Design and Implementation of 4S-Van: A Mobile Mapping System

Recent advances in positioning and photogrammetry technologies have made it possible to build a mobile mapping system (MMS) that can obtain 3D coordinates of geographic objects from stereo images recorded from a moving vehicle. In this paper, we present a design and detailed implementation of an MMS called a 4S-Van. Furthermore, we present four issues that have made major contributions to the performance of an MMS: 1) CCD camera calibration, 2) GPS signal condition, 3) integrating a GPS, inertial navigation system (INS), distance measurement indicator (DMI), and CCD cameras, and 4) the orientation angle of CCD cameras. In the experimental results, the performance of an MMS was analyzed for each component, giving an idea of how to effectively design and integrate each component in developing an MMS to get a maximal accuracy of 3D coordinates.