Compare us to land based surveying

Traditional survey has undergone a big change over the last decades. It is however still limited in production as the surveyor has to visit every point by foot.

High productivity
In a good day 800-1000 points can be surveyed, which on road projects normally means 1.5 km in rural areas and 500 m in urban areas.

With our system we fly 40 km/h and scan 10.000 points/sec. This equals 8-10 points/m². Photos are taken as documentation.

The traditional surveyor is however coding when collecting data. This means that his time used for postprocessing is fairly short.

Why can we save you 80% on Digital Terrain Model (DTM)

The result of a laserscanning is a pointcloud,that for a DTM shall be reduced to points on the ground only.

The reduction of data starts with a classification of objects so hits on houses, trees etc. can be deleted with the identification of the object.

Vectorization

After the automatic reduction of data the model is digitized.

First part of this is an identification of objects, where the system can assist the operator. This requires that the object can be identified from a regression e.g. kerbs.

Ortho photos

After this the photos are used to identify objects that cannot be found in the DTM e.g. manholes.

When the digitized map is produced the surveyor is checking it in the field in order to find missing objects such as manholes, culverts, details on structures etc.

Compare us to traditional aerial LiDAR surveying

LiDAR has for several years been used from aeroplanes or helicopters creating DTM with an accuracy of approx. 150 mm in the elevations.

The data collection in the system is very fast as each flight line produces a measured corridor of 500-1000 m. This makes the system very competitive on large jobs where the accuracy mentioned is sufficient.

On the other hand the initial costs are so high that on many jobs it cannot compete traditional survey. We therefore decided to construct a cheaper and more flexible surveysystem based upon the same components but with different specifications.

Small air craft
A different kind of carrier that can take-off anywhere, fly at low altitude and fly relatively slow is required. This is obtained by use of an ultralight plane, that can operate in heights down to 50 m above the ground and with a speed down to approx. 40 km/h. These were the parameters that we needed in the design of the system.

Portable
The total weight of the equipment is less than 110 kg including the air craft and it can be divided into smaller parts so it is easier to handle. This means that it is possible transporting it as accompanied luggage on air travels and in the back of a Land Rover.