Georeferencing of ground-based LIDAR data using continuously operating reference stations

Abstract

Terrestrial laser scanning has been used for various outdoor visualizations such as urban, construc- tion, excavations, and land topography. Since laser scanning data have their own local coordinates in each station, a three-dimensional point cloud model of the object of interest is created in the local coordinate system by the combination of these measurements. For spatial queries and computations, the point cloud and other spatial data should be combined in a common coordinate system. In this study, a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver were integrated for the registration of the laser scanner measurements into the geodetic coordinate system. Two georeferencing methods based on the con- tinuously operating reference stations in the network Turkey (CORS-TR) were introduced. After the building was modelled by integrating the TLS and the GNSS receiver, the point cloud model that was created was registered to the international terrestrial reference frame. The registration was performed with 0.05 m root mean square error for the two georeferencing methods.