Machine learning algorithms can be well suited to LiDAR point cloud classification, but when they are applied to the point cloud classification of power facilities, many problems such as a large number of computational features and low computational efficiency can be encountered. To solve these problems, this paper proposes the use of the Adaboost algorithm and different topological constraints. For different objects, the top five features with the best discrimination are selected and combined into a strong classifier by the Adaboost algorithm, where coarse classification is performed. For power transmission lines, the optimum scales are selected automatically, and the coarse classification results are refined. For power towers, it is difficult to distinguish the tower from vegetation points by only using spatial features due to the similarity of their proposed key features. Therefore, the topological relationship between the power line and power tower is introduced to distinguish the power tower from vegetation points. The experimental results show that the classification of power transmission lines and power towers by our method can achieve the accuracy of manual classification results and even be more efficient.
Keywords: point cloud classification; power line; power tower; the Adaboost algorithm; topological constraint.