A real-time method for DSM generation from airborne LiDAR data

This paper presents a new real-time method for the DSM (Digital Surface Model) generation from the airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data. In this method, the positions and elevation values of the laser footprints in each obtained scanning line are firstly transformed into a regular discrete array by the operations of linearization and gridding. After that, mathematical morphology is implemented to the array to obtain the digital models of the ground and objects on ground surface. In the airborne LiDAR scanning process, while the scanning lines are continually obtained, the digital models in the scanning lines are real-timely generated and displayed. Finally, when the scanning process is completed, the DSM of the whole acquired point cloud is attained by combining the digital models in all scanning lines. The proposed method is validated by using real airborne LiDAR data.