Progress, Challenges and Perspectives of 3D LiDAR Point Cloud Processing

3D LiDAR can perform an intensive sampling of the earth surface in a direct way, and yield the 3D point cloud that contains numerous and scattered points with the coordinates (X, Y, Z) and attributes (e.g., intensity). As the vital 3D geospatial data for description of the world in the digital era, 3D point cloud plays an important role not only in earth science researches but also in national requirements (e.g., global change analysis, global mapping, and smart city). Inspired by sensor technologies and national requirements, 3D LiDAR has got great progresses in hardware, data processing and applications, and is facing new challenges. Following the history of 3D LiDAR, this paper first reviews the status of 3D LiDAR system, and introduces the development of key technologies in data processing. Then the typical applications of 3D LiDAR in surveying and other related fields are listed, and current challenges in point cloud processing are concluded. Finally, some future perspectives are presented