Processing UAV and Laser Scanning Point Clouds

Dear Colleagues,

With the advent of unmanned aircrafts (UAs), terrestrial laser scanners (TLS), and airborne LiDAR sensors in recent years, mapping has become more efficient, less costly, and more accurate. That is since they allow for collection of much larger amounts of accurate data in a much shorter period of time, compared with traditional surveying. UAs can cover hundreds of hectares in a few hours and provide survey-grade data both in the form of aerial photographs and three-dimensional (3D) point clouds. TLS are able to provide a comprehensive 3D representation of the scanned objects and sites within a few minutes. TLS and UAs are still emerging and are being widely employed in numerous applications in both academia and industry. Consequently, processing point clouds has become a very popular research topic among various academic communities. Considering the fast-growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various fields of research, studies that explore the application of AI in processing point clouds are of special interest in this Special Issue.

Prospective authors are invited to contribute to this Special Issue of Remote Sensing by submitting an original manuscript of their latest innovative research results related to processing point clouds acquired by unmanned aircrafts, terrestrial laser scanners, or LiDAR sensors. In addition, reviews and contributions are welcomed. Original and innovative contributions may include, but are not limited to:

• Processing point clouds that are obtained either directly from a laser scanner/LiDAR sensor or from photogrammetry solutions applied to an UA’s aerial photographs.
• Automated registration of point clouds.
• Automatic recognition and/or modeling of objects from point clouds.
• Automated detection and elimination of outliers in point clouds.
• Feature extraction.
• Mapping and/or monitoring applications using point clouds.
• Developing new and computationally efficient methods for processing point clouds.
• Applications of point clouds in other domains such as geography, natural resources, urban planning, architecture, civil engineering, construction, robotics, health, and safety, etc.
• Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in processing point clouds for any of the above-mentioned topics.

Dr. Mostafa Arastounia
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• point clouds
• artificial intelligence
• laser scanning
• UAV/UAS
• LiDAR
• mapping
• monitoring
• object modeling
• feature extraction
• segmentation
• registration