2022 Fellow

Presented to: Dr. Charles K. Toth

Citation: For significant contributions to the development and implementation of multi-sensor integrated navigation systems, and for demonstrated excellence as an academic mentor and professional leader

Dr. Charles K. Toth is the key architect of the concept, development, and implementation of the first mobile mapping system (MMS), one of the first civilian applications of GPS. This revolutionary technology became the frontrunner of acquiring street data for visualization to support location-based services, with thousands of vehicles equipped with the latest sensors-acquired data 24/7 for the internet-based giants. For the past 25 years, he has been one of the three international leaders organizing the International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology (MMT).

In late 1990s, Dr. Toth led the OSU team in the Airborne Integrated Mapping System (AIMS), which delivered the first-in-the-world fully digital directly georeferenced highaccuracy airborne mapping system prototype based on the tight integration of GPS and the inertial navigation unit (IMU). This technology was first used commercially during the 9/11 Ground Zero emergency mapping operations. Subsequently, Dr. Toth led significant research efforts on direct georeferencing of remote sensing platforms, introducing GPS/IMU-based sensor orientation into the mapping community, and is generally credited with coining the terms direct georeferencing and indirect georeferencing.

Dr. Toth was one of the principal architects behind the design and prototyping the NGA-sponsored novel multi-sensor and AI-based personal navigator (PN) for emergency crews and dismounted soldiers. The originality of this contribution stemmed from using artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic to model human locomotion to facilitate navigation when other sensors failed, all by implementing a knowledge-based system.

Dr. Toth is a research professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering at The Ohio State University. He is recognized for establishing professional partnerships between ION and ISPRS, FIG, and IAG. He received an MSc and PhD in Electrical Engineering as well as a PhD in Geo-Information Sciences from the Technical University of Budapest in Hungary.