Accuracy – Efficiency – Consistency. Requirements for Today’s Best Lidar Sensors

This interview provides an inside perspective of NV5, a leading provider of technology, conformity assessment and consulting solutions for public and private clients worldwide. It is being provided here as told by the persons being interviewed.  Accuracy – Efficiency – Consistency. Requirements for Today’s Best Lidar Sensors Background Commercial lidar entered the geospatial services arena in the 1990s, becoming a […]

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Selecting The Appropriate GNSS Solution

Determining the appropriate GNSS solution required in your mobile lidar system can be a bit troublesome. While this is true, it is only true if your preferred vendor offers a choice and if you are aware of the choices. Most manufacturers offer only a single solution, some offer only a particular brand, and others offer a variety. It is easier […]

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NavVis CTO Discusses the VLX Wearable Mapping System

Lidar News had the opportunity to interview Georg Schroth, Co – Founder and NavVis CTO concerning the recently released NavVis VLX wearable mapping system. 1. Please provide a brief bio and overview of your history with NavVis. My name is Georg Schroth, and I’m the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer here at NavVis. We established the company in 2013 to […]

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Trimble Establishes Dr. Gladys West Scholarship

Trimble Establishes Dr. Gladys West Scholarship Program Scholarship Program to Honor Technology Pioneer and Hidden Figure Who Helped Invent GPS   SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 8, 2021—Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today a scholarship program to honor Dr. Gladys West, a pioneer in mathematics, minority advancement and the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS)—one of our most widely used innovations throughout the […]

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Two Companies, One Vision – Lidar Tech

Two Companies, One Vision Elevating the Power of Partnership Background At Quantum Spatial (QSI), we were very early adopters of 3D laser scanning/lidar technology. We completed our first lidar project in 1995 with an airborne system that was equipped with a 2 KHz laser (2,000 points per second). Today, lasers typically operate at 2 MHz, or rates 1,000 times faster. […]

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3D Laser Scanning Standards and Guidelines from Caltrans

logo of Caltrans Develops 3D Laser Scanning Standards

3D laser scanning standards and specifications for Caltrans applications were developed to promote large-scale deployment of this technology into Caltrans day-to-day survey operations. This report documents the AHMCT research project, “Creating Standards and Specifications for the Use of Laser Scanning in Caltrans Projects.” DOTs and private contractors have used laser scanning in highway survey applications and found that it reduces […]

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Search and Rescue Drones to Find Lost Forest Hikers

Search and Rescue drones to use autonomous car tech to find lost forest hikers  Drones are already being used by the emergency services to help locate missing people. But in forests the densely packed trees can interfere with the drones’ GPS connection, making their performance unreliable. In a bid to fix this, a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute […]

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Standards are the Key to Harnessing Technology

Shane MacLaughlin, Managing Director at Atlas Computers in Ireland provides an in-depth look into the need for open standards. Topographic Survey Specification for Urban Projects Some years ago I chaired a working group hosted by Dublin City Council tasked with developing a robust specification for urban topographic survey projects.  This working group came into being at the behest of the […]

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Drone Lidar Components Present Data Quality Challenges

LiDAR representation by Echo using a Riegl MiniVUX -1UAV.

The use of drone LiDAR requires significant training and expertise especially when using inexpensive systems. (Editor Note – This is a cautionary tale told in the author’s words about the perils of self-proclaimed drone lidar experts.) Training is Needed There are a lot of people with drones who are collecting aerial imagery and becoming self-proclaimed mapping professionals in the process, […]

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A Dithyramb on GNSS and Mobile LiDAR Mapping

by Jeff Fagerman, Lidar USA Location, location, location. For most businesses to succeed this is absolutely essential. While the business location is not nearly as important for mobile mapping as a restaurant or clothing store, location is very important for a mobile LiDAR system to be useful. It is not possible to generate a point cloud from a moving platform […]

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