Fully Convolutional Networks for Ground Classification from Airborne Laser Scanner data

We present an efficient procedure to classify airborne laser scanner data into ground and non-ground. The classification is performed by a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), a modified version of CNN designed for pixel-wise image classification. Compared to the previous CNN-based technique and LAStools software, the proposed method reduces the total error and type I error (while type II error is slightly higher). The method was also tested on AHN-3 data resulting in 4.02% of total error, 2.15% of type I error and 6.14% of type II error. We show that this method can be extended to further classify the point cloud into buildings and vegetation.