Precise geometric registration of aerial imagery and LIDAR data

In this paper, we develop a registration method to eliminate the geometric inconsistency between the stereoimages and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data obtained by an airborne multisensor system. This method consists of three steps: registration primitive extraction, correspondence establishment, and exterior orientation parameter (EOP) adjustment. As the primitives, we employ object points and linked edges from the stereoimages and planar patches and intersection edges from the LIDAR data. After extracting these primitives, we establish the correspondence between them, being classified into vertical and horizontal groups. These corresponding pairs are simultaneously incorporated as stochastic constraints into aerial triangulation based on the bundle block adjustment. Finally, the EOPs of the images are adjusted to minimize the inconsistency. The results from the application of our method to real data demonstrate that the inconsistency between both data sets is significantly reduced from the range of 0.5 m to 2 m to less than 0.05 m. Hence, the results show that the proposed method is useful for the data fusion of aerial images and LIDAR data.