Abstracts

Applications of Laser Scanning Technologies to Air Survey and Mobile Mapping
by Prof. Shunji Murai

Laser scanning technologies are well applied in operational level in Japan both in air survey and mobile mapping. Airborne laser scanners are applied mainly in topography in forest mountain areas for disaster assessment, flood risk mapping, forest monitoring etc. Mobile mapping system with laser scanning has been just started recently for road surface mapping and city modeling. About six manufacturers are under competition in Japan to make market services with different MMS.

UAV Photogrammetry
by Prof. em. Dr. Armin Gruen

UAVs C Unmanned Aerial vehicles have recently become a strong focus of attention, since inexpensive platforms, navigation and control devices and sensors have become available. Nowadays many groups worldwide are engaged in UAV- related research. Platforms range from stratospheric airships to low flying fixed wing aircrafts, model helicopters, quadrocopters and others. Especially the model helicopter, equipped with GPS, IMU, stabilizing platform and digital cameras and (in the future) laserscanners has excellent application prospects. It combines all features which make it attractive as a data acquisition device: Inexpensive, very flexible in operation (can operate in nadir, oblique and quasi-terrestrial mode), stable with respect to wind (as opposed to balloons and kites), able to fly into confined spaces, operable on-demand and with on-line and real-time processing capabilities.

We see a great interest in all parts of the world in this technology and we expect it to open new and innovative applications for photogrammetry in the near future.
This presentation introduces into the fundamentals of UAV photogrammetry and reports about the experiences collected by our group in this area in the past six years. We will address hardware and sensor issues, discuss the need and use of advanced photogrammetric software and report about a variety of different applications.
While archaeology and cultural heritage applications still count for most of our projects, we also have used these devices in plant sciences, geology, civil engineering, hydrology, etc. Obviously, the on-line monitoring of damages caused by natural and man-made hazards is another important application.

UAVs give us new sensor platforms at hand which widen significantly our capabilities for efficient data acquisition. With improvements to be expected in hard- and software development we can safely predict many more interesting applications for the near future.

Prediction of Earthquakes with GPS Data
by Prof. Shunji Murai

Five meter GPS tower has been constructed at about 1,200 control points all over Japan mainly for crustal movement analysis or earthquake prediction. 30 second GTPS data are averaged into daily data for use of earthquake trend analysis which shows pre-signals of future earthquakes. The author has developed the earthquake prediction system by which pre-signals can be found in advance to earthquakes. Some of examples of the analysis will be introduced.

Image-based modeling for emergency management
Prof. em. Dr. Armin Gruen

Natural and man-made disasters have had a great impact lately worldwide. As global communication intensifies we are becoming increasingly aware of the amount of damage that is done in terms of injuries to and loss of humans and materials. Therefore a tremendous amount of efforts goes into activities aiming at disaster mitigation and early and effective rescue actions.
In this context disaster response planning plays a specific role. Disaster response planning consists of three components: (a) development of damage simulation models, (b) methods and models to rapidly assess damage, and (c) methods to allocate limited resources in an optimal way. Among the various techniques applied in this domain remote sensing technology can contribute in particular to (a) and (b), but in a certain extent also to (c).
In this presentation the emphasis will be on the characteristics and use of image-based techniques.
We dispose nowadays of a large spectrum of different sensors, operating from a variety of platforms like satellites (optical, radar), aerial (images, LiDAR, helicopters, UAVs) and terrestrial (Mobile Mapping systems, flying mosquito robots). We will show how these techniques can be used both for simulation of events, risk analysis and for the empirical analysis of events and prevention, and for the monitoring of actual events.
The true challenge today lies not so much in sensing, but in data processing. Especially if on-line processing and real-time responses are required, the lack of performance in data processing techniques is still an annoying factor.
This presentation will cover all aspects from sensing to data processing, supported by a number of exemplary international projects.