B. Yang’s scientific contributions

With the rapid development of the reality capture, such as laser scanning and oblique photogrammetry, point cloud has become the third important data source following vector maps and imagery, and also plays an increasingly important role in scientific research and engineering in the fields of earth science, spatial cognition, and smart city, and so on. However, how to acquire valid and accurate three-dimensional geospatial information from point clouds has become the scientific frontier and the urgent demand in the field of surveying and mapping as well as the geoscience applications. To address the challenges mentioned above, point cloud intelligence came into being. This paper summarizes the state-of-the art of point cloud intelligence in acquisition equipment, the intelligent processing, scientific research and the major engineering applications, focusing on its three important areas: the theoretical methods, the key techniques of intelligent processing and the major engineering applications. Finally, the promising development tendency of the point cloud intelligence is summarized.