MOBILE MAPPING - AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY FOR SPATIAL DATA-ACQUISITION

Mobile mapping has been the subject of significant research and develo pment by several research teams over the past decade. A mobile mapping system consists mainly of a moving platform, navigation sensors, and mapping sensors. The mobile platform may be a land vehicle, a vessel, or an aircraft. Generally, navigation sensors, such as Global Position ing System (GPS) receivers, vehicle wheel sensors, and inertial naviga tion systems (INS), provide both the track of the vehicle and position and orientation information of the mapping sensors. Objects to be sur veyed are sensed directly by mapping sensors, for instance, charge cou pled devices (CCD) cameras, laser rangers, and radar sensors. Because the orientation parameters of the mapping sensors are estimated direct ly by the navigation sensors, complicated computations such as photogr ammetric triangulation are greatly simplified or avoided. Spatial info rmation of the objects is extracted directly from the georeferenced ma pping sensor data: by integrating navigation sensor data. Mobile mappi ng technology has evolved to a stage which allows mapping and cls indu stries to apply it in order to obtain high flexibility in data acquisi tion, more information with less time and effort, and high productivit y. In addition, a successful extension of this technology to helicopte r-borne and airborne systems will provide a powerful tool for large-sc ale and medium-scale spatial data acquisition and database updating. T his paper provides a systematic introduction to the use of mobile mapp ing technology for spatial data acquisition. Issues related to the bas ic principle, data processing, automation, achievable accuracies, and a break down of errors are given. Application considerations and appli cation examples of the technology in highway and utility mapping are d escribed. Finally, the perspective of the mobile mapping technology is discussed.