ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2021
Abstract. Emergency operations are a key example for the need of digital twins in the way it is c... more Abstract. Emergency operations are a key example for the need of digital twins in the way it is complex, urgent and uncertain. First, the process is complex, as many organizations are involved. Second, it is urgent, as most damage is done in the first moments of an emergency. Third, it is uncertain, as situational conditions tend to change quickly.For outdoor operations, spatial information systems help in creating an overview of the situation, for example by displaying positions of first responder units involved with the incident. However, spatial data of indoor environments is scarce. Static information of the building, such as floor plans, are often outdated or non-existent. Dynamic operational data such as positions of first responders within the building are only available in a very limited way as well, and often without visual representation.To create situation awareness of indoor first responder operation environments, this paper successfully proposes a proof of concept with ...
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2018
When the fire brigade arrives at a burning building, it is of vital importance that people who ar... more When the fire brigade arrives at a burning building, it is of vital importance that people who are still inside can quickly be found. Smart buildings should be able to expose this location data to the fire brigade working in a smart city. In this paper the feasibility is researched of using ultrasonic sound sensors for human presence detection in smoke-filled spaces. This type of sensor could assist the fire brigade when evacuating a large building by directing them to the places where their help is most needed. The advantage of ultrasonic sound over other sensors or cameras is that its signal is able to pierce through smoke, does not require badges or other wearable devices and introduces little privacy and security risks. In addition, ultrasonic sensors are very inexpensive making it possible to equip every room of a building with an ultrasonic presence detector. In this research both a preliminary ultrasound measuring device and signal processing algorithm have been designed. Testing results show that the walking movement of a person in an indoor area can be detected with the combination of the sensor and the algorithms. In addition, tests of the signal strength in smoke have shown that ultrasound is capable of "looking through" the smoke. The algorithm based on a particle filter allows for more information to be extracted from the relatively simple sensor signal by detecting human walking movement specifically and opens up the way for an ultrasound based indoor positioning system that can be used in emergency situations.
ABSTRACT Generation of indoor networks for navigation will normally be done out of standard floor... more ABSTRACT Generation of indoor networks for navigation will normally be done out of standard floor plans that are only 2D and is more often manual than automatic. These floor plans are drawn at a specific time and do not correspond to the reality, moreover some of those buildings were built already differently than designed. Then in due course the building will change both externally and internally. Also objects like furniture will be moved around in the building. If these changes are not updated in the map of the building, it becomes out of date and cannot be used for the creation of indoor navigable models anymore. To enable correct indoor navigation, we will need to have the current data of the indoor environment. This article concentrates on providing a new approach to generate up to date floor plans by using a mobile (and hand held) laser scanner in the fastest way. This device creates a point cloud and the corresponding trajectory at the same time. Because the mobile laser scanner device is operated by a walking human, the trajectory contains information about the surface the person is walking on. In this article, a method is explained for the detection of walkable spaces based on the analysis of the point cloud and its corresponding trajectory provided by the mobile laser scanner. Three steps will be used: voxelization, trajectory analysis and the identification of floor regions. Dynamic objects, doors, and furniture objects are also used to identify the surfaces which are available for navigation purposes. Three types of surfaces are considered: horizontal, slopes, and stairs.
3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult ... more 3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult to perform. 3D models of buildings are commonly not available or outdated. 3D point clouds turned out to be a very practical way to capture 3D interior spaces and provide a notion of an empty space. Therefore, pathfinding in point clouds is rapidly emerging. However, processing of raw point clouds can be very expensive, as these are semantically poor and unstructured data. In this article we present an innovative octree-based approach for processing of 3D indoor point clouds for the purpose of multi-story pathfinding. We semantically identify the construction elements, which are of importance for the indoor navigation of humans (i.e., floors, walls, stairs, and obstacles), and use these to delineate the available navigable space. To illustrate the usability of this approach, we applied it to real-world data sets and computed paths considering user constraints. The structuring of the point cloud into an octree approximation improves the point cloud processing and provides a structure for the empty space of the point cloud. It is also helpful to compute paths sufficiently accurate in their consideration of the spatial complexity. The entire process is automatic and able to deal with a large number of multi-story indoor environments.
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2017
Automatic generation of indoor navigable models is mostly based on 2D floor plans. However, in ma... more Automatic generation of indoor navigable models is mostly based on 2D floor plans. However, in many cases the floor plans are out of date. Buildings are not always built according to their blue prints, interiors might change after a few years because of modified walls and doors, and furniture may be repositioned to the user’s preferences. Therefore, new approaches for the quick recording of indoor environments should be investigated. This paper concentrates on laser scanning with a Mobile Laser Scanner (MLS) device. The MLS device stores a point cloud and its trajectory. If the MLS device is operated by a human, the trajectory contains information which can be used to distinguish different surfaces. In this paper a method is presented for the identification of walkable surfaces based on the analysis of the point cloud and the trajectory of the MLS scanner. This method consists of several steps. First, the point cloud is voxelized. Second, the trajectory is analysing and projecting t...
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2017
Since GPS tends to fail for indoor positioning purposes, alternative methods like indoor position... more Since GPS tends to fail for indoor positioning purposes, alternative methods like indoor positioning systems (IPS) based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) are developing rapidly. Generally, IPS are deployed in environments covered with obstacles such as furniture, walls, people and electronics influencing the signal propagation. The major factor influencing the system performance and to acquire optimal positioning results is the geometry of the beacons. The geometry of the beacons is limited to the available infrastructure that can be deployed (number of beacons, basestations and tags), which leads to the following challenge: Given a limited number of beacons, where should they be placed in a specified indoor environment, such that the geometry contributes to optimal positioning results? This paper aims to propose a statistical model that is able to select the optimal configuration that satisfies the user requirements in terms of precision. The model requires the definition of a chosen ...
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2016
At the most fundamental level, smart buildings deliver useful building services that make occupan... more At the most fundamental level, smart buildings deliver useful building services that make occupants productive. Smart asset management in hostipals starts with knowing the whereabouts of medical equipment. This paper investigates the subject of indoor localization of medical equipment in hospitals by defining functional spaces. In order to localize the assets indoors, a localization method is developed that takes into account several factors such as geometrical influences, characteristics of the Quuppa positioning system and obstructions in the indoor environment. For matching the position data to a real world location, several location types are developed by subdividing the floor plan into location clusters. The research has shown that a high-performance level can be achieved for locations that are within the high-resolution range of the <i>receiver</i>. The performance at the smallest subspaces can only be achieved when having a dense distribution of <i>receivers...
In dit project richten wij ons op het gebrek aan up-to-date 3D indoormodellen voor een groot aant... more In dit project richten wij ons op het gebrek aan up-to-date 3D indoormodellen voor een groot aantal openbare gebouwen. Deze modellen zijn voor vele stakeholders, maar vooral voor organisaties die zorg moeten dragen voor het managen van de veiligheid van openbare gebouwen, inclusief de BHV (Bedrijfshulpverleners), de brandweer en de veiligheidsregio’s, cruciaal. De enige ruimtelijke indoorgegevens, die momenteel voor de meeste gebouwen beschikbaar zijn, zijn 2D bouwtekeningen of ontwerp-BIMs (Building Information Models) voor de nieuwe gebouwen. Deze geven de staat van het gebouw ‘zoals ontworpen’ weer, die kan verschillen van de staat van het gebouw ‘zoals gebouwd’ of ‘zoals het is’. Tijdens operaties in de hulpverlening is kennis over verbouwingen (bijv. verlaagde plafonds of verhoogde vloeren), hoogte van de kamers en gangen en aanwezig meubilair van cruciaal belang voor brandbestrijders. Dergelijke informatie kan alleen verkregen worden via een up-to-date 3D indoormodel van het g...
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2021
Abstract. Point clouds serve as the raw material for various models, such as Building Information... more Abstract. Point clouds serve as the raw material for various models, such as Building Information Models (BIM). In this work, we investigate the reconstruction steps needed to create models that can be utilized directly for agent-based simulations. The input data for the reconstruction is captured with an indoor mobile mapping system. To show the prominence of this idea, we run social distancing and evacuation simulations on the reconstructed models. The simulations are run with multiple agents using a vision-based pedestrian model and A*-based path finding algorithm. The limitations of this approach are discussed. The video of the simulation is shared with the audience.Link to the video: https://youtu.be/r2D3IxXt7Ls
Geomatics Synthesis Research project is commissioned by external partners. The research was carri... more Geomatics Synthesis Research project is commissioned by external partners. The research was carried out under the flag of the CERISE Topsector Switch2SmartGrids research program (www.cerise-project.nl).
3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult ... more 3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult to perform. 3D models of buildings are commonly not available or outdated. 3D point clouds turned out to be a very practical way to capture 3D interior spaces and provide a notion of an empty space. Therefore, pathfinding in point clouds is rapidly emerging. However, processing of raw point clouds can be very expensive, as these are semantically poor and unstructured data. In this article we present an innovative octree-based approach for processing of 3D indoor point clouds for the purpose of multi-story pathfinding. We semantically identify the construction elements, which are of importance for the indoor navigation of humans (i.e., floors, walls, stairs, and obstacles), and use these to delineate the available navigable space. To illustrate the usability of this approach, we applied it to real-world data sets and computed paths considering user constraints. The structuring of the point cloud into an octree approximation improves the point cloud processing and provides a structure for the empty space of the point cloud. It is also helpful to compute paths sufficiently accurate in their consideration of the spatial complexity. The entire process is automatic and able to deal with a large number of multi-story indoor environments.
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Indoor environments tend to be more complex and more populated when buildings are accessible to t... more Indoor environments tend to be more complex and more populated when buildings are accessible to the public. The need for knowing where people are, how they can get somewhere or how to reach them in these buildings is thus equally increasing. In this research point clouds are used, obtained by dynamic laser scanning of a building, since we cannot rely on architectural drawings for maps and paths, which can be outdated. The presented method focuses on the creation of an indoor navigation graph, based on IndoorGML structure, in a fast and automated way, while retaining the type of walkable surface. In this paper the focus has been on door detection, because doors are essential elements in an indoor environment, seeing that they connect spaces and are a logical step in a route. This paper describes a way to detect doors using 3D Medial Axis Transform (MAT) combined with the intelligence stored in the path of a mobile laser scanner, showing good first results. Additionally different spaces (e.g. rooms and corridors) in the building are identified and slopes and stairs in walkable spaces are detected. This results in a navigation graph which can be stored in an IndoorGML structure.
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2021
Abstract. Emergency operations are a key example for the need of digital twins in the way it is c... more Abstract. Emergency operations are a key example for the need of digital twins in the way it is complex, urgent and uncertain. First, the process is complex, as many organizations are involved. Second, it is urgent, as most damage is done in the first moments of an emergency. Third, it is uncertain, as situational conditions tend to change quickly.For outdoor operations, spatial information systems help in creating an overview of the situation, for example by displaying positions of first responder units involved with the incident. However, spatial data of indoor environments is scarce. Static information of the building, such as floor plans, are often outdated or non-existent. Dynamic operational data such as positions of first responders within the building are only available in a very limited way as well, and often without visual representation.To create situation awareness of indoor first responder operation environments, this paper successfully proposes a proof of concept with ...
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2018
When the fire brigade arrives at a burning building, it is of vital importance that people who ar... more When the fire brigade arrives at a burning building, it is of vital importance that people who are still inside can quickly be found. Smart buildings should be able to expose this location data to the fire brigade working in a smart city. In this paper the feasibility is researched of using ultrasonic sound sensors for human presence detection in smoke-filled spaces. This type of sensor could assist the fire brigade when evacuating a large building by directing them to the places where their help is most needed. The advantage of ultrasonic sound over other sensors or cameras is that its signal is able to pierce through smoke, does not require badges or other wearable devices and introduces little privacy and security risks. In addition, ultrasonic sensors are very inexpensive making it possible to equip every room of a building with an ultrasonic presence detector. In this research both a preliminary ultrasound measuring device and signal processing algorithm have been designed. Testing results show that the walking movement of a person in an indoor area can be detected with the combination of the sensor and the algorithms. In addition, tests of the signal strength in smoke have shown that ultrasound is capable of "looking through" the smoke. The algorithm based on a particle filter allows for more information to be extracted from the relatively simple sensor signal by detecting human walking movement specifically and opens up the way for an ultrasound based indoor positioning system that can be used in emergency situations.
ABSTRACT Generation of indoor networks for navigation will normally be done out of standard floor... more ABSTRACT Generation of indoor networks for navigation will normally be done out of standard floor plans that are only 2D and is more often manual than automatic. These floor plans are drawn at a specific time and do not correspond to the reality, moreover some of those buildings were built already differently than designed. Then in due course the building will change both externally and internally. Also objects like furniture will be moved around in the building. If these changes are not updated in the map of the building, it becomes out of date and cannot be used for the creation of indoor navigable models anymore. To enable correct indoor navigation, we will need to have the current data of the indoor environment. This article concentrates on providing a new approach to generate up to date floor plans by using a mobile (and hand held) laser scanner in the fastest way. This device creates a point cloud and the corresponding trajectory at the same time. Because the mobile laser scanner device is operated by a walking human, the trajectory contains information about the surface the person is walking on. In this article, a method is explained for the detection of walkable spaces based on the analysis of the point cloud and its corresponding trajectory provided by the mobile laser scanner. Three steps will be used: voxelization, trajectory analysis and the identification of floor regions. Dynamic objects, doors, and furniture objects are also used to identify the surfaces which are available for navigation purposes. Three types of surfaces are considered: horizontal, slopes, and stairs.
3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult ... more 3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult to perform. 3D models of buildings are commonly not available or outdated. 3D point clouds turned out to be a very practical way to capture 3D interior spaces and provide a notion of an empty space. Therefore, pathfinding in point clouds is rapidly emerging. However, processing of raw point clouds can be very expensive, as these are semantically poor and unstructured data. In this article we present an innovative octree-based approach for processing of 3D indoor point clouds for the purpose of multi-story pathfinding. We semantically identify the construction elements, which are of importance for the indoor navigation of humans (i.e., floors, walls, stairs, and obstacles), and use these to delineate the available navigable space. To illustrate the usability of this approach, we applied it to real-world data sets and computed paths considering user constraints. The structuring of the point cloud into an octree approximation improves the point cloud processing and provides a structure for the empty space of the point cloud. It is also helpful to compute paths sufficiently accurate in their consideration of the spatial complexity. The entire process is automatic and able to deal with a large number of multi-story indoor environments.
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2017
Automatic generation of indoor navigable models is mostly based on 2D floor plans. However, in ma... more Automatic generation of indoor navigable models is mostly based on 2D floor plans. However, in many cases the floor plans are out of date. Buildings are not always built according to their blue prints, interiors might change after a few years because of modified walls and doors, and furniture may be repositioned to the user’s preferences. Therefore, new approaches for the quick recording of indoor environments should be investigated. This paper concentrates on laser scanning with a Mobile Laser Scanner (MLS) device. The MLS device stores a point cloud and its trajectory. If the MLS device is operated by a human, the trajectory contains information which can be used to distinguish different surfaces. In this paper a method is presented for the identification of walkable surfaces based on the analysis of the point cloud and the trajectory of the MLS scanner. This method consists of several steps. First, the point cloud is voxelized. Second, the trajectory is analysing and projecting t...
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2017
Since GPS tends to fail for indoor positioning purposes, alternative methods like indoor position... more Since GPS tends to fail for indoor positioning purposes, alternative methods like indoor positioning systems (IPS) based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) are developing rapidly. Generally, IPS are deployed in environments covered with obstacles such as furniture, walls, people and electronics influencing the signal propagation. The major factor influencing the system performance and to acquire optimal positioning results is the geometry of the beacons. The geometry of the beacons is limited to the available infrastructure that can be deployed (number of beacons, basestations and tags), which leads to the following challenge: Given a limited number of beacons, where should they be placed in a specified indoor environment, such that the geometry contributes to optimal positioning results? This paper aims to propose a statistical model that is able to select the optimal configuration that satisfies the user requirements in terms of precision. The model requires the definition of a chosen ...
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2016
At the most fundamental level, smart buildings deliver useful building services that make occupan... more At the most fundamental level, smart buildings deliver useful building services that make occupants productive. Smart asset management in hostipals starts with knowing the whereabouts of medical equipment. This paper investigates the subject of indoor localization of medical equipment in hospitals by defining functional spaces. In order to localize the assets indoors, a localization method is developed that takes into account several factors such as geometrical influences, characteristics of the Quuppa positioning system and obstructions in the indoor environment. For matching the position data to a real world location, several location types are developed by subdividing the floor plan into location clusters. The research has shown that a high-performance level can be achieved for locations that are within the high-resolution range of the <i>receiver</i>. The performance at the smallest subspaces can only be achieved when having a dense distribution of <i>receivers...
In dit project richten wij ons op het gebrek aan up-to-date 3D indoormodellen voor een groot aant... more In dit project richten wij ons op het gebrek aan up-to-date 3D indoormodellen voor een groot aantal openbare gebouwen. Deze modellen zijn voor vele stakeholders, maar vooral voor organisaties die zorg moeten dragen voor het managen van de veiligheid van openbare gebouwen, inclusief de BHV (Bedrijfshulpverleners), de brandweer en de veiligheidsregio’s, cruciaal. De enige ruimtelijke indoorgegevens, die momenteel voor de meeste gebouwen beschikbaar zijn, zijn 2D bouwtekeningen of ontwerp-BIMs (Building Information Models) voor de nieuwe gebouwen. Deze geven de staat van het gebouw ‘zoals ontworpen’ weer, die kan verschillen van de staat van het gebouw ‘zoals gebouwd’ of ‘zoals het is’. Tijdens operaties in de hulpverlening is kennis over verbouwingen (bijv. verlaagde plafonds of verhoogde vloeren), hoogte van de kamers en gangen en aanwezig meubilair van cruciaal belang voor brandbestrijders. Dergelijke informatie kan alleen verkregen worden via een up-to-date 3D indoormodel van het g...
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2021
Abstract. Point clouds serve as the raw material for various models, such as Building Information... more Abstract. Point clouds serve as the raw material for various models, such as Building Information Models (BIM). In this work, we investigate the reconstruction steps needed to create models that can be utilized directly for agent-based simulations. The input data for the reconstruction is captured with an indoor mobile mapping system. To show the prominence of this idea, we run social distancing and evacuation simulations on the reconstructed models. The simulations are run with multiple agents using a vision-based pedestrian model and A*-based path finding algorithm. The limitations of this approach are discussed. The video of the simulation is shared with the audience.Link to the video: https://youtu.be/r2D3IxXt7Ls
Geomatics Synthesis Research project is commissioned by external partners. The research was carri... more Geomatics Synthesis Research project is commissioned by external partners. The research was carried out under the flag of the CERISE Topsector Switch2SmartGrids research program (www.cerise-project.nl).
3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult ... more 3D indoor navigation in multi-story buildings and under changing environments is still difficult to perform. 3D models of buildings are commonly not available or outdated. 3D point clouds turned out to be a very practical way to capture 3D interior spaces and provide a notion of an empty space. Therefore, pathfinding in point clouds is rapidly emerging. However, processing of raw point clouds can be very expensive, as these are semantically poor and unstructured data. In this article we present an innovative octree-based approach for processing of 3D indoor point clouds for the purpose of multi-story pathfinding. We semantically identify the construction elements, which are of importance for the indoor navigation of humans (i.e., floors, walls, stairs, and obstacles), and use these to delineate the available navigable space. To illustrate the usability of this approach, we applied it to real-world data sets and computed paths considering user constraints. The structuring of the point cloud into an octree approximation improves the point cloud processing and provides a structure for the empty space of the point cloud. It is also helpful to compute paths sufficiently accurate in their consideration of the spatial complexity. The entire process is automatic and able to deal with a large number of multi-story indoor environments.
ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Indoor environments tend to be more complex and more populated when buildings are accessible to t... more Indoor environments tend to be more complex and more populated when buildings are accessible to the public. The need for knowing where people are, how they can get somewhere or how to reach them in these buildings is thus equally increasing. In this research point clouds are used, obtained by dynamic laser scanning of a building, since we cannot rely on architectural drawings for maps and paths, which can be outdated. The presented method focuses on the creation of an indoor navigation graph, based on IndoorGML structure, in a fast and automated way, while retaining the type of walkable surface. In this paper the focus has been on door detection, because doors are essential elements in an indoor environment, seeing that they connect spaces and are a logical step in a route. This paper describes a way to detect doors using 3D Medial Axis Transform (MAT) combined with the intelligence stored in the path of a mobile laser scanner, showing good first results. Additionally different spaces (e.g. rooms and corridors) in the building are identified and slopes and stairs in walkable spaces are detected. This results in a navigation graph which can be stored in an IndoorGML structure.
Uploads
articles by R. Voûte
Papers by R. Voûte