as a source for the detailed accuracy estimation of the dense digital surface model generation. These data may be also used to estimate the accuracy of digital orthophoto plans created by using UAV aerial survey data. The results of accuracy estimation for both kinds of products are presented in the paper.

UAV AERIAL SURVEY: ACCURACY ESTIMATION FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED DENSE DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL AND ORTHOTHOTO PLAN

A dense digital surface model is one of the products generated by using UAV aerial survey data. Today more and more specialized software are supplied with modules for generating such kind of models. The procedure for dense digital model generation can be completely or partly automated. Due to the lack of reliable criterion of accuracy estimation it is rather complicated to judge the generation validity of such models. One of such criterion can be mobile laser scanning data as a source for the detailed accuracy estimation of the dense digital surface model generation. These data may be also used to estimate the accuracy of digital orthophoto plans created by using UAV aerial survey data. The results of accuracy estimation for both kinds of products are presented in the paper.

SATELLITE STEREO BASED DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL GENERATION USING SEMI GLOBAL MATCHING IN OBJECT AND IMAGE SPACE

This paper presents methodology and evaluation of Digital Surface Models (DSM) generated from satellite stereo imagery using Semi Global Matching (SGM) applied in image space and georeferenced voxel space. SGM is a well known algorithm, used widely for DSM generation from airborne and satellite imagery. SGM is typically applied in the image space to compute disparity map corresponding to a stereo image pair. As a different approach, SGM can be applied directly to the georeferenced voxel space similar to the approach of volumetric multi-view reconstruction techniques. The matching in voxel space simplifies the DSM generation pipeline because the stereo rectification and triangulation steps are not required. For a comparison, the complete pipeline for generation of DSM from satellite pushbroom sensors is also presented. The results on the ISPRS satellite stereo benchmark using Worldview stereo imagery of 0.5m resolution shows that the SGM applied in image space produce slightly better results than its object space counterpart. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis of the results on Worldview-3 stereo and Pleiades tri-stereo images are presented.

SATELLITE STEREO BASED DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL GENERATION USING SEMI GLOBAL MATCHING IN OBJECT AND IMAGE SPACE

Abstract. This paper presents methodology and evaluation of Digital Surface Models (DSM) generated from satellite stereo imagery using Semi Global Matching (SGM) applied in image space and georeferenced voxel space. SGM is a well known algorithm, used widely for DSM generation from airborne and satellite imagery. SGM is typically applied in the image space to compute disparity map corresponding to a stereo image pair. As a different approach, SGM can be applied directly to the georeferenced voxel space similar to the approach of volumetric multi-view reconstruction techniques. The matching in voxel space simplifies the DSM generation pipeline because the stereo rectification and triangulation steps are not required. For a comparison, the complete pipeline for generation of DSM from satellite pushbroom sensors is also presented. The results on the ISPRS satellite stereo benchmark using Worldview stereo imagery of 0.5m resolution shows that the SGM applied in image space produce slightly better results than its object space counterpart. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis of the results on Worldview-3 stereo and Pleiades tri-stereo images are presented.

RPC STEREO PROCESSOR (RSP) – A SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL AND ORTHOPHOTO GENERATION FROM SATELLITE STEREO IMAGERY

Large-scale Digital Surface Models (DSM) are very useful for many geoscience and urban applications. Recently developed dense image matching methods have popularized the use of image-based very high resolution DSM. Many commercial/public tools that implement matching methods are available for perspective images, but there are rare handy tools for satellite stereo images. In this paper, a software package, RPC (rational polynomial coefficient) stereo processor (RSP), is introduced for this purpose. RSP implements a full pipeline of DSM and orthophoto generation based on RPC modelled satellite imagery (level 1+), including level 2 rectification, geo-referencing, point cloud generation, pan-sharpen, DSM resampling and ortho-rectification. A modified hierarchical semi-global matching method is used as the current matching strategy. Due to its high memory efficiency and optimized implementation, RSP can be used in normal PC to produce large format DSM and orthophotos. This tool was developed for internal use, and may be acquired by researchers for academic and non-commercial purpose to promote the 3D remote sensing applications.

RPC STEREO PROCESSOR (RSP) – A SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL AND ORTHOPHOTO GENERATION FROM SATELLITE STEREO IMAGERY

Abstract. Large-scale Digital Surface Models (DSM) are very useful for many geoscience and urban applications. Recently developed dense image matching methods have popularized the use of image-based very high resolution DSM. Many commercial/public tools that implement matching methods are available for perspective images, but there are rare handy tools for satellite stereo images. In this paper, a software package, RPC (rational polynomial coefficient) stereo processor (RSP), is introduced for this purpose. RSP implements a full pipeline of DSM and orthophoto generation based on RPC modelled satellite imagery (level 1+), including level 2 rectification, geo-referencing, point cloud generation, pan-sharpen, DSM resampling and ortho-rectification. A modified hierarchical semi-global matching method is used as the current matching strategy. Due to its high memory efficiency and optimized implementation, RSP can be used in normal PC to produce large format DSM and orthophotos. This tool was developed for internal use, and may be acquired by researchers for academic and non-commercial purpose to promote the 3D remote sensing applications.

Quality assessment of high density digital surface model over different land cover classes

Background and Purpose: Recent research on generation of digital surface models (DSMs) using image matching methods revealed a great potential of DSM application in forestry, especially in forest inventory. However, research dealing with DSM generation from digital aerial images are still lacking in Croatia. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to present the workflow for generating high density DSM from colour infrared (CIR) digital stereo aerial images using area-based image matching algorithm. Materials and Methods: The high density DSM was generated from colour infrared digital aerial stereo images using Dense DTM algorithm of PHOTOMOD software - an area-based image matching algorithm which operates on the principle of cross-correlation approach. To evaluate the quality of the generated DSM, an agreement assessment with manual stereo measurements was conducted over three different land cover classes (forests, shrubs, grasslands) using the same images as for DSM generation. Results: The good vertical agreement between the generated DSM and stereo measurement was achieved for all three land cover classes present at the research area. The highest vertical agreement was obtained for the grassland land cover class (RMSE=0.36), slightly lower for forest (RMSE=0.62), whereas the lowest vertical agreement was obtained for shrub land cover class (RMSE=0.83). Conclusions: The results of this research are very promising and suggest that the high density DSM generated from digital aerial stereo images and by using the proposed methodology has the potential to be used in forestry, primarily in forest inventory. Therefore, further research should be focused on generation of CHM by subtracting available DTM from the high density DSM and on the examination of its potential for deriving various forest attributes.

Quality assessment of high density digital surface model over different land cover classes

Background and Purpose: Recent research on generation of digital surface models (DSMs) using image matching methods revealed a great potential of DSM application in forestry, especially in forest inventory. However, research dealing with DSM generation from digital aerial images are still lacking in Croatia. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to present the workflow for generating high density DSM from colour infrared (CIR) digital stereo aerial images using area-based image matching algorithm. Materials and Methods: The high density DSM was generated from colour infrared digital aerial stereo images using Dense DTM algorithm of PHOTOMOD software - an area-based image matching algorithm which operates on the principle of cross-correlation approach. To evaluate the quality of the generated DSM, an agreement assessment with manual stereo measurements was conducted over three different land cover classes (forests, shrubs, grasslands) using the same images as for DSM generation. Results: The good vertical agreement between the generated DSM and stereo measurement was achieved for all three land cover classes present at the research area. The highest vertical agreement was obtained for the grassland land cover class (RMSE=0.36), slightly lower for forest (RMSE=0.62), whereas the lowest vertical agreement was obtained for shrub land cover class (RMSE=0.83). Conclusions: The results of this research are very promising and suggest that the high density DSM generated from digital aerial stereo images and by using the proposed methodology has the potential to be used in forestry, primarily in forest inventory. Therefore, further research should be focused on generation of CHM by subtracting available DTM from the high density DSM and on the examination of its potential for deriving various forest attributes.

Generation of digital surface models in urban areas using triple-stereo imagery

Stereo or even triple-stereo satellite imagery of very high spatial resolution is a versatile source for many applications and analyses. The aim of this short paper is to demonstrate the level of accuracy that can be calculated for digital surface models using triple-stereo data in urban areas. Urban planners benefit from such results thanks to the fast processing time and low cost in comparison to other data, such as LiDAR data. In addition, the data obtained using stereo or triple-stereo technology simultaneously acquire the requisite spectral information. This study used semi-global matching (SGM), which runs a pixel-wise matching of two image pairs. SGM outputs a point cloud for each pair, which is used for the generation of digital surface models (DSMs). The result of the study is a DSM which can be used in urban areas for the estimation of urban volumes such as the vegetation volume or building cubature. Results are evaluated with respect to the overall accuracy, the number of errors, and missing values due to shadows or dark homogeneous areas.

3D SURFACE GENERATION FROM AERIAL THERMAL IMAGERY

Abstract. Aerial thermal imagery has been recently applied to quantitative analysis of several scenes. For the mapping purpose based on aerial thermal imagery, high accuracy photogrammetric process is necessary. However, due to low geometric resolution and low contrast of thermal imaging sensors, there are some challenges in precise 3D measurement of objects. In this paper the potential of thermal video in 3D surface generation is evaluated. In the pre-processing step, thermal camera is geometrically calibrated using a calibration grid based on emissivity differences between the background and the targets. Then, Digital Surface Model (DSM) generation from thermal video imagery is performed in four steps. Initially, frames are extracted from video, then tie points are generated by Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm. Bundle adjustment is then applied and the camera position and orientation parameters are determined. Finally, multi-resolution dense image matching algorithm is used to create 3D point cloud of the scene. Potential of the proposed method is evaluated based on thermal imaging cover an industrial area. The thermal camera has 640×480 Uncooled Focal Plane Array (UFPA) sensor, equipped with a 25 mm lens which mounted in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The obtained results show the comparable accuracy of 3D model generated based on thermal images with respect to DSM generated from visible images, however thermal based DSM is somehow smoother with lower level of texture. Comparing the generated DSM with the 9 measured GCPs in the area shows the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value is smaller than 5 decimetres in both X and Y directions and 1.6 meters for the Z direction.

Skybox image and video product evaluation

ABSTRACTSkybox Imaging launched the SkySat 1 and 2 satellites in 2013 and 2014. They are small and low-cost satellites, capable of recording still images with sub-metre resolution and high definition video for up to 90 seconds of a single target, using a novel focal plane with three 5.5 megapixel frame sensors. To improve resolution and signal-to-noise ratio of the still imagery, multiple frames are fused with super-resolution image merging. This article evaluates the SkySat image quality and georeferencing performance. For comparison, Worldview-3 (WV-3) data acquired over the same area is evaluated using the same procedure and reference data. Results show that georeferencing of SkySat still imagery products requires more ground control than other very high resolution sensors. Results from the Las Vegas video show that speed of moving vehicles in videos can be detected to better than 0.8 mph and that automatic motion detection can be used to georeference videos to street vector databases. Generation of digital surface models from video show a height accuracy of 1.2 m (NMAD).

ORTHO-RECTIFICATION OF NARROW BAND MULTI-SPECTRAL IMAGERY ASSISTED BY DSLR RGB IMAGERY ACQUIRED BY A FIXED-WING UAS

Abstract. Miniature Multiple Camera Array (MiniMCA-12) is a frame-based multilens/multispectral sensor composed of 12 lenses with narrow band filters. Due to its small size and light weight, it is suitable to mount on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for acquiring high spectral, spatial and temporal resolution imagery used in various remote sensing applications. However, due to its wavelength range is only 10 nm that results in low image resolution and signal-to-noise ratio which are not suitable for image matching and digital surface model (DSM) generation. In the meantime, the spectral correlation among all 12 bands of MiniMCA images are low, it is difficult to perform tie-point matching and aerial triangulation at the same time. In this study, we thus propose the use of a DSLR camera to assist automatic aerial triangulation of MiniMCA-12 imagery and to produce higher spatial resolution DSM for MiniMCA12 ortho-image generation. Depending on the maximum payload weight of the used UAS, these two kinds of sensors could be collected at the same time or individually. In this study, we adopt a fixed-wing UAS to carry a Canon EOS 5D Mark2 DSLR camera and a MiniMCA-12 multi-spectral camera. For the purpose to perform automatic aerial triangulation between a DSLR camera and the MiniMCA-12, we choose one master band from MiniMCA-12 whose spectral range has overlap with the DSLR camera. However, all lenses of MiniMCA-12 have different perspective centers and viewing angles, the original 12 channels have significant band misregistration effect. Thus, the first issue encountered is to reduce the band misregistration effect. Due to all 12 MiniMCA lenses being frame-based, their spatial offsets are smaller than 15 cm and all images are almost 98% overlapped, we thus propose a modified projective transformation (MPT) method together with two systematic error correction procedures to register all 12 bands of imagery on the same image space. It means that those 12 bands of images acquired at the same exposure time will have same interior orientation parameters (IOPs) and exterior orientation parameters (EOPs) after band-to-band registration (BBR). Thus, in the aerial triangulation stage, the master band of MiniMCA-12 was treated as a reference channel to link with DSLR RGB images. It means, all reference images from the master band of MiniMCA-12 and all RGB images were triangulated at the same time with same coordinate system of ground control points (GCP). Due to the spatial resolution of RGB images is higher than the MiniMCA-12, the GCP can be marked on the RGB images only even they cannot be recognized on the MiniMCA images. Furthermore, a one meter gridded digital surface model (DSM) is created by the RGB images and applied to the MiniMCA imagery for ortho-rectification. Quantitative error analyses show that the proposed BBR scheme can achieve 0.33 pixels of average misregistration residuals length and the co-registration errors among 12 MiniMCA ortho-images and between MiniMCA and Canon RGB ortho-images are all less than 0.6 pixels. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust, reliable and accurate for future remote sensing applications.

High-Throughput 3-D Monitoring of Agricultural-Tree Plantations with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Technology.

The geometric features of agricultural trees such as canopy area, tree height and crown volume provide useful information about plantation status and crop production. However, these variables are mostly estimated after a time-consuming and hard field work and applying equations that treat the trees as geometric solids, which produce inconsistent results. As an alternative, this work presents an innovative procedure for computing the 3-dimensional geometric features of individual trees and tree-rows by applying two consecutive phases: 1) generation of Digital Surface Models with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and 2) use of object-based image analysis techniques. Our UAV-based procedure produced successful results both in single-tree and in tree-row plantations, reporting up to 97% accuracy on area quantification and minimal deviations compared to in-field estimations of tree heights and crown volumes. The maps generated could be used to understand the linkages between tree grown and field-related factors or to optimize crop management operations in the context of precision agriculture with relevant agro-environmental implications.

A novel method to assess short-term forest cover changes based on digital surface models from image-based point clouds

Assessing forestcoverchange is a key issue forany national forestinventory.This wastested in two studyareas in Switzerland on thebasis of stereo airborne digital sensor (ADS) imagesand advanced digital surface model (DSM) generation techniques based on image point clouds. In the present study, an adaptive multi-scale approach to detectforestcoverchangewithhighspatialandtemporalresolutionwasappliedtotwostudyareasinSwitzerland. The challenge of this approach is to minimize DSM height uncertainties that mayaffect the accuracyof the forest coverchange results. The approach consisted of two steps. In the first step, a ‘change index’ parameter indicated the overallchange status atacoarser scale.The tendencytowards changewas indicated byderivative analysis of the normalized histograms of the difference between the two canopy height models (DCHMs) in different years. In the second step, detection of forest cover change at a refined scale was based on an automatic threshold and a moving window technique. Promising results were obtained and reveal that real forest cover changes can be distinguished from non-changes with a high degree of accuracy in managed mixed forests. Results had a loweraccuracyforforestslocatedonsteepalpineterrain.Amajorbenefitoftheproposedmethodisthatthemagnitude of forestcoverchange of anyspecific region canbe made availablewithin a short timeas often requiredby forest managers or policy-makers, especially after unexpected natural disturbances.

Rapid three-dimensional detection approach for building damage due to earthquakes by the use of parallel processing of unmanned aerial vehicle imagery

Rapid damage assessment after an earthquake is vital for an efficient emergency response. With the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), they can now be used to rapidly assess the building damage and have the advantages of real-time operation, flexibility, low cost, etc. However, UAV images are “big data,” and UAVs can obtain hundreds of scene images in a short period of time. It is, therefore, important to speed up the processing time for UAV images. This paper proposes a parallel processing approach for accelerating the speed of automatic three-dimensional (3-D) building damage detection, using a preseismic digital topographical map and postseismic UAV images. From the experimental results obtained from 3-D building damage detection of the 2013 Ya’an earthquake in Baoxing County, Sichuan province of China, the comparison of the parallel processing in terms of digital surface model generation using postseismic UAV images shows that the total cost of the multicores central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing unit-based implementation is about 11.0 times faster than the single-core CPU implementation.

UAV 영상을 활용한 수변구조물의 DSM 생성 및 정확도 분석

If the damage analysis on river-side facilities such as dam, river bank structures and bridges caused by disasters such as typhoon, flood, etc. becomes available, it can be a great help for disaster recovery and decision-making. In this research, We tried to extract a Digital Surface Model (DSM) and analyze the accuracy from Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) images on river-side facilities. We tried to apply stereo image-based matching technique, then extracted match results were united with one mosaic DSM. The accuracy was verified compared with a DSM derived from LIDAR data. Overall accuracy was around 3m of absolute and root mean square error. As an analysis result, we confirmed that exterior orientation parameters exerted an influence to DSM accuracy. For more accurate DSM generation, accurate EO parameters are necessary and effective interpolation and post process technique needs to be developed. And the damage analysis simulation with DSM has to be performed in the future.

Feature extraction from geoeye-1 stereo pairs data for forested area

Abstract. Remote sensing facilitates the extraction of information for earth’s surface through its capability of acquiring images covering large areas and the availability of commercial software for their processing. The aim of this study is the feature extraction from three Geoeye-1 stereo pairs for forested area. The study area is located in central mountainous forested peninsula of Chalkidiki, in northern Greece. Dominant forest tree species of the site are oak (Quercus conferta), beech (Fagus moesiaca), black pine (Pinus nigra) and calabrian pine (Pinus brutia). Very High Resolution (VHR) Geoeye-1 stereo pair satellite images were utilized in panchromatic and multispectral mode. The panchromatic mode was employed for Digital Surface Model (DSM) generation and its evaluation. In this study the High Pass Filter (HPF) data fusion technique was applied between panchromatic and multispectral mode for acquiring a new image with the benefits of both contracting images. Because of the fact that the feature extraction was attempted in a forested region, NDVI index and Tasseled Cap transformation were applied in the fused images’ evaluation procedure. Optical assessment was also applied. The accuracy of the generated DSM and the evaluation results of the fused images were remarkable.