State-Of-The-Art Remote Sensing Geospatial Technologies In

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State-Of-The-Art Remote Sensing Geospatial Technologies In STATE-OF-THE-ART REMOTE SENSING GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES IN SUPPORT OF TRANSPORTATION MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Eva Petra Paska, M.S. ***** The Ohio State University 2009 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, Adviser Dr. Mark McCord ____________________________________ Dr. Alper Yilmaz Adviser Dr. Charles K. Toth, Co-Adviser Geodetic Science and Surveying Graduate Program ABSTRACT The widespread use of digital technologies, combined with rapid sensor advancements resulted in a paradigm shift in geospatial technologies the end of the last millennium. The improved performance provided by the state-of-the-art airborne remote sensing technology created opportunities for new applications that require high spatial and temporal resolution data. Transportation activities represent a major segment of the economy in industrialized nations. As such both the transportation infrastructure and traffic must be carefully monitored and planned. Engineering scale topographic mapping has been a long-time geospatial data user, but the high resolution geospatial data could also be considered for vehicle extraction and velocity estimation to support traffic flow analysis. The objective of this dissertation is to provide an assessment on what state-of-the- art remote sensing technologies can offer in both areas: first, to further improve the accuracy and reliability of topographic, in particular, roadway corridor mapping systems, and second, to assess the feasibility of extracting primary data to support traffic flow computation. The discussion is concerned with airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and digital camera systems, supported by direct georeferencing. The review of the state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies is dedicated to address the special requirements of the two transportation applications of airborne remotely sensed ii data. The performance characteristics of the geospatial sensors and the overall error budget are discussed. The error analysis part is focused on the overall achievable point positioning accuracy performance of directly georeferenced remote sensing systems. The QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) process is a challenge for any airborne direct georeferencing-based remote sensing system. A new method to support QA/QC is introduced that uses the road pavement markings to improve both sensor data accuracy as well as the position of road features. The identification of the pavement markings is based on LiDAR intensity data and is guided by the ground control information available. The centerline of the markings in LiDAR data is modeled and matched to the reference data, providing the observation to the QA/QC process. The discussion on the innovative use of remote sensing technologies investigates the feasibility of providing remotely sensed traffic data for monitoring and management. An advantage of air-based platforms, including manned and unmanned fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, is that they can be rapidly deployed to observe traffic incidents that occur in areas where there are no ground-based sensors. To support vehicle extraction from airborne imagery, a method was introduced that provides a true object scale data representation that can facilitate the vehicle extraction. The vehicle extraction from LiDAR data was followed by coarse classification of the extracted vehicles to support coarse velocity estimation; basically, grouping the vehicles into three major categories based on their size. Finally, a novel method was introduced for simultaneously acquired LiDAR and image data, which can combine the advantages of the two sensors for obtaining better velocity estimates of LiDAR-extracted vehicles. iii Dedicated to my family and Babóka iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Dr. Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska for her support and encouragement during the years of my doctoral studies. She was my role model during my studies, helping me to develop my professional identity and provided considerable advice regarding the requisites. I am enormously indebted to Dr. Charles Toth without whose continuous support, guidance and encouragement throughout the years of my studies this dissertation would not have been possible. His passion and enthusiasm in science and engineering provided me with motivation to improve my problem solving skills and creativity. The technical advice he offered during our daily discussions over the past several years has proven to be invaluable. I wish to thank Dr. Mark McCord for the knowledge he imparted, the valuable discussions about the transportation discipline, and the careful and thorough review of my dissertation. I also wish to thank Dr. Alper Yilmaz for his valuable comments and suggestions on the dissertation draft. Additionally, I would also like to thank The Ohio Department of Transportation, in particular, John Ray, for providing the test datasets for my research. v VITA March 14, 1977………....... Born in Eger, Hungary 2001……………………… M.S., Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary 2007……………………… M.S., Department of Geodetic and Geoinformation Science, The Ohio State University Oct 2000 – April 2002…… Intern, Center for Mapping, The Ohio State University June 2002 – Feb 2008……. Graduate Research Associate, The Ohio State University Feb 2008 – present……….. Photogrammetrists/LiDAR Processing Specialist, Kucera International Inc., Willoughby, OH PUBLICATIONS PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS: 1. Grejner-Brzezinska, D.A., C. K. Toth, Shahram Moafipoor, Eva Paska, Nora Csanyi, 2007, Vehicle Classification and Traffic Flow Estimation from Airborne LiDAR/CCD Data, IAG Symposia, Monitoring and Understanding a Dynamic Planet with Geodetic and Oceanographic Tools, Springer Berlin-Heidelberg. 2. Grejner-Brzezinska, D. A, Toth, C. and Paska, E., 2007. Airborne Remote Sensing Supporting Traffic Flow Estimation, Advances in Mobile Mapping Technology, ISPRS Book Series, editors: C. V. Tao and J. Li, Taylor and Francis, pp. 51-60. 3. Toth, C. K., Paska, E., Chen, Q., Zhu, Y., Redmill, R. and Ozguner, U., 2006: Mapping Support for the OSU DARPA Grand Challenge Vehicle, Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, Toronto, Canada, September 17-20, pp. 1580-1585. vi PROCEEDINGS PAPERS: 1. Toth, C., E. Paska and D. Brzezinska, (2008): Quality Assessment of LiDAR Data by Using Pavement Markings, ASPRS Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon, April 28 – May 2. 2. Paska, E. and Ray, J., 2007. Influence of Various Parameters on the Accuracy of Lidar Generated Products for Highway Design Applications, ASPRS Annual Conference, Tampa, Florida, May 7-11, 2007. 3. Toth, C., Paska, E., and Grejner-Brzezinska, D.A., 2007. Using Pavement Markings to Support the QA/QC of LiDAR Data, Photogrammetric Image Analysis (PIA 2007), International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 36 (3/W49B), pp. 173-178. 4. Toth, C. K. and Paska, E., 2006. Mobile Mapping and Autonomous Vehicle Navigation, ISPRS Commission I Symposium, Paris, France, July 4-6. 5. Toth C., D. Grejner-Brzezinska, N. Csanyi, E. Paska, S. Moafipoor, 2006. Airborne Platform Navigation Using a Closed Feedback Loop Between GPS/IMU and LiDAR Systems, IEEE/ION PLANS, San Diego, April 25-27. 6. Bevis, M., Grejner-Brzezinska, D. A., Toth, C. K., Paska, E. et al. (2005). The B4 Project: Scanning the San Andreas and San Jacinto Fault Zones, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 5-9. (invited). 7. Paska, E. and Toth C.K., 2005. Vehicle Velocity Estimation by Combining LiDAR and Airborne Imagery, ISPRS WG I/2 Workshop on 3D Mapping from InSAR and LIDAR, Banff, Alberta, Canada, June 7-10, CD-ROM. 8. Paska, E. and Toth, C., 2005. Vehicle Velocity Estimation from Airborne Imagery and LiDAR, ASPRS Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, March 7-11, 2005. 9. Toth, C. and Paska, E., 2005. Mapping Support For The Terramax Osu/Oshkosh Darpa Grand Challenge Team, ASPRS Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, March 7- 11, 2005. 10. Grejner-Brzezinska, D., Toth, C., Paska, E. and Moafipoor, S., 2004. Precise Vehicle Topology and Road Surface Modeling Derived from Airborne LiDAR Data, ION GNSS 2004, Long Beach, California, September 21-24, 2004, CD-ROM. 11. Paska, E. and Toth, C., 2004. A Performance Analysis on Vehicle Detection from Remotely Sensed Imagery, Proceedings of the ASPRS Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, May 23-28, CD-ROM. vii 12. Grejner-Brzezinska, D., Toth, C. and Paska, E., 2004. Airborne Remote Sensing Supporting Traffic Flow Estimates, Proc. of 3rd International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology, Kunming, China, March 29-31, 2004, CD-ROM. 13. Csanyi, N., Paska, E. and Toth, C., 2003. Comparison of Various Surface Modeling Methods, ASPRS Fall Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, October 27-30, 2003, CD-ROM. 14. Grejner-Brzezinska, D., Toth, C. and Paska, E., 2003. Airborne Remote Sensing: Redefining a Paradigm of Traffic Flow Monitoring, ION GPS 2003, Portland, Oregon, September 24-27, 2003, CD-ROM. 15. Paska, E. and Toth, C., 2003. Object Space Segmentation Supported By LiDAR Intensity Data, Joint Workshop of ISPRS WG I/3 & II/2, Portland, Oregon, June 17- 19, 2003, CD-ROM. 16. Paska, E. and Toth, C., 2003. LIDAR Data Segmentation Based on Morphologic Filtering, Proceedings of the ASPRS Annual Conference,
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