Application of Rail Track Geometry Measuring Trolleys for Georeferencing of Uav Images

Abstract

Abstract. Rail track geometry measuring trolleys are widely used in the railway industry. They can collect information about the state of rails with high accuracy. Nowadays there are a lot of trolleys. Principles of measurements in different trolleys may vary greatly. The trolleys that can use the absolute method of measuring coordinates have advantages. Coordinates of rails and rail track axis can be used as control points for georeferencing of any other surveying data. UAV images are one of these data types. In railways aerial survey using UAVs is mostly used for mapping, gathering data for creation of profiles and some other measurements. UAVs allow reducing the volume of field surveying works. The cost of UAVs is very different. Application of low-cost UAVs imposes increased requirements to distribution of control points. As distribution of control points taken from a trolley trajectory is poor, the issue of such control point application emerges. The study of opportunity to use the trolley trajectory for georeferencing of UAV images is carried out. Accuracy estimation of generating photogrammetric models and image-based point clouds using control point coordinates measured with the trolley is given. Accuracy of measuring obstruction clearances with the help of image-based point clouds is estimated.