International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part Bl. Istanbul 2004
e Users do not readily provide the knowledge they have
acquired through long and costly experience in their highly
competitive market.
One approach is to have users fill in questionnaires. Product
management and market research then have to draw the
necessary conclusions and decide which users are
knowledgeable and willing to contribute further to the
definition of a new instrument. This is a tedious and time-
consuming endeavour and it can take months or years to reach
conclusions that allow the establishment of the final instrument
requirement documents.
General questions and basic imaging requirements for an airbor
[ | Question ] Possible answers
|^. General
1 |Cameraisonsor type? | a |Multi CCO surface array camera
i | b {Multi CCD line sensor
|
| Whatever glves tbe best price/performance ralio
i at same GSD
Ta
| 2 If you wanted to use the imaging | a [Using same Sensor Flight Management System (SFMS)
{sensor simultaneously with
b Using same SFMS and GPSAMU
|LIDAR, whal preferences would
you have? € [Installed in separate port holes and separate mounts
d |Both sensors intograted ínto one gyro stabilized mount
Et
{Gyro mount unnecessary
i
|
|
| | e |a, b & d together
|
|
3 [Line Sensor with stereo imaging | à [Not necessary because DTM or DSH usually available
{capability 2 i
{capability b {When OTM available only 2 lines are
; 0 TYss
Y | [* of cases
iun NER No=n
wanted for stereo
B. Basic imaging sensor requirements
4 [sean width (across-track)? a [less than 20 [-l [777]
| | pose El
| | e [35°40 Cys]
o 45-50 Foire
Figure 4. Collecting user requirements
The form in Figure 4 is an excerpt from a multi-page
questionnaire that helped to establish which applications the
users of airborne sensors were covering with their services.
4. GOING FROM REQUIREMENTS TO
SPECIFICATIONS
4.1 Product Management and Engineering
Product management in this context is the department that
establishes the link between the user and the engineering
department. Product management has to be able to answer the
simple question from engineering, *What does the user really
want and what is he willing to pay for it?" The step from
instrument requirements to instrument specifications therefore
Is an interactive and never ending cycle. Even after the
specifications written by engineering are frozen, there exists the
possibility to modify them through well-founded change
requests. #
4.2 Leica Innovation Process
One way of making the aforementioned cycle an orderly
process with well defined logical steps has been established by
Leica Geosystems through the implementation of the Leica
Innovation Process. From the initial idea to the final launch of a
product, every step is defined and has to be accomplished
before the next step can be tackled. This ensures an orderly
process in every project and allows management to control
costs and progress in these very complex engineering tasks.
5. ADAPTING TO NEW USER REQUIREMENTS
After the first ADS40 deliveries in 2001 it quickly became
apparent that customers had varying needs concerning the
viewing angles and the specfral bands on the focal plane. One
of the outstanding features of the line sensor is that it is possible
to adapt to these customer neéds with little effort. Since its first
delivery the ADS40 has been produced with 4 different focal
plane configurations.. The most popular version in the USA has
been the configuration with the RGB bands in the nadir
position. This enables the capture of the colour image with
minimal along-track relief displacement and reduces the effect
of a low accuracy DEM.
Another development which was astonishing and not revealed
in our market research, is that many customers see the
possibility of producing high quality true orthophoto maps. Due
to the fact that the ADS40 has three panchromatic lines at
different viewing angles, an extremely robust and accurate
DEM can be computed and the ensuing true orthophoto realized
in colour has opened new markets.
Similarly, some customers have expressed strong interest in
capturing very high resolution imagery with the ADS40. Leica
Geosystems has responded by confirming the sensor’s ability to
acquire panchromatic imagery at 5 cm GSD, even in quite poor
light conditions, and has developed a pan-sharpening algorithm
to handle situations where the imagery captured with the
multispectral bands is constrained to be slightly lower
resolution in the along-track direction.
6. OUTLOOK
The ADS40 project will go down in Leica Geosystems history
as a major step into the digital future of data acquisition in the
field of earth observation. The gleaning of market ideas and
researçh lasted over 20 years. The creative phase of defining,
designing and producing the sensor took another 4 years. The
cost of bringing about such a technological change in the way
airborne images are acquired was over 20 million US dollars. It
is to be hoped that the definition of life cycle requirements of
this and the next generation sensors will become an easier task
and lead airborne earth observation on to prosperous paths for
suppliers, users and end users.
7. CONCLUSIONS
The user community has apparently accepted the concept of
directly acquired digital imagery and has enabled the
breakthrough for this new technology. This is the
encouragement needed to continue on the path of a continuous
innovation process.
8. REFERENCE
[1] Derenyi, E.E., Thesis, March 1970, University of New
Brunswick, Canada:
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