Impact of attitude deviations on laser point cloud of airborne LiDAR

In order to analyze the impact of attitude deviations of airborne platform on the coverage area and density distribution of laser point cloud of airborne LiDAR and on the accuracy of the Digital Surface Model (DSM) reconstructed from the point cloud, the principle that attitude deviations affect the coverage area and density distribution of point cloud and the DSM accuracy is firstly described. Then, with numerical simulation, the impact of attitude deviations on the coverage area and density distribution of point cloud is analyzed. A semi-physical simulation experiment was carried out to simulate the process of airborne laser scanning. The impact of attitude deviations on the coverage area and density distribution of point cloud is verified, and the accuracy variation of the DSM caused by attitude deviations is quantitatively evaluated. Simulation and experiment results show that attitude deviations may cause the coverage area shifting and the point density decreasing in some local regions of the laser point cloud; furthermore, the former results in some missed scan area of the target terrain, while the latter deteriorates the accuracy of the reconstructed DSM. Therefore, attitude deviations have significant impact on laser point cloud and the accuracy of reconstructed DSM, and should be suppressed or compensated in real-time with effective measures.