ADVANCED LIDAR DATA PROCESSING WITH LASTOOLS 
C. Hug**, P. Krzystek?, W. Fuchs? 
* GeoLas Consulting, Sultenstrafe 3, D-85586 Poing, Germany — hug@geolas.com 
° Department of Geoinformatics, Munich University of Applied Sciences, KarlstraBe 6, D-80333 Munich, Germany - 
krzystek@geo.fhm.edu 
* fpi fuchs Ingenieure GmbH, Aachener Strafe 583, D-50226 Frechen Kónigsdorf, Germany - w.fuchs(a)fpi- 
ingenieure.de 
KEY WORDS: LIDAR, Processing, Software, DEM/DTM, Classification, Segmentation, Digital, Orthoimage 
ABSTRACT: 
This paper introduces LasTools, a new software suite for the operational processing of data from advanced airborne lidar sensor 
systems. 
LasTools provides the tools required to generate DSMs and DTMs from raw or basically preprocessed lidar data in a stand-alone 
application. It features intelligent management of project data, import and geocoding of raw lidar and image data, system calibration, 
filtering and classification of lidar data, generation of elevation models, and the export of the results in various common formats. 
Special emphasis is laid on an intuitive graphical user interface and streamlined workflow to enable efficient and rapid production. 
Additionally, LasTools provides features for the handling and processing of advanced lidar data like return signal waveforms and 
true surface color, as well as the rapid integration of lidar and digital image data into digital orthoimages. 
The paper describes the approach taken by LasTools to efficiently organize and handle the large amounts of data generated by 
emerging advanced lidar systems with waveform sampling and digital image registration. It discusses the segmentation-based 
object-oriented filtering technique at the heart of the LasTools classification engine that achieves a high degree of automation for 
lidar point classification and feature extraction. The user interface philosophy for rapid data visualization and highly efficient 
interactive editing is highlighted. Finally, the instruments for quality control incorporated into LasTools at all stages of the 
processing workflow are presented. 
1. INTRODUCTION Finally, new requirements for lidar processing software are on 
the horizon due to new hardware capabilities (integrated high- 
resolution digital cameras, or waveform digitization). They 
demand flexible data and processing structures to handle the 
explosively expanding data volumes efficiently and to make 
best use of the additional information that becomes available 
through these technologies. 
1.1 Motivation 
Airborne lidar mapping has been gaining widespread 
acceptance during the last several years. While there are a 
number of established manufacturers offering standard lidar 
instrumentation, lidar data processing is mostly still done using 
proprietary in-house developments of the service providers. 
Obviously, service providers have little interest in making their 
developments available to the general market, and thus 
potentially to competitors in their own field. Therefore, the 
market of commercially available lidar processing software is to 
date quite small, with Terrasolid Oy of Finnland offering the 
only lidar-specific products that cover lidar processing in some 
Our goal with LasTools is to provide a "next-generation" 
integrated lidar processing environment that addresses these 
issues and puts an emphasis on ease-of-use and efficient 
production. 
1.2 Overview 
breadth. Other remote-sensing software packages are beginning [n its first incarnation, LasTools handles lidar data processing 
to include limited lidar data support. However, most of these from the egg (raw data) to the chicken (elevation models, 
only provide tools for the regularization of lidar points (e.g. orthoimages), integrated with a project management and quality 
gridding) and for bare-earth filtering/classification but do not control framework. 
address typical tasks specific to lidar data processing like 
geocoding and strip adjustment. A framework that handles the Following processing features are available: 
entire production workflow is so far not available. * raw data geocoding 
= calibration and strip adjustment 
Furthermore, we have had to observe shortcomings in user = model adjustment and ground control 
interfaces of most of the currently available lidar processing " classification 
systems and lidar add-on components to other remote-sensing * model generation 
software packages with regards to intuitivness and efficiency, "  orthoimage generation 
which put high demands for training and education on the = datum transformation and projection 
potential users and make the production process unduly tedious. 
On the project management side LasTools provides 
  
* Corresponding author. 
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