Professionals can capture high-accuracy laser offsets directly into ArcGIS Field Maps on Android devices with Arrow Series GNSS receivers
Image: Eos Positioning
Eos Positioning Systems Inc. announces the release of its Eos Laser Mapping for ArcGIS solution on Android devices. Previously, the free solution was available only on iOS. It allows mobile crews to capture asset locations from a distance with survey-grade accuracy.
âWe are excited to provide this already popular iOS solution also to our customers using Android devices,â Eos Chief Technology Officer Jean-Yves Lauture said.
The solution combines technology from geographic information system (GIS) provider Esri, laser rangefinders from Laser Tech, and Eosâ own Arrow Series GNSS receivers.
âThe Eos Laser Mapping solution was extremely well-received with its initial release, so we are excited to see the same features now available for ArcGIS Field Maps users on Android devices,â Esri Field Apps Engineering Lead Jeff Shaner said.
The Eos Laser Mapping release on Android supports three workflows, or mapping methodologies: Standard Laser Offset (sometimes called Range-Azimuth), Range-Range (or Range-Intersect), and Range-Backsight (a total station-like method).
The original laser offset solution was released in 2018 by Eos in partnership with Esri and Laser Tech.
eSurvey is a specialized manufacturer of GNSS receivers and rugged handheld collectors founded in 2018 and part of the UniStrong Group. Based in Shanghai, eSurvey is serving OEM and survey companies throughout North America, as well as many other countries.
“We deliver our products to more than 50 countries, but we are relatively unknown in North America, where we are looking to develop long-term partnerships,” said Jorge Visoso, International Sales Manager. He said the company is prepared to furnish demonstrations to any interested party.
The name “eSurvey” was inspired by the philosophy of making the surveying job easier by using the best technologies, according to Visoso. eSurvey also aspires to be the confluence between high value and affordable cost.
The E800 high-precision receiver. (Photo: eSurvey)
As the international brand of the UniStrong products, eSurvey leverages the resources and the expertise of a family of companies with many years of accumulated experience. One strength of the company lies in its significant research and development advantages.
In contrast to many competitors that only supply receivers, eSurvey has a footprint in the entire value chain and is one of the few manufacturers with its own boards and chips, which translate to a more stable supply and reliable quality, Visoso said.
The company’s portfolio of GNSS receivers is highly diversified. Several models have been highly successful in South Korea and Poland, where the brand has become well known over the past years.
The most advanced and comprehensive eSurvey receiver is the E800 model, a multi-constellation and multi-frequency receiver with a micro-electromechanical (MEMS) dynamic tilt system and a 5-watt internal radio. Various engines available for this and other receiver models.
SurPad4.2 software for surveyors. (Photo: eSurvey)
eSurvey also offers its own surveying and mapping software, SurPad4.2. SurPad4.2 provides multiple operation and communication systems, has MAP and CAD functions, and has a coordinate system. It also includes a survey mode encompassing TOPO, Control, Quick Point and COGO.
Besides GNSS receivers, the company supplies precision agriculture and machine control systems as well as USV and UAV systems, which are now selling in markets such as Turkey and Spain.
A roundup of recent products in the GNSS and inertial positioning industry from the March 2022 issue of GPS World magazine.
OEM
Correction Service
Achieves RTK-level accuracy
Photo: Hexagon
âRTK From the Skyâ technology has been integrated into the core of the TerraStar-C PRO corrections service. As a result, TerraStar-C PRO provides centimeter-level accuracy, not just in open-sky environments but also across challenging conditions created by buildings and foliage. TerraStar-C PRO now converges in less than three minutes by utilizing quad-band receiver and antenna technology to leverage modernized BeiDou 3, GPS III and Galileo E6 signals. The resulting process generates state-of-the-art corrections for all GNSS frequencies. The service improvements are accessible through the 7.08.10 firmware release for users of OEM7700, OEM719 and OEM729 cards and their associated enclosures for land and air applications.
A north orientation mark is being added to the TW3000 family of Accutenna precision antennas and the TW5000 family of smart antennas. The new feature allows customers to align their antennas, standardize radiation patterns, and increase the synchronicity of their azimuth gain readings across multiple devices. The new north mark design has been thoroughly tested to ensure it conforms to or exceeds customer expectations and maintains each antennaâs stringent IP69K rating.
OtoSphere is a small, add-on module to the ViaLite GPS RF over fiber link and any GNSS-based system, providing GNSS protection against GPS jamming attacks, making any receiver more resilient. It ensures continuity of timing and navigation capability and enables normal operation during a jamming attack. According to ViaLite, no other solution that offers such protection is as small, light, affordable, or easy to install. The Otosphere protection module adds resilience to critical GPS timing services.Using OtoSphere, GPS receivers are up to 50 times more resilient to jamming attacks on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems compared with having no protection. The GPS receiver can continue working normally throughout the attack. Timing-critical infrastructures in areas such as defense and cybersecurity can now be protected from these attacks. The Otosphere has a unique interference filtering algorithm that combines patterns from two external omnidirectional antennas that pinpoints the direction of the attack, then directs a null toward the unwanted signal to reject and reduce disruptions.
Infrastructure system for autonomous transportation
Photo: Seoul Robotics
The Level 5 Control Tower (LV5 CTRL TWR)) is a mesh network of sensors and computers on infrastructure that guides vehicles autonomously without requiring that sensors be placed on individual vehicles. The technology is automating last-mile fleet logistics at BMWâs manufacturing facility in Munich. The system has the potential to transform operations for a wide range of business applications, from vehicle distribution centers to car rental companies and trucking logistics.
Savvy Navvy provides essential marine information, allowing boaters to cross-check their traditional navigation plans. It integrates plotting charts, weather and tide data, marina details and passage planning into one app. The app reduces the risk of human error as well as the stress of voyage preparation. It is used by boaters in more than 100 countries around the world, with more than 43 million miles plotted. It works on phones or tablets using Android, IOS, PC or Mac.
The Pix4D viDoc RTK handheld rover attaches to iOS devices to bring RTK accuracy to terrestrial scanning on iPhones and iPads. When paired with the PIX4Dcatch mobile app, the viDoc rover can replace survey tools such as RTK GNSS rovers and terrestrial scanners, the company said. The two products create a workflow that turns iPhones or iPads into an accurate terrestrial scanning device, with centimeter-accurate RTK positioning from an existing NTRIP network. The tools can be used to 3D model small areas or structures.
Bad Elf now provides an integrated laser-offset workflow for acquiring high-accuracy field data in GNSS-challenged environments using Esri ArcGIS Field Maps for Android, as well as iOS. The workflow integrates Bad Elf and Laser Tech (LTI) hardware in collaboration with ArcGIS technology from Esri. The Bad Elf Flex connects to any LTI TruPulse rangefinder over a wired or Bluetooth connection to deliver high-accuracy location data to Esri ArcGIS Field Maps. Mobile workers can efficiently complete position and height data collection in access-limited situations, saving time, money and effort.
A free global map created from processed satellite imagery is available. To create the world image, satellite imagery was processed to remove clouds and balance shades and tones, and then carefully stitched together to create a seamless map layer with beautiful colors. The input data is recent, from 2020 and 2021, and rendered as one tiled file with 13 zoom levels 0-13 for use in web applications. It is a viable, up-to-date alternative to Google maps for software developers, without privacy issues.
The MetaGeo geographic information system (GIS) platform enables organizations of all sizes to host, analyze, find and share 3D map datasets among any internet-capable devices. The platform processes location-based map or sensor data from the real world, combines it into a single 3D virtual environment, and streams it to any device or mapping platform. The affordable and easy-to-use platform can load data from multiple sources: satellites, drones, mobile devices, public and crowdsourced repositories, internet of things (IoT) sensor data, 3D models and topographic maps. The data is then processed by the MetaGeo platform into a 3D world and streamed to any internet-connected device, enabling live collaboration between the office and field via mobile or augmented reality device. A plug-in software development kit (SDK) allows for third-party tools to scale and fit user needs.
Trimble has launched the Trimble AP+ Land GNSS-inertial OEM platform for accurate and robust position and orientation for georeferencing sensors and positioning vehicles in land mobile-mapping applications. The platform enables users to accurately and efficiently track and monitor fleets and produce high-definition (HD) maps and 3D models. It can also serve as a reference solution for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) testing, even in challenging GNSS environments. The comprehensive Trimble AP+ Land is small enough to integrate into compact mobile-mapping systems. It is compatible with virtually any type of mapping sensor, including single- or multi-lidar systems, video cameras, photogrammetric and panoramic cameras, and similar sensors.
Ronin 4D, a professional cinema camera from DJI, incorporates the full-frame Zenmuse X9 gimbal camera, active four-axis stabilization, lidar focusing, and wireless transmission. Firmware available at launch will allow the remote monitor to view and control the main monitor, interface with mirror control mode, and allow a clean video stream over HDMI and SDI ports on the Remote Monitor Expansion Plate with no overlaid information. It will also support automatic calibration for some third-party auto lenses to realize Lidar Focusing System functions.
Parallel Hybrid Electric Multirotor (PHEM) drone technology improves flight time with a heavy payload, yielding increased efficiency and eliminating the large battery used in other hybrids. It has the potential to extend a UAVâs flight time from 15 minutes to well over an hour and drastically increase range. In the search-and-rescue field, a heavy-lift drone can enhance first responder capabilities by allowing for substantially quicker response times to remote locations. Other applications include military platforms, fighting wildfires, and medical and logistics missions.
Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, has introduced the Leica AP20 AutoPole â a solution for automated total stations that boosts productivity with tilt compensation, automatic pole-height readings and unique target identification.
The AP20 AutoPole combines an intelligent sensor module with the new AP Reflector Pole and operates with Leica Geosystemsâ existing automated total stations to create a solution for autonomous workflows.
It is designed to solve three workflow challenges:
holding the pole vertical and stable
entering the pole height manually into the field software
locking to a foreign target on a site with multiple reflectors.
The tilt compensation of the AP20 AutoPole increases efficiency when working with total stations. It is no longer necessary to level the pole for measurements and stakeout. Tilt compensation decreases measurement time and increases flexibility and safety on site by enabling the measuring of points in locations that are inaccessible or put the user at risk. By updating the pole height automatically in the field software, the system ensures that the height on record is always correct, which avoids errors, time-consuming postprocessing and returning to the field to remeasure.
Additionally, the AP20 AutoPoleâs target identification ensures the userâs instrument will always lock to the correct target.
âAt Leica Geosystems, we understand that tight time schedules, growing expectations for accurate on-demand data and budget constraints put a lot of pressure on surveyors and construction professionals,â said Hans-Martin Zogg, business director, Total Stations, Leica Geosystems. âThe AP20 AutoPole is a game changer because it solves several challenges simultaneously. Its tilt compensation and automatic pole height readings are absolutely unique in the industry and will transform how professionals measure with total stations.â
âAs a surveying company, the only way we can stay competitive and profitable is to acquire spatial data simply, quickly and efficiently,â said Clifton Webb, director of Warner Surveys. âThe Leica AP20 helps us stay ahead of the curve by increasing our productivity and flexibility. It allows us to measure points that were impractical or unsafe to measure before.â
Pix4D is now offering a real-time kinematic (RTK) rover for use with iOS devices.
The Pix4D viDoc RTK handheld rover attaches to iOS devices to bring RTK accuracy to terrestrial scanning on iPhones and iPads.
When paired with the PIX4Dcatch mobile app, the viDoc rover can replace survey tools such as RTK GNSS rovers and terrestrial scanners, the company said.
Together, the products create a workflow that turns iPhones or iPads into an accurate terrestrial scanning device, with centimeter-accurate RTK positioning from an existing NTRIP network.
The tools can be used to 3D model small areas or structures.
Advanced Navigation has launched a new fiber-optic gyroscope inertial navigation system (INS), named Boreas. It is an ultra-high accuracy, strategic-grade INS, offering a reduction in size, weight, power and cost. Boreas is the first product to be released based on Advanced Navigationâs new DFOG (digital fiber-optic gyroscope) technology, which is the culmination of 25 years of development involving two research institutions.
The Boreas is targeted at applications requiring always-available, ultra-high accuracy orientation and navigation including marine, surveying, subsea, aerospace, robotics and space.
âBoreas is the first product on the market to offer our patent-pending DFOG technology,” said Advanced Navigation CEO Xavier Orr. “DFOG represents a step-change for fiber-optic gyroscopes. With Boreasâ ultra-high-accuracy and strategic-grade performance combined with the reduction of size, weight, power and cost by 40%, we will be able to enable new industries and applications that were never possible before.â
The Boreas delivers strategic-grade bias stability of 0.001 deg/hr. This allows it to achieve ultra-high roll/pitch accuracy of 0.005 degrees and heading accuracy of 0.006 degrees. Boreas allows for full independence from GPS with dead-reckoning accuracy of 0.01% distance traveled with an odometer or Doppler velocity log.
The Boreas features ultra-fast gyro compassing, taking only 2 minutes to acquire heading in both stationary environments or on the move. Gyro compassing allows the system to determine a highly accurate heading of 0.01 degrees secant latitude without relying on magnetic heading or GPS.
The Boreas contains Advanced Navigationâs sensor-fusion algorithm, which is more intelligent than the typical extended Kalman filter. The algorithm is able to extract significantly more information from the data by making use of human-inspired artificial intelligence. It was designed for control applications, with a high level of health monitoring and instability prevention to ensure stable and reliable data.
Advanced Navigation designed Boreas from the ground up for reliability and availability. Both the hardware and software are designed and tested to safety standards, and it has been environmentally tested to mil standards.
The system is designed for a mean time between failures of 500,000 hours. Additional features include Ethernet, CAN and NMEA protocols, as well as a disciplined timing server providing PTP. An embedded web interface provides full access to all of the deviceâs internal functions and data. Internal storage allows for up to one year of data logging.
OxTS Georeferencer 2.0 is now available, introducing several key improvements, particularly for professional lidar surveyors.
Version 1, introduced almost two years ago, has since been upgraded with integration of 30 new lidar sensors, as well as providing multiple user-experience enhancements.
Surveyors can use Georeferenceer alongside any OxTS inertial navigation system (INS) to quickly and easily georeference lidar data from multiple sensors to create precise 3D point clouds.
Version 2.0 highlights
Global coordinates. OxTS Georeferencer 2.0 users can now process data in a range of coordinate systems. These include local coordinates, ECEF and LLA (latitude, longitude and altitude).
New processing options. Users can maximize the usability of their point clouds and minimize data size through a range of processing options, including:
filter points by position uncertainty keeping every point within a specified accuracy
maximize the accuracy of the data while minimizing data size with a Voxel sampling algorithm
filter points by intensity, azimuth and elevation angle of the lidar
ilter points by speed and range from a vehicle.
Improvements in map file creation. OxTS Georeferencer 2.0 can add the direction from which each point is surveyed into the point cloud, allowing mesh surfaces to be easily reconstructed.
Furthermore, OxTS Georeferencer 2.0 gives surveyors the ability to add point-normal information into the point cloud and view the vehicle trajectory as a point cloud.
Processing advances. Users benefit from better performance due to revisions of the OxTS Georeferencer processing algorithms. With version 2.0, users can process point clouds faster than before and take advantage of improved precision and consistency of the boresight calibration feature, which now utilizes target dimensions.
The surveying profession is intrinsically involved with many functions of todayâs communities and environment. When we take a closer look at the roles we play, the surveyor is usually found in the middle. Here are a few examples.
For new developments and infrastructure, surveying takes place after a client decides to begin a project. Site data must be collected, drafted and presented to the client, engineers and architects for design.
Upon completion of the engineering design, the surveyor provides layout services for the construction company to build the structure.
Once the improvements are completed, the surveyor provides surveys as well as record drawings for confirmation of construction to satisfy government agencies and financial backers.
In a property dispute, the surveyor becomes the center of attention â our professional opinion determines the correct location of the subject boundary.
This responsibility also extends to the geospatial sectors within the surveying profession. Data collection is a critical step to creating and maintaining efficient geographic information system (GIS) databases that correctly depict existing infrastructure and parcel boundary layers. With the surveyor at the center of many of these duties and tasks, no wonder that we sometimes feel we have a bullseye on our backs.
Knowing how to compute the center is an important aspect of the surveyorâs duty.
However, the word center takes on a different connotation when it comes to data and objects. Properly identifying the center of specific sets of data or objects is important when working with construction information and geospatial data. Properly measuring and marking the center of an installation has its challenges, so knowing how to compute the center is an important aspect of the surveyorâs duty.
Why is the center of an object important?
Every object that is definable in a two-dimensional space has a physical center. Whether the object is a regular or irregular polygon in plane geometry, there are various methods for determining its center.
Figure: Tim Burch
These figures are easy to understand and simple to solve. More complex figures require more calculations, including coordinate geometry.
Figure: Tim Burch
These examples of regular and irregular polygons have something in common: all are based upon two-dimensional space, which is flat. But what happens if we need to determine the center of a shape that does not fall on a 2D surface? What if the data being reviewed for a center resides on a spherical surface and contains diverging axes?
As surveyors, we break our work down to smaller coordinate systems to work around the fact that our data resides on a spherical surface, but some datasets require the information to remain as latitude and longitude. One dataset is population counts, otherwise known as the census.
The U.S. Census and the ‘center of population’
The U.S. Census Bureau has been at work since early colonial times. This excerpt from the bureau website explains its purpose and foundation.
The U.S. Constitution requires only that the decennial census be a population count. Since the first census in 1790, however, the need for useful information about the United States’ population and economy became increasingly evident.
The decennial census steadily expanded throughout the nineteenth century. By the turn of the century, the demographic, agricultural, and economic segments of the decennial census collected information on hundreds of topics. The work of processing these data kept the temporary Census Office open for almost all the decades following the 1880 and 1890 censuses.
Recognizing the growing complexity of the decennial census, Congress enacted legislation creating a permanent Census Office within the Department of the Interior on March 6, 1902. On July 1, 1902, the U.S. Census Bureau officially “opened its doors” under the leadership of William Rush Merriam.
Counting the citizens of the United States was one thing, but mapping them was another. Once the final count was completed and mapped, the information was used to determine a unique location: the center of population. Here is more from the Census Bureau on the calculation basis:
The concept of the center of population as used by the U.S. Census Bureau is that of a balance point. The center of population is the point at which an imaginary, weightless, rigid, and flat (no elevation effects) surface representation of the 50 states (or 48 conterminous states for calculations made prior to 1960) and the District of Columbia would balance if weights of identical size were placed on it so that each weight represented the location of one person.
More specifically, this calculation is called the mean center of population.
This sounds like an easy exercise for a room of mathematicians and mappers, right? On the contrary, my fellow geospatialists!
How do they determine the center of population?
Computing the center of population for the United States would be much easier if we existed on a two-dimensional plane, as previously discussed. Since we donât, however, it requires a much more difficult method of calculation to get us closer to a real-world solution:
To avoid unduly complex factors in the computations, the mathematical formulae used were those that would be precise for a true sphere. On such a sphere, the north-south distances between parallels of latitude are identical and distances in degrees may be used as units of distance. On the other hand, distances between meridians on longitude lines are not constant but decrease from the equator toward the poles. However, if the length of one degree along the equator is used as the unit of measurement, then the length in degrees of an east-west line at any other latitude can be adjusted to the measurement standard by multiplying by the cosine of the latitude.
The center of population computed by the Census Bureau is the point whose latitude (đ) and longitude (λ) satisfy the equations:
where đđ, đđ and đ€đ are the latitude, longitude and population attached to the basic small units of area used in the computation.
Stated in less mathematical form, the latitude of the center of population was determined by multiplying the population of each unit of area by the latitude of its population center, then adding all these products and dividing this total by the total population of the United States. The result is the latitude of the population center.
East-west distances were measured, or computed, in substantially the same manner, but with the inclusion of a correction for latitude. For these distances, a degree of longitude at the equator was the unit of measurement. East-west distances along the equator could be measured in degrees, but any east-west degree distance north of the equator â where all the United States is located â had to be adjusted to recognize the convergence of meridians toward the poles. This adjustment required that each east-west distance, stated in degrees of longitude, be multiplied by the cosine of the latitude. This mathematical relationship is precise for a sphere and a very close approximation for the earth.
The computation required that the longitude of each of the thousands of selected points be multiplied by the cosine of the latitude of the point and by the population associated with the point. These products were added and divided by the sum of the products for the same thousands of points, each of which was obtained by multiplying the cosine of the latitude of a point by the appropriate population figure. The result was the longitude of the center of population.
(Courtesy of the Geography Division, U.S. Census Bureau, published November 2021)
Here is a graphic from the U.S. Census identifying significant historical events along with the westward movement of the center of population:
Image: U.S. Census Bureau
Here are the locations with corresponding latitude/longitude for the centers from 1790 to 2020:
Mean Center of Population of the United States, 1790â2020
Census year
North latitude
West longitude
Approximate location
United States
2020
37.415725
92.346525
Wright County, MO, 14.6 miles northeast of Hartville.
2010
37.517534
92.173096
Texas County, MO, 2.7 miles northeast of Plato.
2000
37.69699
91.80957
Phelps County, MO, 2.8 miles east of Edgar Springs.
1990
37.87222
91.21528
Crawford County, MO, 9.7 miles southeast of Steelville.
1980
38.13694
90.57389
Jefferson County, MO, 1/4 mile west of DeSoto.
1970
38.46306
89.70611
St. Clair County, IL, 5 miles east-southeast of Mascoutah.
1960
38.59944
89.20972
Clinton County, IL, 6-1/2 miles northwest of Centralia.
1950
38.80417
88.36889
Clay County, IL, 3 miles northeast of Louisville.
Conterminous United States
1950
38.83917
88.15917
Richland County, IL, 8 miles north-northwest of Olney.
1940
38.94833
87.37639
Sullivan County, IN, 2 miles southeast by east of Carlisle.
1930
39.06250
87.13500
Greene County, IN, 3 miles northeast of Linton.
1920
39.17250
86.72083
Owen County, IN, 8 miles south-southeast of Spencer.
1910
39.17000
86.53889
Monroe County, IN, in the city of Bloomington.
1900
39.16000
85.81500
Bartholomew County, IN, 6 miles southeast of Columbus.
1890
39.19889
85.54806
Decatur County, IN, 20 miles east of Columbus.
1880
39.06889
84.66111
Boone County, KY, 8 miles west by south of Cincinnati, OH.
1870
39.20000
83.59500
Highland County, OH, 48 miles east by north of Cincinnati.
1860
39.00667
82.81333
Pike County, OH, 20 miles south by east of Chillicothe.
1850
38.98333
81.31667
Wirt County, WV, 23 miles southeast of Parkersburg.
1840
39.03333
80.30000
Upshur County, WV, 16 miles south of Clarksburg. Upshur County was formed from parts of Barbour, Lewis, and Randolph Counties in 1851.
1830
38.96500
79.28167
Grant County, WV, 19 miles west-southwest of Morefield. Grant County was formed from part of Hardy County in 1866.
1820
39.09500
78.55000
Hardy County, WV, 16 miles east of Moorefield.
1810
39.19167
77.62000
Loudoun County, VA, 40 miles northwest by west of Washington, DC.
1800
39.26833
76.94167
Howard County, MD, 18 miles west of Baltimore. Howard County was formed from part of Anne Arundel County in 1851.
1790
39.27500
76.18667
Kent County, MD, 23 miles east of Baltimore.
Data: U.S. Census Bureau
Not to be confused with the geographic centerâŠ
The geographic center of area is the point at which the surface of the United States would balance if it were a plane of uniform weight per unit of area. That point, approximately 44.967° north latitude and 103.767° west longitude, is located west of Castle Rock in Butte County, South Dakota, as it has been since Alaska and Hawaii became states.
The geographic center of the conterminous United States (48 states and the District of Columbia) is located near Lebanon in Smith County, Kansas, at approximately 39.833Âș north latitude and 98.583Âș west longitude.
The center of population as geospatial data
The plotting of the center of population makes for an interesting study of westward expansion in early U.S. history. Once the contiguous 48 states were founded, plotting the center shifts to regional changes . The truly interesting part of these calculations and plotting for the past several centuries falls into an area of expertise called geospatial data.
While some liberties were taken early on using large, populated areas as one data point, we now can count literally every person and their geospatial location. However, it needs to be recognized that early efforts to count our population and track its center every 10 years meets the criteria for being called geospatial data. They just didnât yet know what that meant.
Speaking of surveyors…
Here are several events and initiatives happening this month, an important month for surveyors.
2022 National Surveyors Week
National Surveyors Week was established by the National Society of Professional Surveyors as an annual event to bring public recognition to the surveying profession and the vital services surveyors provide to the advancement and betterment of human welfare.
During this week, thousands of professional surveyors throughout the country will take part in local activities designed to introduce a new generation to the profession and highlight the use of technology in their day-to-day work.
Global Surveyorsâ Day 2022 will be held Monday, March 21. This annual event is a way to globally recognize groundbreakers, pioneers, individuals and the industry that has shaped our history and continues to be of great value to our communities.
2022 Global Surveyor of the Year
Image: NSPS
As part of the Global Survey Day and National Surveyors Week, every year on March 21 a professional surveying association is tasked with choosing a Global Surveyor of the Year. For 2022, the National Society of Professional Surveyors has been selected to choose a person with a historical surveying background for this prestigious honor. After thorough consideration, NSPS has chosen Benjamin Banneker (1731â1806) for 2022 Global Surveyor of the Year.
The selection was brought before the NSPS Board of Directors during our Spring 2021 meeting and passed by a majority vote. While Bannekerâs career as a surveyor was limited in time and experience, his additional contributions to math, science, astronomy and publication of a groundbreaking almanac have earned him a significant place in American history.
We also selected Banneker because of his ability to overcome the adversity of being a free Black man in early colonial America. Through much self-teaching, he was able to excel at the contributions previously listed in a period when Blacks were not accepted for their educational abilities.
The selection committee chose Banneker over the three presidents who are famously chiseled on Mount Rushmore and Henry David Thoreau, an author who also surveyed to fund his writing career. The committee felt that Bannekerâs contributions not just to the surveying profession made him deserving of this honor, but considered his total body of work created when Black men were not generally accepted as capable human beings. Our world needs more people like Benjamin Banneker and would be a better place because of them.
No time like the present to promote our geospatial professions
Surveying and geospatial careers are more important than ever, so examples like the center of population help depict applications that us these skills. Please consider promoting our wonderful professions during these events and throughout the year. The profession you promote may provide an opportunity to bring new faces and ideas to our ranks very soon.
Surveyors used ComNav equipment to construct a hospital in Burkina Faso. (Photo: ComNav)
Line of sight to GNSS satellites is sometimes obscured by buildings and trees, which also cause multipath, as does nearby water. These conditions require an RTK receiver with multipath mitigation. Often, surveying must occur on property corners or on uneven ground, where it is hard to place surveying equipment. For these reasons, reliability and accuracy are essential, especially in harsh environments. Ground control points require 1-2mm accuracy and topo surveys 1-2cm accuracy. Surveying for AEC also requires software that processes digital files.
ComNav has focused on GNSS core technology innovation and applications for 10 years. The Quantum III technology includes algorithms to suppress multipath and supports all GNSS constellations, allowing the users to acquire and keep RTK centimeter accuracy even in harsh environments. The built-in tilt IMU will help where the exact location to be surveyed is hard to reach. For example, the T300 Plus and N Series GNSS receivers support a maximum pole tilt of 60° and keep the compensation accuracy within 2.5cm, making the field work more efficient, convenient and reliable.
With the Survey Master softwareâs stake-out points, users can import DXF or DWG files directly and the software can stake out the point, line and surface in CAD.
In April 2021, the government of Burkina Faso used ComNav GNSS T300Plus to provide ground control points survey for the construction of a hospital.
The land security and topographic surveying were completed within only six days, less than half the time that had been scheduled for those tasks. This greatly expedited the construction of the hospital and helped with the fight against infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Â
In recent years, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has benefited greatly from growing GNSS accuracy, smaller laser scanners, UAVs, and more efficient management, collaboration and visualization software. We asked five companies operating in this space to address three questions:
What are the key challenges of surveying for the AEC industry today, compared with traditional boundary surveying and other types of surveying?
Which of your products are particularly relevant for this kind of surveying?
What was a recent AEC surveying success story?
In the following articles, five companies briefly describe their experience with the AEC industry:
Increasing urbanization is creating pressure to manage housing, utilities and infrastructure holistically. Hence the concept of digital twins. Digital twins enable the integrated operation and maintenance of any geospatial asset to meet the increased demand for efficient and intelligent transportation systems, the green expansion of urban areas and sustainable infrastructure.
Traditional GNSS or optical measurement instruments no longer suffice to capture all the necessary information in a timely manner and with the right levels of detail. Integrating technological advances â GNSS, inertial systems, lidar sensors and 360° spherical imagery â into a single mobile-mapping system has greatly increased the ability to produce complete 3D models with high accuracy and precision. Mobile mapping also directly reduces workload, lowers project costs, simplifies data use, and provides reality-based design.
Mobile mapping surveys have been proven to be four to 10 times faster and three to seven times less expensive than traditional methods, delivering the required results up to three times faster. Integrated, multi-platform mobile-mapping solutions bridge the gap between the real world and the digital world for greater interoperability and accessibility of data in near real-time.
The high-accuracy and cross-platform design of CHC Navigationâs AlphaUni 900 lidar system provides an innovative solution for 3D spatio-temporal data acquisition, which is necessary for the digital transformation of the AEC industry.
Smart Cities
After developing for more than a decade, digital-twin technology is now a complex and comprehensive technical system to support the construction of new smart cities. It is an advanced model for the continuous innovation of urban development and a future form of modernization combining the virtual and real worlds. The creation of digital-twin cities brings to the forefront high-level topographic tools capable of providing comprehensive, multi-dimensional, large-scale, high-resolution data sets.
To illustrate typical digital-city projects, CHC Navigation conducted a proof-of-concept demonstration in the Jinshan District of Shanghai, which covers an area of about 600 square kilometers. This area has rich terrain features and characteristics typical of large modern cities, such as tall buildings, power lines, rivers and vegetation.
Versatile and easy-to-use platforms are essential for the democratization of lidar systems. Capturing 3D data with a single-platform lidar system can leave some areas blank in the point-cloud data. The AlphaUni900 lidar solution, with its multi-platform capability, can easily capture complete data from a UAV, car, backpack or unmanned surface vessel (USV) and provide a sophisticated and comprehensive 3D model. The AlphaUni 900 integrates seamlessly with real buildings, provides exterior and interior mapping, and dramatically changes the way high-precision data is collected.
The derived 3D models can be easily merged and correlated with social or economic spatial data, for example from building-integrated internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing data. As a result, complex operations can be optimized in real time, potential problems can be anticipated, and planned maintenance can be implemented to ensure the sustainability of urbanization projects over their entire lifespan, all in a fully connected model.
Affordable, user-friendly solutions for capturing and processing airborne lidar data and imagery have triggered a strong adoption of UAV technology in the AEC industry. For CHC Navigation, 2021 was marked by the huge success of the AlphaAir 450, a breakthrough in 3D UAV mapping technology. With its ease of use, high accuracy and affordability, the AA450 expands the scope of lidar surveying to non-professional users in geospatial reality-capture applications and to those who have never been able to afford such technology before.
While some tasks for AEC surveying are similar to other types of surveying â such as original ground surveying, creating site control and live monitoring â the biggest differences and challenges arise in data management, timeframes, communication and deliverables.
In AEC surveying, the project timeline is the primary factor driving everything, creating a different kind of pressure on the surveyor. As data experts and problem solvers, surveyors for AEC must quickly adapt to construction progress, as their survey knowledge can be needed on site at any point.
Information transfer challenges also exist â such as clearly communicating data to non-surveyors who perform measurement tasks â along with creating unique deliverables across construction stages. These include 3D terrain models with real-world coordinates for architects; fit-for-purpose computer-aided design and Industry Foundation Class models for machine operators and mechanical, electrical and plumbing installers or off-site fabricators; and progress reports for project owners.
Several AEC firms have opted to create their own inhouse survey teams. This allows greater control over the consistency and clarity in communication and deliverables, because they focus exclusively on surveying for AEC and are therefore familiar with its specific challenges.
The main challenge for the surveyor in AEC is sifting through and processing the data, assessing quality, understanding relevance, producing results and crafting deliverables to meet the clientsâ needs.
An integrated total solution is important for AEC surveyors who must decide not only which technology to use, but how to process data from different technologies together. Our products fit within this integrated solution concept.
Leica Geosystems‘ automated total stations, multistations and GNSS blend innovation and traditional technology, such as the Leica GS18 I with tilt and visual positioning, enabling surveyors to measure more, faster.
For mass data collection, the Leica RTC360 3D laser scanner operates at two million points per second and contains visual inertial system (VIS) technology simplifying the registration process. The Leica BLK series combines intelligence and accessibility, including the BLK360 imaging laser scanner, the handheld BLK2GO, and the latest autonomous technology of the BLK2FLY and BLKARC.
Finally, our software connects surveyors to their sensors and data in the field with Leica Captivate and Leica Cyclone Field 360 and to the office with Leica Infinity and Leica Cyclone, extending to existing CAD software with the Leica CloudWorx suite of CAD plug-ins.
Bringing an Aqua Park to Life
One memorable success story was the use of our products for AEC survey tasks during construction of Germanyâs biggest aqua park, Rulantica. The survey work was led by Saladin Keller of Keller planen + bauen. The project involved the creation and construction of a Nordic-themed water world featuring 25 attractions, including water slides, a wave pool and a lazy river.
Alongside all the typical surveying for AEC tasks â establishing site control, staking out pipes, and planning and staking the entire traffic infrastructure â Keller had the challenge of measuring and positioning the complex internal geometry. These tasks required skilled surveyors and a variety of survey tools, such as total stations, GNSS rovers, laser scanners and powerful processing software.
Operating within the AEC environment also meant that communication and flexibility were key to the success of the project. Keller needed to provide the right data to different trades and handle urgent maintenance requests requiring surveying skill, such as rebuilding parts and adjusting utilities.
