An automatic extraction algorithm of high voltage transmission lines from airborne LIDAR point cloud data

Abstract

To improve the effectiveness and generality of existing methods of high voltage (HV) transmission linesextraction, this paper proposes a novel automatic extraction method of HV transmission lines using airborne LIDARpoint cloud data by incorporating the geography of transmission corridors and the distribution characteristics of airborneLIDAR point cloud data. The proposed method results in the separation of ground objects by using a differentiationheight threshold segmentation algorithm based on subspace features, which divide long-distance space into several smalldistance space sets to improve the generality of the algorithm. A height density segmentation algorithm is used to locatetransmission towers and extract point cloud data of HV transmission lines to improve the efficiency of the algorithm.Feasibility test cases show that the proposed method can automatically extract HV transmission lines from airborneLIDAR point cloud data in flat terrains, canyon terrains, and steep slope terrains in an efficient manner, with highaccuracy and generality.