Geometric Modeling of highways using global positioning system data and B-spline approximation

The proliferation and increased precision of global positioning system (GPS) devices enable the technology to be used in new and innovative applications. In the past few years, the Kansas Department of Transportation collected spatial data on a highway system using annual GPS surveys. This research deals with the problem of handling very large amounts of geographical data (latitude, longitude, elevation, and additional attributes) that are not entirely consistent. This paper describes the methodology for cleaning up this large amount of data, condensing it, and generating a B-spline approximation of the highway. This data mining effort results in two separate two-dimensional models of the highway, represented as B-spline curves. The highway approximation methodology is validated using a comparison between the B-spline approximation and the actual design data for the highway.