4S-Van: A Prototype Mobile Mapping System for GIS

The design of Graphic Information System(GIS) in various applications is suffering from the difficulty of data acquisition, which is labor-intensive and time consuming. In order to provide the spatial data rapidly and accurately, 4S-Van, a prototype mobile mapping system, has been developed. The 4S-Van consists of 1)Global Positioning System(GPS), Inertial Navigation System(INS) for estimating the geographic position and attitude of the moving van, i.e.,(x, y, z) and the direction of the Van, 2) Charge Coupled Device(CCD) camera and laser scanner for capturing images and for measuring depth from geographic objects, and 3) External Synchronization Device(ESD) and industrial PC for synchronizing data from GPS/INS/CCD camera and for storing the data. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the proto-Dpe 4S-Van system for spatial data acquisition for various GIS applications.