Advanced reality capture: Fusing drone surveys and ground scans for high-quality 3DGS
Synopsis written by Adam Clark. Adam has spent the past 13 years exploring the world from above by using drones, satellites, and mapping tools to better understand our landscapes.
Heliguy highlights XGRIDS Lixel CyberColor’s new Aerial‑Ground Map Fusion feature, which merges handheld SLAM LiDAR scans with drone imagery into a unified Gaussian Splat (3DGS) model. This produces highly accurate, color‑rich, photorealistic 3D reconstructions which is ideal for industries like construction, inspection, cultural heritage, gaming, and VR. The workflow involves ground scanning (30 min walk‑through) plus drone flights at different altitudes and patterns, processed over ~5 hours on high‑end hardware. The resulting models support immersive visualizations via tools like NUBIGON.
