Problems in automated building reconstruction based on dense airborne laser scanning data

Reconstructing buildings in 3D has been a challenging research topic for at least ten years, and will be in future as long as acquisition systems are improving and model requirements are increasing. Despite the fact that many researchers presented approaches to automatically reconstruct 3D buildings, there are still a significant number of problems to be solved. We discuss a series of remaining problems in automated building reconstruction, related to the lack of information in the laser scanning data and the complexity in the scene. Describing the urban scene, in particular roof faces, becomes more complex when looking at a higher level of detail. In our study we focus on problems related to the reconstruction of building parts larger than 1 m2. Examples are shown of airborne laser scanning data with an average point density of 25 p / m2, on buildings of a medium sized city centre in Europe. In order to show perspective in solving the described problems, we conclude with a global direction for future research. 1