LiDAR Processing Pipeline
Automated pipeline turning raw drone LiDAR into survey-grade DEMs, contour maps, and classified point clouds in 3 hours instead of 2 days, with 2cm vertical accuracy.
Client
Surveying Client
Key Results
Points Per Flight
Vertical Accuracy
Flight-to-Deliverable
Manual Effort Reduced
The Challenge
Each drone flight generated 14M+ LiDAR points, but turning that raw data into client-ready deliverables took 2 full days of manual processing. With 8-12 active projects, the backlog was growing faster than the team could clear it.
Key challenges included:
- 5-step manual processing chain taking 2 days per flight dataset
- Ground classification alone consuming 6-8 hours per dataset
- Output quality varying between operators, triggering client rework
- Clients requesting interactive 3D views they could share with stakeholders
- Engineering clients requiring 2cm vertical accuracy for construction grading
Surveying Industry Context
Drone LiDAR captures terrain 10x faster than ground survey, but the processing bottleneck meant clients waited days for deliverables. Engineering and construction teams needed 2cm accuracy and same-week turnaround.
Survey-grade Accuracy
Centimeter-level precision required
Terrain Modeling
DEMs, contours, volumes
Our Solution
Clients now receive survey-grade DEMs and classified point clouds within 3 hours of flight completion. The pipeline handles 14M+ points per dataset with consistent 2cm vertical accuracy, and a web-based 3D viewer lets stakeholders explore results without installing software.
Processing Pipeline
Flight Data
Drone trajectory & LiDAR data
PPK Processing
Emlid Flow correction
Point Cloud
DJI Terra generation
Classification
Terrasolid ground filtering
Deliverables
DEMs, contours, exports
Emlid Flow PPK
Post-processed kinematic correction achieving 2cm vertical accuracy, meeting engineering survey standards.
DJI Terra Processing
Batch processing pipeline generating dense point clouds from 14M+ raw LiDAR returns per flight.
Terrasolid Classification
Automated ground classification replacing 6-8 hours of manual filtering with a 25-minute batch job.
DEM Generation
10cm-resolution Digital Elevation Models delivered within 3 hours of flight completion.
Contour Extraction
Automated contour generation at client-specified intervals, from 0.25m to 5m, for topographic mapping.
Web-Based 3D Viewer
Interactive browser viewer letting clients explore point cloud data and share it with stakeholders, no software install needed.
Project Impact
Operational Efficiency
- Processing time cut from 2 days to 3 hours per flight dataset
- Consistent 2cm vertical accuracy across all projects, eliminating rework
- Team now handles 3x more concurrent projects without added headcount
- Pipeline scales to process 4 flights in parallel on a single workstation
Client Deliverables
- Survey-grade DEMs and contour maps delivered same-day for standard flights
- Web-based 3D viewer shared via link, no software install required
- Export to DXF, LAS, GeoTIFF, and Shapefile for CAD and GIS workflows
- Full processing metadata and QA report included with every deliverable