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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, Part 3W14, La Jolla, CA, 9-11 Nov. 1999 
COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF AIRBORNE LASER ALTIMETRY 
A review of the commercial instrument market and its projected growth. 
Martin Flood 
Airborne Laser Mapping Consultants 
Unit 2705-4 Forest Laneway 
Toronto, Ontario 
Canada, M2N5X8 
martin@airbornelasermapping.com 
KEYWORDS: laser altimetry; airborne laser mapping; airborne laser scanning; commercial laser instruments. 
ABSTRACT 
Preliminary results of a study to estimate the instrument base required to support a competitive laser altimetry sector within the 
global remote sensing industry are presented. The recent growth of the commercial laser altimetry sector and the current breakdown 
of the installed instrument base are reviewed. Projections for future growth in the installed base are presented based on the current 
adoption rate and projected growth curves through 2005. A comparison to the established aerial camera market is used to set a 
constraint on the upper growth of the instrument base. The projection provides an estimate of the size of the market for commercial 
instrument sales and consequently a view of the future competitive environment for survey companies offering laser altimetry 
services. A significant gap is identified between the current installed base and estimates of the required instrument base. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Airborne laser altimetry is an emerging technology in the 
commercial remote sensing industry that is capable of rapidly 
generating high-density, high-accuracy, digital elevation data. 
It is an attractive technology for a variety of data end-users in 
various survey applications since the cost to produce the 
elevation data, point for point, can be significantly less than 
other forms of traditional data collection. To a commercial 
survey company, laser altimetry offers unique technical 
capabilities, lower field-operation costs and reduced post- 
processing time and effort compared to traditional survey 
methods. While laser altimetry has been under investigation 
since the 1960s, the commercial development of the technology 
has been driven by the relatively recent availability of rugged, 
low-cost solutions for each of the core subsystems of the 
instruments. An increasing awareness of the unique advantages 
of laser-based survey instruments within the remote sensing 
community combined with the growing demand for cheap, 
accurate, timely, digital elevation data by the data end-users is 
also a contributing factor. Current commercial instrument 
designs are based on work done over the past twenty years by 
research groups such as NASA (Blair et. al., 1994; Bufton et. 
al. 1991; Krabil et. al, 1984) and the Institute of 
Photogrammetry at the University of Stuttgart (Ackermann, 
1999). Commercial off-the-shelf instruments can now be 
purchased or leased from several dedicated system 
manufacturers while various survey companies have designed 
and built proprietary sensors either alone or in conjunction with 
organizations in the laser/lidar industry. Reduced barriers to 
entry, including lower capital investment costs to acquire an 
instrument, the increasing availability of commercial off-the- 
shelf systems and the increased acceptance of the technology by 
the data end-users, are driving a significant expansion of the 
commercial market. Consequently, the number of survey 
companies operating instruments on a "for profit" basis has 
increased dramatically since 1995. To date strategic planning 
efforts within the commercial sector have focused on 
identifying the essential functionality of commercial laser 
altimetry instruments, defining the technology road map for 
future upgrades and estimating the potential demand for survey 
services based on the technology. Limited analysis has been 
published about the potential size of the market for commercial 
instruments based on the current growth and projected demand 
for instruments. Such analysis is an important factor for any 
forward-looking estimate of the impact of airborne laser 
altimetry on the commercial remote sensing industry, especially 
if further reductions in the barriers to entry are considered. 
This paper presents preliminary results of a study to estimate 
the instrument base required to support a competitive 
commercial airborne laser altimetry sector within the global 
remote sensing community. The paper reviews the current 
commercial markets, the recent growth of the commercial 
industry and the current breakdown of the installed instrument 
base. Projections for future growth in the installed base based 
on the current adoption curve and a comparison to the 
established aerial camera market are presented. This projection 
provides a forward-looking estimate of the size of the market 
for commercial instrument sales and hence a view of the future 
competitive environment for survey companies offering laser 
altimetry services.