Estimation of Exterior Parameters of Sensor Combination for Efficient 3d Modeling

Laser scanning is the latest method to collect 3D spatial data and modelling. It becomes more and more popular in engineering applications such as 3D modeling, deformation analysis, reverse engineering and urban planning. However, laser scanners are not sufficient on their own for 3D surveying and modeling. It should be used together with the photogrammetric data especially in the orientation of point clouds, measurement of the non-scanning areas, and texture mapping. This task needs the combination of range sensor and image sensor. The sensor combination like this is a very efficient and flexible system for close-range measurement applications. Most of the laser scanners include integrated camera but most of them are low resolution and they can not be removed independent from the scanner. Therefore high resolution camera should be mounted to the laser scanner. In this study we consider mounting a camera onto laser scanner and estimating exterior parameters with strong control methods. We also made experimental studies by using exterior parameters.