Land-Based Navigation Aiding by Fusion with Airborne Sensory Data

Taher Hassan, Naser El-Sheimy

Abstract:	Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) have become very attractive tools for both mapping and remote sensing applications. MMS integrate navigation sensors, imaging sensors and algorithms together with sensors that can be used to determine the positions of points remotely. All the sensors are rigidly mounted together on a platform. They operate on the direct geo-referencing (DG) principle in which the former sensors determine the position and orientation of the platform, and the latter sensors determine the position of points external to the platform (Ellum and El-Sheimy, 2002). MMS can either be mounted on land-based or airborne-based vehicles and can be deployed for aerial mapping, DTM generation, change detection, city modeling, land security, and highway inventory. The accuracy of the navigation component is a key element in the total system deliverable accuracy. In landbased surveys, it is obvious that the GNSS signal availability/validity is not guaranteed due to blockage or multipath and reflected signals causing significant deterioration in the navigation solution. This situation is quite often encountered when navigating in urban centers and downtown blocks. There are several proposed solutions to improve the quality of the navigation solution during GNSS signal outages, for example, by incorporating additional sensors observations, applying some motion constrains, or by using some filtering and backward processing algorithms. A photogrammetric strategy for bridging land-based MMS during the GNSS signal outage spans has been introduced. The framework has been developed based on photogrammetric reconstruction based on both common linear and point features and fusing these images with images captured by airborne systems. The proposed integration framework, of both data sets with different matching entities (i.e. lines and points), makes the reconstruction of the land-based MMS trajectory easier and more practical. The overall objective of this paper is to establish a framework, especially designed for mobile mapping systems, which uses all the available heterogeneous data including GNSS/INS positions and attitudes for exposure stations. The proposed framework considers the scientific and the technical issues about image geo-referencing and image registration. The used modalities will be based on simulated data. The paper shows, with examples, how land-based mobile mapping systems can be aided during GNSS signal outage with the help of airborne imaging and navigation data.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008) September 16 - 19, 2008 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	1582 - 1588
Cite this article:	Hassan, Taher, El-Sheimy, Naser, "Land-Based Navigation Aiding by Fusion with Airborne Sensory Data," Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008), Savannah, GA, September 2008, pp. 1582-1588.
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