Introduction to MMS Special Issue
Jonathan Li and Michael A. Chapman
This special issue on mobile mapping represents the culmination of the efforts of many researchers and developers around the world in the now expanded field of Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS). The term mobile mapping began its widespread usage in the late 1980s as a result of the efforts of a group of researchers at The Center for Mapping, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA and the Department of Geomatics Engineering (formerly Surveying Engineering), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The first formal definition of the term “mobile mapping” was offered in 1995 by Dr. John Bossler, director of the Center of Mapping, The Ohio State University,“ Mobile mapping is a technique used to gather geographical information, such as natural landmarks and the location of roads, from a moving vehicle. The technology has been around for decades, but recent advances in computers and satellites have made mobile mapping easier, cheaper and more accurate.”
As a result of the growing interest in MMSs, a series of international symposiums and workshops were held to highlight the developments and disseminate the know-how that was rapidly evolving. The 1st Mobile Mapping Symposium was hosted by The Center for Mapping and Department of Geodetic Science and Surveying on 24-26 May 1995 at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. While the number of operational mobile mapping systems was limited at this time, it was quite evident from the volume and diversity of the papers presented at this symposium that the mobile mapping area was developing at an accelerated rate. Initial focus was primarily in the area of terrestrial systems and much of the research and development work was being performed at a very limited number of universities. It was evident that the systems being developed would involve an integration of positioning, navigation and remote sensing technologies. Virtually all presented systems included a GPS receiver, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and video cameras arrays. The data streams arising from the GPS and IMU assemblies were processed using various forms of Kalman filter algorithms. There was also some mention of the use of dead-reckoning strategies and map-matching methodologies to supplement the positioning and orientation information coming from the GPS/IMU processing. Other papers dealt with various aspects of semi-automated feature extraction and the development of related geospatial information systems (GIS). This symposium resulted in the publication of the first set of proceedings with a mobile mapping theme.
It was almost five years later that the second International Workshop on Mobile Mapping Technology was successfully held in Bangkok, Thailand, April 21-23, 1999. This second symposium was co-organized by ISPRS WG II/1 Real-time Mapping Technologies, IAG SC4/WG1 Mobile Multi-Sensor Systems, FIG C5/WG3 Real-time Precise Mapping, ISPRS WG V/1 Close-Range Imaging and Metrology, ISPRS IC WG V/III Image Sequence Analysis. In addition, other sponsoring organizations included the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), the Association for Real-time Imaging and Dynamic Analysis (ARIDA), and the Japan Association of Remote Sensing (JARS). Several new mobile mapping systems were introduced since the first symposium in Columbus, Ohio. The variety of papers and posters clearly showed that the area of mobile mapping had begun to find expanded interest in both the academic and commercial sectors. The conference had participants from many regions of the globe and the scope of the papers showed an increasingly diversified research agenda. Results from operational and development platforms with a variety of sensors were delivered during the symposium. The 3rd International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology was held in Cairo, Egypt, Jan 3-5, 2001. Co-sponsors included FIG Commission 5, IAG Special Commission 4, ISPRS Commission II, the University of Calgary (Canada), the Survey Group, Ain Shams University (Egypt), the Egyptian Survey Authority (Egypt), and the National Lab for Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (China). This well-attended symposium demonstrated the evolution of the MMS field with the inclusion of interest areas such as: kinematic real-time position and attitude determination, direct georeferencing, sensor orientation, integration and calibration/ reliability aspects of direct georeferencing, mobile mapping systems technology (platforms and components), automated and semi-automated object extraction and recognition, image sequence processing, estimation and optimization algorithms, integration of mobile mapping data with other data sources, integration of mobile mapping data into GIS, real-time aspects of mobile mapping systems, mobile mapping applications (3d city models, virtual realty, GIS, advanced production technologies, data management, car navigation, facility management, risk management, etc.), robotics, and automation in geomatics.
On March 29-31, 2004, the 4th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology (MMT 2004) was held in Kunming, China. This symposium sponsored jointly by the working groups from FIG, IAG, and ISPRS Commission I, WG II/1, WG II/2, WG IV/ 2 and WG V/5, FIG WG 5.3 and IAG WG SC4.1. This latest symposium finally took place after a delay of almost a year due to precautionary measures taken in response to the SARS outbreak in 2003. MMT2004 was billed as a forum for decision makers, researchers, developers, system integrators, and commercial system vendors in the mobile mapping community. The advancement of mobile mapping technologies was reflected in the latest developments in mobile mapping technology, ranging from algorithm research to system development, including both landbased and airborne systems, the evolving areas of direct georeferencing and sensor integration, mobile data acquisition to dynamic GIS management, and to mobile sensor networks. This symposium covered the themes of: integration of navigation and mapping sensors, advanced and/or low-cost navigation and positioning techniques, wireless location techniques for mapping, direct georeferencing algorithms and systems, multisensor systems (land-based, airborne, shipborne), lidar and ifsar mapping systems, multi-sensor data fusion technique, automatic feature extraction and object reconstruction, mobile image sequence analysis, mobile GIS, distributed databases and geocomputation, 3D mobile mapping and GIS integration applications and internet or wireless location-based services.
The next symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology will be held on 28-31 May 2007 in Padua, Italy and will be hosted by CIRGEO (Interdepartmental Research Center for Geomatics), University of Padua, Italy. Sponsors for this symposium will include ISPRS IC WG V/I, “Integrated Mobile Mapping Systems”, ISPRS IC WG I/V “Autonomous Vehicle Navigation”, ISPRS WG I/ 3 “Multi-Platform Sensing and Sensor Networks”, ISPRS WG I/2“ LiDAR and IfSAR Systems”, FIG WG5.3 “Integrated Positioning, Navigation and Mapping Systems”, IAG WG SC4.1 “Mobile Multi-Sensor Systems” as well as CIRGEO - Interdepartmental. Research Center for Geomatics, University of Padua, Italy, University of Calgary, Canada and Ohio State University, U.S.A. Full symposium details can be found at: http://www.cirgeo.unipd.it/sitoCIRGEO/mmt_frst.html.
Mobile mapping now includes virtually all forms of mobile platforms that are used for the mapping of the Earth, its environment and man-made features that are found on, above or below its surface. The demand for highway infrastructure information represented the initial driving force behind the development of mobile mapping platforms. These first few systems were navigated along highway and railway corridors and the corresponding asset information was recorded on the video image sequences with positioning and orientation data being offered by the integrated GPS/IMU system. Subsequent information extraction usually took place on a workstation where the image sequences and their tagged position and orientation data could be used with adapted photogrammetric algorithms. The term“ direct-georeferencing” has since been coined to describe the use of precise position and orientation data without the traditional requirement of photogrammetric block or image-sequence adjustments employing measured image coordinates.
New sensors and processing strategies are being introduced with various forms of refinement and integration schemes. Some of these new sensors include high-speed digital cameras, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), lidar, IfSAR, sonar, and ground penetrating radar (GPR). Advanced processing strategies have arisen for semi-automated sign detection and identification, bridging mechanisms in the event of signal loss or degradation, multi-senor integration and image sequence processing. More recently, there has been a renewed interest in the acquisition of supplemental information such as road surface profiles (longitudinal and transverse) as well as pavement conditions. This type of information has been traditionally collected using relatively manual and labor-intensive techniques. The associated area of Pavement Management Systems (PMS) represents a vast and untapped research theme that will likely see increased attention over the next few years.
The papers included in this special issue represent the recent efforts of many of the researchers who have been involved in the development of mobile mapping technologies over the past two decades. The initial response to the call for papers for this special issue was somewhat overwhelming. After careful consideration and consultation with many individuals, the present sequence of papers was deemed to be representative of the state-of-the-art. Many people and organizations have contributed in innumerable ways to the development and success of mobile mapping technology as it is found today. Special thanks go to the following individuals who were gracious enough to donate their time during the review process of this special issue: Benson Agi, John Bossler, Dongmei Chen, Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, Xulin Guo, Ayman Habib, Jason Hu, Yong Hu, Andrew Hunter, Zhizhong Kang, Allison Kealy, Fuad Khan, Songnian Li, Xiaopeng Li, Yu Li, Marcelo Santos, Jie Shan, Gunho Sohn, Charles K Toth, Jinling Wang, Shengrui Wang, Xuedong Yang, Robin Zhang, Yun Zhang, Yanbo Zhou and Sisi Zlatanova. It should be noted that a book dedicated to MMT, entitled“ Advances in Mobile Mapping Technology,” will be published under the special book series of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).
Jonathan Li and Michael A. Chapman, Department of Civil Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.