Toward Higher Automation and Flexibility 
In Commercial Digital Photogrammetric System 
Younian Wang, Xinghe Yang, Mladen Stojic, Brad Skelton 
Leica Geosystems, GIS & Mapping Division 
2801 Buford Highway, Atlanta; GA, USA 
younian. wang@gis.leica-geosystems.com 
IC WG IVIV 
KEY WORDS: Digital, Photogrammetry, Mapping, Software, Softcopy, Automation, Algorithms, GIS. 
ABSTRACT 
After about 20 years research and development in digital photogrammetric systems, commercial software systems have become 
more aid more powerful and capable of solving most photogrammetric mapping problems. On the other hand, user demands for 
higher automation and more flexibility for digital photogrammetric systems keep increasing, especially with the use of various new 
high-resolution airborne and space-borne cameras. In order to meet the market demands and challenge, a new digital 
photogrammetric system has been developed. It is called Leica Photogrammetry Suite. This paper introduces the major 
characteristics and functionality d Leica Photogrammetry Suite. The various techniques to increase the automation and productivity 
are introduced. The design philosophy and implementation strategy for ease-of-use and high flexibility are explained. The powerful 
features for sensor modelling, DTM extraction and editing, and cartographic feature collection are introduced. The algorithms for 
automatic interior orientation, automatic point measurement, automatic DTM extraction, and automatic image mosaic are 
demonstrated. Several examples and independent test results show that Leica Photogrammetry Suite is a powerful and reliable digital 
photogrammetric system for both advanced photogrammetrists and GIS professionals. 
1 INTRODUCTION imagery into usable spatial data. LPS consists a core part and 
several add-on modules. The major functions of the core 
After about 20 years research and development in digital include project setup, sensor modeling, control point 
photogrammetric systems, commercial software systems measurement, automatic tie point collection, triangulation, 
become more and more powerful and capable of solving most automatic terain model extraction, orthorectification and 
photogrammetric mapping problems. On the other hand, user mosaicking as shown in Fig. 1. The add-on modules consist of 
demands for higher automation and more flexibility for digital stereoscopic terrain editing, ORIMA orientation management 
photogrammetric systems keep increasing, especially with the and triangulation, PRO600 stereo feature collection for 
use of various new high-resolution airborne and space-borne Microstation, GPro ADS40 image ground processing station, 
cameras. [n order to meet the market demands and challenge, Image Equalizer, GeoVault image database, StereoAnalyst 
Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping division has developed a feature collection for ArcGIS etc. Fig. 2 shows these modules 
new digital photogrammetric workstation called Leica in an architectural relationship. 
Photogrammetry Suite™ (LPS). It has used the previous 
product OrthoBASE™ as a foundation, and added many new 
modules and functionality and boosted both quality and 
performance. It can handle a very wide range of image sources 
such as scanned or digital frame camera image, IKONOS, 
QuickBird, SPOT, IRS-1C, EROS, Aster, and many more. 
Based on sensor geometry and available meta-data, there are 
many sensor models to choose from, including single 
perspective camera model, orbital pushbroom sensor model, 
polynomial-based pushbroom model, and rational functions 
based sensor model. A mixed sensor model is also supported in ee 
LPS. The functionality of Leica Photogrammetry Suite Tr LPS STERFO 
    
LPS CORE. 
  
Figure 2: LPS Core and add-on modules 
In this shortened paper only some of the automation functions 
of LPS will be explained and demonstrated. 
    
   
   
  
  
EN 
“Extra 
2 AUTOMATIC INTERIOR ORIENTATION 
  
Automatic interior orientation is necessary for scanned aerial 
Figure 1: LPS CORE functional modules frame camera photographs to establish the relationship between 
image and the internal camera film coordinates. The major 
ere A acnecte © Arc ^. 7 y spatia * . — . 
covers all aspects that users may need to convert geo-spatial work here is to measure the coordinates of fiducial marks. In 
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