When Photogrammetry Meets Lidar: Towards the Airborne Hybrid Era

The airborne market for area-wide 3D data acquisition is experiencing a noticeable trend towards a hybrid mapping concept. In the near future, most airborne data collection will increasingly be performed by a combination of active and passive sensors. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, collecting all relevant data while flying is an efficient and cost-effective solution, even when the flying restrictions and regulations are factored in. Secondly, exploiting the advantages of both light detection and ranging (Lidar) and dense image matching (DIM) point clouds will improve the quality of the final geospatial products. This article reports on the latest developments in the field of airborne hybrid systems, including both data acquisition and processing.