Towards a fully automated aerotriangulation system

During the last two decades aerotriangulation enjoyed great success. Block adjustment programs and analytical plotters contributed most to economical, reliable and accurate aerotriangulation procedures. Apart from the quality of control points, the single most critical factor that determines the accuracy and reliability is the selection and transfer of tie points. Digital photogrammetry and soft copy stations will add a new dimension to aerotriangulation as it is feasible to automate the selection of suitable point locations and to measure them simultaneously in all overlapping images. In this paper we describe a system that automatically selects tie points based on overlapping and distribution criteria, determines approximations for precise multiple image matching and performs point measurement to sub-pixel accuracy. A key element is the block system established by strip- and block-formation based on common features between images. -Authors