Implementing Functional Modularity for Processing of General Photogrammetric Data with the Damped Bundle Adjustment Toolbox (dbat)

Abstract

Abstract. The Damped Bundle Adjustment Toolbox (DBAT) is a free, open-source, toolbox for bundle adjustment. The purpose of DBAT is to provide an independent, open-source toolkit for statistically rigorous bundle adjustment computations. The capabilities include bundle adjustment, network analysis, point filtering, forward intersection, spatial intersection, plotting functions, and computations of quality indicators such as posterior covariance estimates and parameter correlations. DBAT is written in the high-level Matlab language and includes several processing example files. The input formats have so far been restricted to PhotoModeler export files and Photoscan (Metashape) native files. Fine-tuning of the processing has so far required knowledge of the Matlab language. This paper describes the development of a scripting language based on the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) language that allow the user a fine-grained control over what operations are applied to the input data, while keeping the needed programming skills at a minimum. Furthermore, the scripting language allows a wide range of input formats. Additionally, the XML format allows simple extension of the script file format both in terms of adding new operations, file formats, or adding parameters to existing operations. Overall, the script files will in principle allow DBAT to process any kind of photogrammetric input and should extend the usability of DBAT as a scientific and teaching tool for photogrammetric computations.