This month’s (June 2010) ASPRS PE & RS Journal includes an article entitled, A Novel Approach to Terrestrial Lidar Georeferencing. It is based on research conducted at the University of Florida that investigated the use of GPS to directly georeference the scanner, thereby replacing the need for scan targets and control surveys.
The basic approach was to fix 2 GPS antennas on an aluminum bar approximately 1 meter apart, and then mount the bar on top of a Reigl Z390i laser scanner. The method produced solutions with a 0.05 degree level of precision for the angular orientation of the scanner. At 50 meters this would translate to about 4 cm of uncertainty.
For certain applications, where access could be an issue, this could be an appropriate alternative.
