applications of lidar technology

SOURABH JAIN 1

APPLICATIONS OF LIDAR TECHNOLOGY

SOURABH JAIN 2

Introduction

• Light Detection and Ranging• Lidar (or LiDAR) is a remote sensing technology that

measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light.

• Analogous to RADAR, but using a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• RADAR uses radio waves or microwaves• LiDAR uses light at or near the visible spectrum (Visible

spectrum occupies 390 nm - 700 nm) • Aerial mapping LiDAR generally uses 1064 nm Yttrium-

Aluminum-Garnet lasers

SOURABH JAIN 3

History

• Lidar originated in the early 1960s.• Its first applications came in meteorology, where the

National Center for Atmospheric Research used it to measure clouds.

• The general public became aware of the accuracy and usefulness of lidar systems in 1971 during the Apollo 15 mission, when astronauts used a laser altimeter to map the surface of the moon.

SOURABH JAIN 4

Principle & Working

• LiDAR uses the laser to illuminate a target and then analyzes the reflection.

• Distance = (Speed of Light x Time of Flight) / 2• The LiDAR instrument fires rapid pulses of laser light at

a surface, some at up to 150,000 pulses per second.• Laser light, due to much shorter wavelength is able to

accurately measure much smaller objects, such as aerosols and cloud particles.

• The narrow laser beam makes it possible to map objects with a high degree of resolution

SOURABH JAIN 5

Applications

SOURABH JAIN 6

Agriculture

• Lidar can create a topographical map of the fields and reveals the slopes and sun exposure of the farm land.

• Another application is in crop mapping in orchards and vineyards.

• It also indicates which areas to apply the expensive fertilizers to achieve the highest crop yield.

SOURABH JAIN 7

Lidar view of Agricultural Land

SOURABH JAIN 8

Autonomous vehicles

• Autonomous vehicles use Lidar for obstacle detection and avoidance to navigate safely through environments.

• Lidar sensor provide data for software to determine where potential obstacles exist in the environment and where the vehicle is in relation to those potential obstacles.

SOURABH JAIN 9

Autonomous Vehicle

SOURABH JAIN 10

ILLUSTRATION

SOURABH JAIN 11

Geology and Soil Science

• To detect subtle topographic features such as river terraces and river channel banks.

• For detecting faults and for measuring uplift.• Airborne lidar systems monitor glaciers and have the

ability to detect subtle amounts of growth or decline.• NASA ICESat, includes a lidar sub-system for this

purpose.• The detailed terrain modeling allows soil scientists to

see slope changes and landform breaks which indicate patterns in soil spatial relationships.

SOURABH JAIN 12

LiDAR Technology Reveals Faults

SOURABH JAIN 13

NASA ICESat

SOURABH JAIN 14

Atmospheric Remote Sensing and Meteorology

• Lidar systems are used to determine cloud profiles, measuring winds, studying aerosols and quantifying various atmospheric components.

• Atmospheric lidar remote sensing works in two ways -– by measuring backscatter from the atmosphere,

and– by measuring the scattered reflection off the

ground or other hard surface.

SOURABH JAIN 15

Mining

• The calculation of ore volumes is accomplished by periodic (monthly) scanning in areas of ore removal.

• Lidar sensors may also be used for obstacle detection and avoidance for robotic mining vehicles.

SOURABH JAIN 16

SOURABH JAIN 17

Spaceflight and Astronomy

• A worldwide network of observatories uses lidar to measure the distance to reflectors placed on the moon.

• Lidar has also been used for atmospheric studies from space.

• Station keeping of spacecraft.

SOURABH JAIN 18

Reflectors placed on the Moon

SOURABH JAIN 19

Surveying

• It can be used to create DEM (digital elevation models)

• In forests it is able to give the height of the canopy as well as the ground elevation.

• For Surveying and Civil Engineering the most important applications are aerial scanning and terrestrial scanning .

SOURABH JAIN 20

Digital Elevation Model

SOURABH JAIN 21

Aerial Scanning Terrestrial Scanning

SOURABH JAIN 22

Case StudyMOLA

• Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)• Operated in Mars orbit from September 1997 to

November 2006.• It transmitted infrared laser pulses at a rate of 10

times/sec. , and measured the time of flight to determine the range of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft to the Martian surface.

• The range measurements resulted in precise topographic maps of Mars.

SOURABH JAIN 23

MOLA topographic images of the two hemispheres of Mars

SOURABH JAIN 24

Pole-to-Pole view

• Is a pole-to-pole view of Martian topography from the first MOLA global topographic model.

• The slice runs from the north pole (left) to the south pole (right) along the 0° longitude line.

• The figure highlights the pole-to-pole slope of 0.036°, such that the south pole has a higher elevation than the north pole.

SOURABH JAIN 25

References

• http://www.lidar-uk.com/• http://lidar.cr.usgs.gov/• www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factshe

ets/LITE.html• http://www.webcitation.org/6H82i1Gfx

SOURABH JAIN 26

THANK YOU