Hierarchical classification of pole‐like objects in mobile laser scanning point clouds

Abstract

Abstract For the classification of pole‐like objects (trees, lamp posts, traffic lights and traffic signs) in mobile laser scanning (MLS) point clouds, a hierarchical classification method is proposed. The method consists of three major steps. (1) The objects’ cylindrical column sections are detected based on the characteristics of arc‐like points using RANSAC after denoising. (2) These detected objects are roughly classified into trees and man‐made poles based on the azimuthal coverage of point clouds above the cylindrical column. (3) Eigenvalue analysis and the principal direction of the upper pole projections are used to differentiate lamp posts, traffic lights and traffic signs. Experimental analysis shows that the method can effectively identify different types of pole‐like objects.