SC-CNN: LiDAR point cloud filtering CNN under slope and copula correlation constraint

To tackle the issue of lack of semantic consistency between ground and non-ground points, as well as the damage to the integrity of terrain boundary information during network downsampling, we developed a Semantic Consistency-Convolutional Neural Network (SC-CNN) to improve the precision of point cloud filtering under complex terrain conditions. The novel aspects include: (1) farthest point sampling (FPS) with slope constraints, which enhances terrain contour preservation through adaptive subblock partitioning and slope-based sampling; (2) intra-class feature enhancement via copula correlation and attention mechanisms, improving the network’s ability to distinguish between ground and non-ground points by focusing on intra-class feature consistency and inter-class differences; and (3) filter error correction using copula correlation and confidence intervals. refining filtering accuracy by adjusting for negatively correlated point sets. Tested on the ISPRS and 3D Vaihingen datasets, SC-CNN notably outperformed existing methods, reducing the mean total error (MT.E) by 0.17% and 1.93%, respectively, thereby significantly enhancing point-cloud filtering accuracy under complex terrain conditions.