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A REAL-TIME PHOTOGRAMMETRIC MAPPING SYSTEM 
S. S. C. Wu*^*, J. Hutton, B. Kletzli*, H. M. Noto*, S. S. Wang“, Z. H. Wang“ 
1 
J 
* United States Department of Energy's Remote Sensing Laboratory operated by Bechtel Nevada, 4600 N. Hollywood 
Blvd., Bldg. 2211, Las Vegas, NV 89191-8403, U.S.A. - (wusc, notohm)@nv.doe.gov 
? Applanix Corporation, 550 Alden Rd. Unit 1 12, Markhan, Ontario, Canada L3R6A8 — jhutton@applanix.com 
¢ Spectrum Mapping, LLC, 7500 Jefferson Street NE, Courtyard II, Suite 101, Albuquerque, NM, 87108, U.S.A. — 
bkletzli@specmap.com 
“ Mira Solutions, Inc, 39176 State St., Suite C, Fremont, CA, 44538, U.S.A — (swang, zhihong)@mirasolutions.com 
Commission II, WG II/1 
KEY WORDS: Photogrammetry, Real-time, automation, on-line, digital 
ABSTRACT: 
  
A Real-Time Photogrammetric Mapping System (RTPMS) is being developed at the U. S. Department of Energy's Remote Sensing 
Laboratory. The RTPMS integrates a 4k by 4k color digital frame camera, a Position and Orientation System, and an Aerial Survey 
Control Tool (ASCOT) navigation system, with the newly developed One-Path Photogrammetric Program (OPPP). It automatically | 
processes Digital Elevation Models (DEM), ortho-images, and contour lines on-board the acquisition platform and in real-time. The | 
OPPP has been successfully tested on various sources of digital image data, including scanned aerial photography from an RC-30 | 
camera and digital imagery from a Digital Frame Camera (DFC). A laptop computer takes 12 minutes to process a single strip of | 
four models, producing an ortho-image, DEM, and contour line map, and only 42 minutes to process a block of three-strips of 12 
models. An elevation precision of approximately 1/7,000 of the flight height has been achieved by the OPPP software. Hardware and 
software integration has been completed and we are currently in the final stages of the development, i.e. testing and implementation 
of the RTPMS in the air. Once tested, the RTPMS will be able to produce a mosaicked DEM, ortho-image map, and contour map, Fig 
on-board, in real-time, and without ground control or without operator intervention. Results from airborne testing will be presented 
at the 20" ISPRS Congress. The next step of this endeavour is to incorporate the ability to transmit processed photogrammetric 
products to the ground before the aircraft lands, and ultimately being able to mount the system on an unmanned aerial vehicle to 
  
automatically generate photogrammetric products without operator intervention. 2.2 
Dur 
1. INTRODUCTION 2. DEVELOPMENT sofi 
OP 
State-of-the-art photogrammetry involves the use of image data The RTPMS is being developed in three phases. During Phase 
that are mostly in digital form acquired by cameras as well as I, a pilot study was conducted to develop the real-time Ha 
by a broad spectrum of other sensors, including optical, lidar, photogrammetric processing software, called One-Path 
radar, and interferometers. The data, which may be processed Photogrammetric Program (OPPP). Phase ll integrated the As 
automatically, are used for making maps and for military, OPPP software with a DFC, Position and Orientation System of 
scientific, and industrial applications. The Remote Sensing (POS), and ASCOT navigation system. Phase III, the testing (Fig 
Laboratory of the Department of Energy (RSL/DOE) in Las and implementation of the RTPMS in the air, is currently pix 
Vegas, Nevada, maintains some of these cutting-edge mapping underway with a flight over a calibration range scheduled for 90- 
technologies. In support of the time-sensitive national mid-May 2004. cap 
emergency response and consequence management missions at inte 
the RSL/DOE, we are currently developing a Real-Time 2.1 Phase I mo 
Photogrammetric Mapping System (RTPMS). The RTPMS is a inci 
system that can input digital image data (DID) from a digital In Phase I, we developed the OPPP software, a real-time 
frame camera (DFC) directly into photogrammetric software for DEM/orthophoto processing program derived from several Fig 
automatic processing of digital elevation models (DEM ), ortho- programs that provide automatic functions, including interior- pre 
images, and contour lines, on-board the acquisition platform in and exterior- orientation, DEM generation, ortho-image phc 
real-time. The ultimate goal of this development is to transmit rectification, contour-line generation, block adjustment, and Thé 
the photogrammetric products processed on-board to the ground mosaicking with color balance. The size of the program, written to 
before the aircraft lands and eventually mount the system on an in C-plus, is about 3 MB and can be run on a standard PC with det 
unmanned aerial vehicle. disk space for the raw and processed imagery being the primary pre 
resource requirement. OPPP requires a pre-defined flight plan orit 
as input, in addition to camera calibration parameters and photo smi 
position and orientation data. An ortho-rectified photo mosaic the 
of a single strip processed through OPPP is shown in Figure |. con 
The mosaic on the left in Figure 1 was not color balanced while phe 
imz 
  
Corresponding author. 
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