An automated approach to vertical road characterisation using mobile LiDAR systems: Longitudinal profiles and cross-sections

The characterisation the vertical profiles and cross-sections of roads is important for the verification of proper construction and road safety assessment. The goal of this paper is the extraction of geometric parameters through the automatic processing of mobile LiDAR system (MLS) point clouds. Massive and complex datasets provided by the MLS are processed using a hierarchical strategy that includes segmentation, principal component analysis (PCA)-based orthogonal regression, filtering and parameter extraction procedures. Best-fit geometric parameters act as a vertical road model for both linear parameters (slope and vertical curves) and cross-sections (superelevations). The proposed automatic processing approach gives satisfactory results for the analysed scenario.