LiDAR Uncovers Lost Mayan Civilization in Guatemala

When the Discovery Channel needed a remote sensing expert crew to support Josh Gates and his “Expedition Unknown” TV series they turned to Jeff Fagerman at LiDARUSA to make the dangerous trip to the Guatemalan rain forest. Josh and his team were in search of a lost Mayan snake kings civilization – the Lost City of el Mirador with the help of a team of archaeologists that had been working in that jungle for more than 30 years. When the LiDARUSA team showed them the bare earth model of a previously undiscovered site the excitement was off the charts.

Jeff and his team at LiDARUSA are one of the true pioneer firms of the drone lidar industry. Founded in 1999 along with Fagerman Technologies they have been pushing the envelope of drones and lidar for nearly 25 years. There are not many firms that can match that, if any. From a foundation in land surveying and mapping, photogrammetry and GPS they have leveraged all of that expertise to design and build cost effective LiDAR systems that can be used in the air and on mobile vehicles. They are experts in hardware systems integration.

At the same time a quick look at their website reveals that they are truly a family owned business with quite a list of offspring that Jeff and his kids are grooming to be the next generation of geomatics experts.

Looking to the future, the next challenge that the team is tackling is an indoor SLAM-based lidar mapping system. That is going to cover everyone of the major 3D reality capture markets.

If you have not taken a look at LiDAR USA lately, you owe it yourself to CLICK HERE.