THERMAL 3D MODELS ENHANCEMENT BASED ON INTEGRATION WITH VISIBLE IMAGERY

Abstract. In the last few years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being frequently used to acquire high resolution photogrammetric images and consequently producing Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and orthophotos in a photogrammetric procedure for topography and surface processing applications. Thermal imaging sensors are mostly used for interpretation and monitoring purposes because of lower geometric resolution. But yet, thermal mapping is getting more important in civil applications, as thermal sensors can be used in condition that visible sensors cannot, such as foggy weather and night times which is not possible for visible cameras. But, low geometric quality and resolution of thermal images is a main drawback that 3D thermal modelling are encountered with. This study aims to offer a solution for to fixing mentioned problem and generating a thermal 3D model with higher spatial resolution based on thermal and visible point clouds integration. This integration leads to generate a more accurate thermal point cloud and DEM with more density and resolution which is appropriate for 3D thermal modelling. The main steps of this study are: generating thermal and RGB point clouds separately, registration of them in two course and fine level and finally adding thermal information to RGB high resolution point cloud by interpolation concept. Experimental results are presented in a mesh that has more faces (With a factor of 23) which leads to a higher resolution textured mesh with thermal information.