Surveying Every Minute

Surveying Every Minute

“RIEGL’s new era of Terrestrial Laser Scanners: the VZ-600i stands out with extreme versatility, high productivity, radical performance, and game changing mobility features.”

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has become an integral part of surveying. The scanners are becoming lighter and faster, so that even large projects can be completed with high precision in a short time. Today’s everyday life of a surveyor already looks like being able to take hundreds of scan positions every day and automatically process them into deliverable results within 24 hours.

With October 2022, the new RIEGL VZ-600i starts a new era of terrestrial laser scanning. Based on more than twenty years of TLS experience, the fourth generation of RIEGL’s static laser scanners has already been developed to meet customer needs. The biggest request concerns the weight, as these measuring devices are used for hours every day. Right after that, scanning speed is of utmost importance. This uncompromising approach to development has resulted in a high-speed scanner weighing only six kilograms. 

A single scan with 6-millimeter point resolution at a distance of 10 meters is completed in an almost unbelievably short scan time of less than 30 seconds. By moving the scanner on a tripod, a “scanning speed” of more than 60 laser scans per hour can be achieved, each with over 30 million measurement points. With this incredible speed, the many scan positions can be captured, closing virtually all scan shadows – even above and below the laser scanner. The built-in cameras cover the entire scan area and can be triggered during the scanning process. 

A second processor is already working at full speed during runtime and registers robustly the scan positions already during data acquisition – with and without GNSS reception – with and without ambient light. Actually, no additional mobile device is necessary, but it can be used for remote control as well as for checking the scan and registration progress. Even after hundreds of scan positions, the operator is still able to keep an overview of the areas already surveyed – even if they extend over several levels. 

Data is transferred using a CF Express card, which has a transfer rate of 500 MByte/sec. This allows daily projects of 500 scan positions to be transferred quickly and efficiently. Both data acquisition and automatic data processing in RiSCAN PRO are based on “single button” technology. In a very short time, the scans can be automatically converted, filtered, fine adjusted with the “Multi Station Adjustment”, colored and homogenized. This makes it possible, to create a colorized and highly precise point cloud that has been cleaned of moving targets, with an associated highly detailed report within some few hours.

What is a measuring device without accuracy information? The individual distance measurements have a 3D accuracy of 3mm and the point noise is less than 1mm depending on the measurement program. At the highest measurement rate of 2.2 MHz, the measurement distance ranges from 0.5m to 200m. 

These features make the new RIEGL VZ-600i ideal for a wide range of applications. They start with general surveys of roads, buildings and entire town centers and range to complex environments such as in forestry and underground mining and much more. In the future, this versatile terrestrial laser scanner can also be used in mobile applications and on robots. A so-called ROS (robot operating system) driver has already been developed for this purpose.

Already during the first successfully completed large test projects, our partners said: “It is really fun to work with such a lightweight, fast, reliable laser scanner for professionals.” A new era has begun.

To see the RIEGL VZ-600i in action CLICK HERE.

For the RIEGL VZ-600i datasheet CLICK HERE.

For additional information on the RIEGL VZ-600i CLICK HERE.

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