Date of Award

6-2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Guna Seetharaman, PhD

Abstract

In recent years, world events have expedited the need for the design and application of rapidly deployable airborne surveillance systems in urban environments. Fast and effective use of the surveillance images requires accurate modeling of the terrain being surveyed. The process of accurately modeling buildings, landmarks, or other items of interest on the surface of the earth, within a short lead time, has proven to be a challenging task. One approach of high importance for countering this challenge and accurately reconstructing 3D objects is through the employment of airborne 3D image acquisition platforms. While developments in this arena have significantly risen, there remains a wide gap in the verification of accuracy between the acquired data and the actual ground-truth data. In addition, the time and cost of verifying the accuracy of the acquired data on airborne imaging platforms has also increased. This thesis investigation proposes to design and test a small-scale 3D imaging platform to aid in the verification of current image acquisition, registration and processing algorithms at a lower cost in a controlled lab environment. A rich data set of images will be acquired and the use of such data will be explored.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GAE-ENG-07-01

DTIC Accession Number

ADA476921

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