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Design & Analysis Solutions
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BAE Systems Creates Mission Planning Prototype for urban environment
using ground based imagery.
BAE Systems, a global systems, defense and aerospace company, has
prototyped a mission planning application utilizing the latest photogrametric
and 3D GIS technologies. The result is a photo-realistic detailed
realtime 3D urban simulation database for a portion of San Diego,
California - created completely from satellite imagery. By combining
BAE Systems' photogrametric tool suite SOCET SET and MultiGen-Paradigm's
3D GIS software, SiteBuilder 3D, the prototype demonstrates how
accurate, geo-specific 3D urban models can be generated completely
from above ground imagery. Modeling high-fidelity 3D scenes of urban
areas is a particular challenge especially when the area of interest
is either inaccessible or impossible to visit prior to the commencement
of military or other security sensitive operations.
Problem
Today, the military and public safety markets lack effective
software tools to create accurate, realistic 3D models of inaccessible
urban environments. Although GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
can create very accurate maps of these areas, the results are typically
in 2D and lack the perspective and insight gained from viewing real
world environments in realtime 3D. Furthermore, if a requirement
exists to create a 3D representation of the area, most tools available
today require a high-level of technical ability, a strong grasp
of 3D concepts and in many cases vast amounts of time. In addition,
often these 3D scenes are typically pre-rendered and viewed only
as a video playback, lacking the interactivity that a realtime 3D
scene offers.
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Learn More
Find out more about the MultiGen-Paradigm
products used to develop design & analysis solutions:
Design Customer Success Stories
Customers:
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Solution
Geo-specific imagery, specifically satellite
imagery and aerial photography, is used extensively for defense and public
safety organizations throughout the world. In many cases, this data can
be collected and delivered to mission planning and intelligence personnel
for very detailed areas and with quick turnaround. Typically, the imagery
is combined with whatever digital feature data exists that describes what
is on the ground (i.e. building locations, weapon installations, roads,
etc.) and displayed as maps. By combining BAE Systems' SOCET SET software
and MultiGen-Paradigm's SiteBuilder 3D, GIS users and photogrametric professionals
can extract geospatial data from their imagery and create real-world,
high resolution, 3D simulated environments using satellite imagery and
aerial photography as their single source of data. As mentioned above,
the ability to gather this information from an "eye in the sky" vs. having
to deploy and risk personnel and equipment in the field is significant.
For the San Diego prototype, BAE Systems first collected
the source imagery, which consisted of 1-meter resolution color satellite
imagery and 2-inch resolution color aerial photography. BAE's SOCET SET
tools were then used to combine the imagery into a single stereo-pair
image and then to extract feature data. Features extracted from the imagery
included: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the terrain, roads, street
centerlines, curbs, trees, street lights, fire hydrants, signals and building
footprints. All of the feature datum (point, line, polygon) was exported
to ESRI's Shapefile format for use within SiteBuilder 3D. One of SOCET
SET's newest capabilities is to create geo-specific fully textured 3D
models in MultiGen-Paradigm's OpenFlight realtime 3D scene format. Several
downtown San Diego buildings were created in this format for use within
SiteBuilder's Model Library. Next, ArcView GIS from ESRI, Redlands, CA),
was used to create a 2D digital map of San Diego using the imagery and
feature data overlays.
SiteBuilder 3D, as an extension, or plug-in to ArcView
GIS, then created a correlated realtime 3D urban scene from the map. The
tool was used to first generate a 3D terrain model using the DEM. Next,
the terrain was draped with the 1-meter satellite image. Feature data
was then transformed from 2D to 3D using SiteBuilder's parametric modeling
procedures. This process used specific attributes from Shapefiles (i.e.
street width or building height) along with photo-realistic textures and
3D models (i.e. road texture and trees) and quickly converted the 2D features
to 3D and placed them into the scene based on their real world coordinates.
The finished urban simulation included the terrain, imagery overlay, streets,
trees, building footprint extrusions, streetlights, and street centerlines.
SOCET SET's building models (in an OpenFlight format) were then placed
on the terrain in their exact locations.
The entire process, from 2D map to 3D scene, took approximately
15 minutes - with very impressive results. The digital map and the 3D
scene were then viewed side-by-side with a viewpoint symbol tracking eyepoint
position on the map - in realtime.
Mark Oldknow, from BAE Systems said, "This effort clearly
demonstrates the next wave of geospatial technologies and 3D GIS. I feel
that both BAE and MultiGen-Paradigm compliment each other in both the
GIS and Vis/Sim communities." Products Used: SOCET SET, the premier photogrammetric
tool suite for the generation of real-world, photo-specific databases.
Raster and vector products are derived from many different imagery and
sensor sources and are widely used throughout the mapping, GIS, remote
sensing, visualization and simulation communities.
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