Case Study: Rigorous Boresight Alignment of a Marine Mobile LiDAR System Addressing the Specific Demands of Port Infrastructure Monitoring

Abstract

Accurate infrastructure monitoring of ports and harbors is a vital operation conducted by the port’s authority. To operate regularly in this highly dynamic environment, we explore the potential of the cutting-edge mobile LiDAR systems (MLS) mounted on a vessel. To generate a high-quality 3 D point cloud that would satisfy the expected accuracy required in the monitoring task, the LiDAR scanner and the positioning and orientation system (POS) must be angularly aligned also known as boresight alignment. In this research, we introduce a boresight alignment methodology adapted to the port infrastructure surveillance based on prefabricated planar targets. After an analysis of planar target simulated data, we propose a boresight alignment site design. Then, we apply this boresight alignment site design in a real-world scenario. Obtained results estimate accurately roll and yaw angles errors with standard deviations of less than 0.002 degrees and pitch angle error with standard deviation less than 0.015 degrees. Finally, we defined a validation site and described the procedure that uses these features to validate the quality of the estimated parameters. The relative comparison of the georeferenced point clouds, before and after boresight alignment demonstrates the mitigation of the boresight systematic error impact on the final point cloud.

Keywords:

• Boresight alignment
• marine mobile LiDAR system
• planar targets
• port infrastructures monitoring
• simulation analysis

Disclosure statement

The authors have no potential competing financial or non-financial interests in the work presented.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from CIDCO (Centre Interdisciplinaire de Développement en Cartographie des Océans). Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under a research agreement for this study. Access to the marine mobile LiDAR system data (LiDAR and the SBET files) of the Port of Montreal survey will be considered upon reasonable request by the authors with the permission of CIDCO.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed by an international research project of Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation (MEI) du Québec (PSR-SIIRI-953) and MITACS Acceleration research fund (IT08173) that focuses on “Automatic calibration and performance analysis of a mobile LiDAR system” through a partnership between Université Laval and CIDCO.