Fusion of geometric models from VLS overlapping profiles

This study advances a new method for fusion of geometric models from the overlapping profiles collected by vehicle-based laser scanning (VLS), which is developed as a novel mapping technique. The schematic starts from line segment extraction based on random sample consensus (RANSAC) for each profile, and the resulted line segments are grouped. Then, the grouped line segments are fitted to local planes, and the local planes involved in different profile indicators are fused based on maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. Finally, the achieved 3D models are refined under the trial-and-error strategy. The mean distances from the fused local planes to the related inlier points are all less than 0.3 m, and numerical analysis based on the real-measured VLS data has validated the new method.