Livio Pinto

• PhD
• Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano

Images of melting ice have become powerful symbols of climate change, attracting both public attention and scientific interest. This research uses web technologies to document and communicate the ongoing retreat of the Belvedere Glacier in the Italian Alps. By combining historical and contemporary 2D and 3D geospatial data, the paper presents a com...

The importance of monitoring bridges has extensively emerged in the last decade, considering recent bridge collapses in Italy. With over half of the country's bridges in service for more than 50 years, ensuring their serviceability is crucial. This requires inspections that document the condition of infrastructures. In this context, the development...

Teaching experience in geomatics heavily relies on hands-on activities, but field surveys for educational purposes are usually conducted in controlled environments without proper connection to real-world scenarios. Combining the widespread availability of low-cost equipment with the potential of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G)...

In recent years, the digitalization and dissemination of historical heritage have become crucial nodes in the preservation and valorization of Cultural Heritage (CH). Technologies such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and terrestrial photogrammetry, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and handheld Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) laser sca...

Short-term monitoring of alpine glaciers is crucial to understand their response to climate change. This paper presents a low-cost multi-camera system tailored for 4D glacier monitoring using deep learning stereo-photogrammetry. Our approach integrates multi-temporal 3D reconstruction from stereo cameras and surface velocity estimation from a monos...

The rapid evolution of the urban landscape highlights the need to digitally document the state and historical transformations of heritage sites in densely urbanised areas through the combination of different geomatics survey approaches. Moreover, it is necessary to raise awareness of sites by developing strategies for their dissemination to a diver...

Glacier monitoring plays a crucial role in understanding the impacts of climate change on these dynamic natural systems. One or more time-lapse cameras are often employed to acquire short-term observations of glacier flow dynamics. However, the lack of multi-camera photogrammetric software packages for multi-temporal 3D scene reconstruction, especi...

The recent collapse of bridges in Italy has prompted numerous studies on monitoring and maintenance. Many structures in Italy have been in service for over 50 years, necessitating new approaches to ensure their safety. To address this issue, Italy's Consiglio Superiore dei Lavori Pubblici (Superior Council of Public Works) has developed the Guideli...

Georeferenced reconstructions can help understand the dynamic evolution of the urban context surrounding a historical site, supporting decision-making processes in the field of urban planning. The development of web applications that allow the interaction between 2D and 3D products, as well as their exploration, can facilitate virtual inspections a...

The adoption of open-source mobile mapping applications in public administration has risen over the last decade due to their interdisciplinary vocation and flexibility in adapting to existing Geographic Information System (GIS) software architectures. This facilitates complex procedures of data collection and management required for transportation...

Image-based monitoring has emerged as a prevalent technique for sensing mountain environments. Monoscopic time-lapse cameras, which rely on digital image correlation to quantify glacier motion, have limitations due to the need for a Digital Elevation Model for deriving 3D flow velocity fields. Multi-camera systems overcome this limitation, as they...

The Ponte Lambro viaduct is located in the Como Province, and it is managed by the local public authority. The viaduct is a three-span RC tall structure with a simply supported skewed deck made by precast I beams. It has been selected as one of the nine pilot bridges considered for design and implementa-tion of Structural health monitoring (SHM) sy...

The health assessment of strategic infrastructures and bridges represents a critical variable for planning appropriate maintenance operations. The high costs and complexity of traditional periodical monitoring with elevating platforms have driven the search for more efficient and flexible methods. Indeed, recent years have seen the growing diffusio...

Monitoring cracks opening on concrete bridges is a key aspect for structural health assessment. Digital image processing, combined with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and photogrammetry, allows for non-contact 3D reconstruction of cracks, reducing costs and potential unsafe factors involved in manual inspections. This paper presents a flexible pro...

Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have opened up unparalleled opportunities for alpine glacier monitoring, as they allow for reconstructing extensive and high-resolution 3D models. In order to evaluate annual ice flow velocities and volume variations, six yearly measurements were carried out between 2015 and 2020 on the debris-covered Belved...

The Regional Topographic Geodatabase (DBTR) was officially defined in 2005 as the multi-scale (1:1,000 – 1:2,000 – 1:5,000 – 1:10,000) cartographic reference for urban and regional planning in Lombardy Region. The DBTR had been previously introduced at national level to take over traditional numerical topographic maps adopted for urban planning, wi...

Alpine glaciers are strongly suffering the consequences of the temperature rising and monitoring them over long periods is of particular interest for climate change tracking. A wide range of techniques can be successfully applied to survey and monitor glaciers with different spatial and temporal resolutions. However, going back in time to retrace t...

The possibility of equipping UAVs with lightweight GNSS receivers in order to estimate the camera position within a photogrammetric block allows for a reduction of the number of Ground Control Points (GCP), saving time during the field work and decreasing operational costs. Additionally, this makes it possible to build photogrammetric models even i...

A fundamental step of UAV photogrammetric processes is to collect Ground Control Points (GCPs) by means of geodetic-quality GNSS receivers or total stations, thus obtaining an absolutely oriented model with a centimetric accuracy. This procedure is usually time-consuming, expensive and potentially dangerous for operators who sometimes need to reach...

All over the world, road infrastructures are getting closer to their life cycle and need to be constantly inspected: a consistent number of bridges are structurally deficient, and the risk of collapse can no longer be excluded. In contrast with the past, the interest in structure durability has recently grown rapidly. In order to make bridges durab...

Traditional flow velocity measurements in natural environments require contact with the fluid and are usually costly, time-consuming and, sometimes, even dangerous. Particle Image Velocimetry allows the flow velocity field to be remotely characterized from the shift of intensity patterns of sub-image areas in at least two video frames with a known...

The topographic survey of rural canal network is a crucial task to allow a sustainable irrigation management and planning in rural areas and, always more frequently, to control the interactions with urban areas (flood protection, in particular). However, to date, datasets of canal and ditch geomorphological characteristics, such as layout, cross-se...

This work aims at presenting the use of new technologies in the field of forensic engineering. In particular, the use of UAV photogrammetry and laser scanning is compared with the traditional methods of surveying an accident site. In this framework, surveys must be carried out promptly, executed in a short time and performed so that the greatest po...

This paper focuses on the use of ultra-high resolution Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) imagery to classify tree species. Multispectral surveys were performed on a plant nursery to produce Digital Surface Models and orthophotos with ground sample distance equal to 0.01 m. Different combinations of multispectral images, multi-temporal data, and textu...

The use of position-based devices is constantly increasing with a wide spectrum of applications, e.g. the continuous demand of mapping services based on user’s location. Depending on the specific application, a different level of accuracy could be requested, going from room level to few centimeters of error. The navigation problem is typically face...

A pure GNSS navigation is often unreliable in urban areas because of the presence of obstructions, thus preventing a correct reception of the satellite signal. The bridging between GNSS outages, as well as the vehicle attitude reconstruction, can be recovered by using complementary information, such as visual data acquired by RGB-D or RGB cameras....

Fisheye camera installed on-board mass market UAS are becoming very popular and it is more and more frequent the use of such platforms for photogrammetric purposes. The interest of wide-angles images for 3D modelling is confirmed by the introduction of fisheye models in several commercial software packages. The paper exploits the different mathemat...

An optimized planning and realization of the survey, coupled with well thought-out processing, allows obtaining good quality results, while guaranteeing a reasonable use of resources and time. It represents a benefit for both operators and end-users. The former can save time and acquire smaller datasets to process, while the latter can invest their...

Performing two independent surveys in 2016 and 2017 over a flat sample plot (6700 m 2), we compare snow-depth measurements from Unmanned-Aerial-System (UAS) photogrammetry and from a new high-resolution laser-scanning device (MultiStation) with manual probing, the standard technique used by operational services around the world. While previous comp...

In the last decades, low-cost GNSS receivers have been widely used for navigation purposes. Some of them deliver also raw data, allowing for a more sophisticated processing, such as the double-difference approach, and therefore a more accurate positioning, typically at the decimeter level. However, these accuracies can be generally achieved only wi...

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers are nowadays commonly used in monitoring applications, e.g., in estimating crustal and infrastructure displacements. This is basically due to the recent improvements in GNSS instruments and methodologies that allow high-precision positioning, 24 h availability and semiautomatic data processing. I...

GNSS receivers are nowadays commonly used in monitoring applications, e.g., in estimating crustal and infrastructure deformations. This is basically due to the recent improvements in GNSS instruments and methodologies that allow high precision positioning, 24 h availability and semiautomatic data processing. In this paper, GNSS estimated deformatio...

To plan a car sharing service and, in particular, to design the positions of the stations, it is fundamental to know the number of potential users corresponding to different scenarios. In this work, to answer the question: “how many potential users will take the car in Station A and will leave it in Station B?” a model has been designed and impleme...

The use of Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) is quite common for architectural surveys, however it requires to arrange special targets on the scanned object and to acquire several overlapping scans, which have to be aligned and edited externally. Recently, Leica released on the market a new kind of instrument, known as MultiStation (MS). It includes...

The task of conservation and management of cultural heritage is quite central in Italy, which lists a high number of beautiful architectures. A quick and precise survey may be requested in case of calamity. In the present paper, the most commonly used survey techniques are discussed, focusing on their applications for the conservation of the artist...

Photogrammetric surveys using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) may represent an alternative to existing methods for measuring the distribution of snow, but additional efforts are still needed to establish this technique as a low-cost, yet precise tool. Importantly, existing works have mainly used sparse evaluation datasets that limit the insight into...

RIASSUNTO Il lavoro riassume i risultati ottenuti da diversi partecipanti alla sessione “benchmark” - uso di immagini UAV per la ricostruzione 3D: esperienze condivise tra utenti, svoltasi nell’ambito del 61° convegno nazionale SIFET (Lecce 8-10 giugno 2016). L’iniziativa ha previsto l’elaborazione di un dataset comune, rappresentato da immagini ac...

Since its launch on the market, Microsoft Kinect sensor has represented a great revolution in the field of low cost navigation, especially for indoor robotic applications. In fact, this system is endowed with a depth camera, as well as a visual RGB camera, at a cost of about 200$. The characteristics and the potentiality of the Kinect sensor have b...

Since its launch on the market, Microsoft Kinect sensor has represented a great revolution in the field of low cost navigation, especially for indoor robotic applications. In fact, this system is endowed with a depth camera, as well as a visual RGB camera, at a cost of about 200$. The characteristics and the potentiality of the Kinect sensor have b...

New sensors mounted on UAV and optimal procedures for survey, data acquisition and analysis are continuously developed and tested for applications in precision farming. Procedures to integrate multispectral aerial data about soil and crop and ground-based proximal geophysical data are a recent research topic aimed to delineate homogeneous zones for...

New sensors mounted on UAV and optimal procedures for survey, data acquisition and analysis are continuously developed and tested for applications in precision farming. Procedures to integrate multispectral aerial data about soil and crop and ground-based proximal geophysical data are a recent research topic aimed to delineate homogeneous zones for...

We compute the volume of flushed sediments in a dam using photogrammetry-based multi-temporal surveys with an unmanned aerial system (UAS). Coping with sediments accumulation and erosion in reservoir is a living topic in modern hydraulics of dams, since the increase of sediment may reduce the reservoir capacity, endanger dam’s stability, and repres...

We investigate snow depth distribution at peak accumulation over a small Alpine area ( ∼ 0.3 km2) using photogrammetry-based surveys with a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS). These devices are growing in popularity as inexpensive alternatives to existing techniques within the field of remote sensing, but the assessment of their performance in...

This work is part of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) Project, aimed at estimating the velocity of neutrino beams directed from CERN in Geneva toward the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Assergi, Italy. In particular, the distance has to be estimated between the Large Volume Detector, Icar...

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveying is widely used to gather accurate knowledge about the geometry and position of underground utilities. The sensor arrays need to be coupled to an accurate positioning system, like a geodetic-grade Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) device. However, in urban areas this approach is not always feasible be...

In recent years, the videogame industry has been characterized by a great boost in gesture recognition and motion tracking, following the increasing request of creating immersive game experiences. The Microsoft Kinect sensor allows acquiring RGB, IR and depth images with a high frame rate. Because of the complementary nature of the information prov...

Nowadays, devices and applications that require navigation solutions are continuously growing. For instance, consider the increasing demand of mapping information or the development of applications based on users’ location. In some case it could be sufficient an approximate solution (e.g. at room level), but in the large amount of cases a better so...

We investigate the capabilities of photogrammetry-based surveys with Unmanned Aerial Systems (U.A.S.) to retrieve the snow depth distribution at cm resolution over a small alpine area (~300 000 m2). For this purpose, we have designed two field campaigns during the 2013/2014 winter season. In the first survey, realized at the beginning of the accumu...

Scene's 3D modelling, gesture recognition and motion tracking are fields in rapid and continuous development which have caused growing demand on interactivity in video-game and e-entertainment market. Starting from the idea of creating a sensor that allows users to play without having to hold any remote controller, the Microsoft Kinect device was c...

The use of UAVs finds application in a variety of fields, among which are the small scale surveys for environmental protection application. In this frame some experimental tests were carried out at Politecnico di Milano to assess metric accuracies of images acquired by UAVs and derived photogrammetric products. A block of 5 strips and 49 photos was...

The Monitoring of Gravity Dams: Two Tests in Sardinia, Italy FIG Working Week 2012 Knowing to manage the territory, protect the environment, evaluate the cultural heritage Rome, Italy, 6-10 May 2012 1/16 SUMMARY Dams are important civil engineering structures which require careful monitoring. It is therefore essential that these structures are cont...

UAVs systems represent a flexible technology able to collect a big amount of high resolution information, both for metric and interpretation uses. In the frame of experimental tests carried out at Dept. ICA of Politecnico di Milano to validate vector-sensor systems and to assess metric accuracies of images acquired by UAVs, a block of photos taken...

UAVs systems represent a flexible technology able to collect a big amount of high resolution information, both for metric and interpretation uses. In the frame of experimental tests carried out at Dept. ICA of Politecnico di Milano to validate vector-sensor systems and to assess metric accuracies of images acquired by UAVs, a block of photos taken...

Terrestrial photogrammetry should be the survey technique of choice when updating large scale urban maps and GIS databases, where 3D data and attribute data are required. Its main drawback is the need for Ground Control Points (GCP) to reference the survey. To make image georeferencing easier and to provide control information, the use of a simple...

During May 2012, the CERN-CNGS neutrino beam has been operated for two weeks for a total of ~1.8 × 1017 p.o.t., with the proton beam made of bunches, few ns wide and separated by 100 ns. This beam structure allows a very accurate time of flight measurement of neutrinos from CERN to LNGS on an event-by-event basis. Both the ICARUS-T600 PMT-DAQ and t...

The use of aerial imagery acquired by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is scheduled within the FoGLIE project (Fruition of Goods Landscape in Interactive Environment): it starts from the need to enhance the natural, artistic and cultural heritage, to produce a better usability of it by employing audiovisual movable systems of 3D reconstruction and t...

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is an active instrument often used to detect underground utility locations up to a few meters. To perform a three-dimensional reconstruction of position and geometry of the surveyed features, the accuracy of GPR position data has to be in the order of 20-30 cm. This requirement is easily attainable using a GNSS system...

In the Spring of 2003, it was realised a survey of the baptistery of Cremona (Italy) combining photogrammetric and laser scanner techniques. All the survey is composed by 22 photogrammetric images taken with a Nikon D100 18/2.8 digital camera and 14 scans collected by Optech's ILRIS-3D Laser Scanner. The geo-referencing was carried out with some na...

SOILQUALIMON (Sistema di monitoraggio della qualità dei suoli di Lombardia) è un progetto di ricerca avviato dall’Ente Regionale per i Servizi all’Agricoltura e alle Foreste (ERSAF) su incarico della Regione Lombardia con il compito di allestire sull’intero territorio lombardo un sistema permanente di monitoraggio della qualità dei suoli. Il siste...

Riassunto > La nota descrive i primi risultati di un Progetto di ricerca italiano sul posizionamento inerziale in fotogrammetria. L'articolo riguarda in particolare la qualità ottenibile nelle misure fotogrammetri-che con fotogrammi orientati direttamente e acquisiti in un contesto produttivo. Anche se la fotogrammetria supportata da GPS/IMU è abba...

System calibration is required in integratedIMU/GPS systems to account for the spatial offset and misalignment between IMU, GPS and camera frames; synchronization is to be maintained, to predict IMU/GPS position and orientation data at the mid-exposure time ofthe images. To this aim, measurement on the ground, complemented by a calibration flight o...

This paper regards metric and cartographic tests carried out using a series of aerial strips obtained with a camera provided with forward motion compensation magazine and high resolution films. The study contributes to a research work developed by Politecnico of Milan - Architectural Faculty - for IGM account. The investigated goal is the operative...

We report results of the combined adjustment of the block test of Lucera (Italy) including GPS aerial control and ground control points. Some material about this test -- namely, the differences between photogrammetrically determined and GPS observed projection centers -- was already presented (Astori, Pinto, 1992) for a small block portion. Now the...

A series of experimental tests on aerial photographs taken at high altitude have been carried out in order to verify their suitability for plotting 1: 25 000 scale maps. The results of geometric accuracy and photo-interpretation reliability tests are described in detail. -English Summary

Verifying the correspondence between planned flight lines and actual ones just after the mission is critical to speed up internal quality controls as well as the external ones performed by the customer. In case of mission planning for very complex areas (mountain or steep sloping areas) it could be useful to simulate the ground coverage of the plan...

The construction industry is increasingly involved in the safety assessment and survey of existing structures, often following refurbishment and structural modification works. The increasing difficulty in selecting building areas and getting funding for new constructions, jointly to the not negligible costs related to the demolition of the old ones...

Today's violin makers try to replicate the characteristics of the best ancient instruments, such as Stradivari's. To this aim, they need templates to replicate the soundboard with as much accuracy as possible. Despite several attempts, surveys with laser scanning did not produce usable results, because the instrument's varnish coating gives rise to...

SUMMARY Slender structures (such as the chimney of thermo-electrical power plants) oscillate due to dynamic loading by wind, temperature differentials and earthquakes. The Italian Centre for Experimental Electric Science (CESI) started a project, in cooperation with the Polytechnic of Milan, to monitor the structural integrity of an industrial chim...

System calibration is required in integratedIMU/GPS systems to account for the spatial offset and misalignment between IMU, GPS

This paper presents the latest release of the system TRIADIGIT for Automatic Aerotriangulation jointly developed at the Politecnico di Milano and at the University of Parma. The system is made up of three main modules: automatic location, measurement and identification of fiducial marks (inner orientation); automatic tie point extraction; assisted...