The Trimble Catalyst software-defined GNSS receiver for Android devices is now available through Trimble’s global distribution network.
Trimble Catalyst DA1 antenna attaches to a smartphone running a Catalyst-enabled app.
Through Catalyst and a special antenna, customers can access positioning-as-a-service to collect geolocation data with Trimble or third-party apps on smartphones, tablets and mobile handhelds.
When combined with a plug-and-play digital antenna and subscription to the Catalyst service, the receiver provides on-demand GNSS positioning capabilities to turn consumer Android devices into centimeter-accurate data-collection systems.
Catalyst requires only a few components:
Any location-enabled mobile app.
A Catalyst subscription, with accuracy options ranging from one meter to centimeter level.
Trimble’s small, lightweight DA1 antenna that plugs directly into Android smartphones and tablets.
“Our goal has always been to extend the accessibility of high-accuracy positioning to a broader base of geospatial and non-geospatial professionals,” said Ron Bisio, vice president of Trimble Geospatial. “Trimble Catalyst represents a new era of GNSS technology by making high-precision positioning a reality for new user segments around the world. With economical on-demand service, it puts high-accuracy in the palm of anyone’s hand — it’s revolutionary.”
Both Trimble and third-party development teams have produced a range of Catalyst-enabled applications for geographic information system (GIS) data acquisition, cadastral land management, topographic mapping and ground control for unmanned aircraft systems (UAVs).
Also, the Trimble Catalyst solution includes a software development kit (SDK) for building mobile applications with integrated professional workflows.
“Trimble is enabling us to deliver better solutions for our customers thanks to the level of integration that the SDK provides,” said Paul Brodin of Korec Group. “It allows us to provide sophisticated solutions that are innovative, easy to use and remove the technical complexity associated with high-accuracy workflows.”
Trimble Catalyst service subscriptions and the Catalyst DA1 antenna are now available through Trimble’s Authorized GIS Distribution Network. Catalyst availability, pricing, subscription and accuracy may vary by region. Catalyst-enabled apps for Android can be found in the Google Play Store.
senseFly will showcase how to integrate drone imagery into current workflows at the Esri User Conference, which takes place July 10-14 in San Diego. senseFly is hosting a series of workshops designed for surveying, mapping and GIS professionals.
As a producer of mapping drones and an Esri Silver Partner, senseFly will present the innovative ways in which its drones are being used with Esri’s Drone2Map for ArcGIS software to deliver on-demand high-resolution imagery and robust GIS projects.
Drone Surveying 101 – Wednesday, July 12
This workshop will be led by Francois Gervaix, surveying project manager, and is aimed at visitors wanting to know more about drone mapping and surveying. He will explain how senseFly solutions can be used as a surveyor’s own imagery sourceanytime, anywhere — as well as how Esri’s Drone2Map for ArcGIS makes the creation and integration of drone imagery into workflows even easier.
The session takes place 12-1 p.m. in room 30 B of the San Diego Convention Center. Refreshments will be provided. To register, go to https://dronesurveying101.eventbrite.com.
senseFly User Meeting – Thursday, July 13
With the geospatial market needing specific and integrated solutions, Briton Voorhees, sales engineer, will give existing senseFly customers an in-depth look at its latest features. This includes senseFly Corridor, a new platform enhancement that vastly simplifies the drone mapping of linear sites, for applications such as utilities monitoring, as well as the newest release of eMotion 3.
Briton will also speak at the pre-conference Imaging and Mapping Forum on the various sensors available to senseFly users and detail how they can apply to imaging applications.
senseFly’s drones offer full compatibility with Esri’s Drone2Map for ArcGIS mapping and spatial analysis software.
senseFly is also exhibiting at the UC Expo and encourages visitors to stop by booth 2126 to speak to its team of experts.
Avineon Inc. has launched a new portion of the Avineon Innovation Lab dedicated to articles, white papers and videos highlighting the impact of Esri’s Network Management System in the ArcGIS Platform. Avineon is a provider of geospatial, information technology and engineering support services.
The new section focuses on Avineon’s contributions, expertise and partnership with Esri on the next evolution of GIS Network Management: the Utility Network.
Part of the ArcGIS platform, the Utility Network is available on any device.
GIS services and solutions have been a part of Avineon’s success for the last 25 years, which is keeping pace with evolving technology and the impact GIS has on companies in the utility and telecommunications industries.
The Utility Network lets users create, manage, and share electric, water, wastewater, gas, district heating, and telecommunications asset data. The beta release of the Utility Network comes with base data models for electric, gas and water networks.
The technology is capable of supporting other networks — such as district heating, telecommunication and wastewater — but, for now, users need to build their own data models or rely on partners. Esri will provide base data models in some of these areas in later releases.
“Avineon has been a valuable partner and contributor to Esri’s Utility Network throughout the early adopter program, providing valuable feedback to our product teams,” commented Bill Meehan, Director of Utility Solutions for Esri. “The resulting Network Management System in the ArcGIS Platform will support utility and telecommunication companies as they execute their business plans for innovation, digital transition and transformation, sustainability, and smart ecosystems (smart grid, smart buildings, smart transportation, smart cities, etc.). We believe Avineon’s partnership with Esri and offerings like Avineon’s Head Start program, as well as observations into the practical applications of the Utility Network, through their Innovation Lab, will help industries understand the strategic and tactical pathway to maximize the value of their GIS now and into the future.”
Joel Campbell, Avineon’s vice president of Commercial Systems, added, “As an Esri business partner, it is exciting to support our customers and contribute to Esri’s vision of the ArcGIS Platform. These new capabilities serve as the foundation for delivering a new generation of business applications leveraging web and services patterns as well as evolved network management capabilities. We at Avineon look forward to utilizing our Innovation Lab as an outlet to share the lessons learned, best practices, and case studies around the newest evolution of GIS and its impact on the utility and telecommunication industries.”
It’s been a few months since I’ve published a GSS Monthly newsletter column. What a busy few months it has been. It’s been all about UAVs, high-precision GNSS projects and GIS, with some conferences and workshops sprinkled in between. High-accuracy GNSS technology and UAV technology are hot trends— red hot.
UAVs: Prosumer and mapping on a slope
Obviously, consumer UAVs have exploded in the mainstream consumer electronics market during the past five years. Since the FAA began requiring UAVs to be registered in late 2015, far more UAVs have been registered (~700,000 to date) with the FAA than manned aircraft (~320,000).
In fact, the number of registered UAVs aircraft eclipsed registered manned aircraft more than a year ago! The FAA reported that at any one point during the day, there are ~7,000 manned aircraft flying in the U.S. airspace. That begs the question, how many UAVs are flying above our heads at any one point in time? No one can answer that question.
On the coattails of consumer UAVs in mainstream America is the use of UAVs in the USA’s commercial world. Since the FAA opened the floodgates in August 2016 to allow almost anyone to fly UAVs for business ($150 and answer 42 out of 60 questions correctly), lots and lots of companies are buying inexpensive “prosumer” UAVs and extracting tremendous value from them.
Prosumer electronics is equipment and software targeted at the consumer market but also good enough to be used for business. The UAV market is a perfect example of this. DJI, by far the biggest UAV manufacturer in the world at $1B+ in annual revenue, targets the mainstream consumer market and sells a huge number of low-, medium- and high-end UAVs to businesses. Think about it: You can buy a DJI Phantom 4 Pro at your local Apple Store and the next day be generating one-foot elevation contours on a project site!
Following is an example of a papermill I flew a few weeks ago. I flew it in less than one hour (50 acres), generated an orthophoto with 2.4-cm/pixel resolution and a digital elevation model (DEM) with 4.79-cm/pixel resolution.
Figure 1. 2.4-cm/pixel resolution orthophoto, 50 acres.Figure 2. DEM with 4.79-cm/pixel resolution of the same flight.Figure 3. Zoomed-in image of the same DEM.
The detailed data above, generated from a $1,500 UAV, is clearly outstanding. By the way, the purpose of the project was to determine the volume of the various stockpiles, which I’ve not computed yet. But if the volume calcs are close enough to the traditional terrestrial-based measuring methods, the UAV return on investment (ROI) argument will be hard to beat.
It takes ~14 hours each month to measure all the stockpiles on this site using traditional terrestrial measurement tools. Also, the measurements must be taken on the weekend when the site activity is minimal. It took less than one hour to fly the entire site, and I flew it twice (one time west-east direction at 80/80 overlap and one time north-south at 70/70 overlap) to make sure I had enough data. I mean, seriously, I drove 1.5 hours to the site. Why not spend another 20 minutes to fly it in a perpendicular direction?
To date, I’ve only flown relatively flat sites such as construction sites, agricultural fields, and industrial sites. That was until a couple of weeks ago. While I’ve become pretty comfortable at flying open and relatively flat sites over the past 18 months, I’ve not ventured into flying a site with a lot of elevation changes and tree canopy. I finally did that earlier this month, and it was both challenging and rewarding. There are a few problems on sites with major elevation changes and tall tree canopy:
A. Maintaining visual line of sight (VLOS) as required by the FAA.
B. Flying in such a manner that the image-processing software has good quality data to work with so you can generate the products you need.
The mission planning/control software plays a very important roll in this process. Well, it always does, but it really does in this case. Typically, the mission planning/control folks want you to fly at a consistent height above the ground so your overlap is consistent. This is very difficult to accomplish if you’re flying a site with a lot of elevation change. In that case, they typically tell you to launch from the highest (or nearly the highest) elevation point and fly at that elevation.
The problem this causes is that you could end up flying 500, 600 or 700 feet above ground level (AGL). For example, if you are flying a site with 500 feet of elevation change and you instruct the mission planning/control software to fly at 350 feet AGL, at some point in the project the UAV will be at 850 feet AGL. That can be a problem from both a regulatory standpoint (FAA allows UAV flights up to 400 feet AGL) and an image-processing standpoint.
Fortunately, the mission planning/control software I use just introduced a Terrain Awareness feature. It uses SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) elevation data. Granted, it’s 30-meter pixel elevation data, so each elevation block is 30 meters x 30 meters, so I really wondered if the resolution was high enough. The site I was going to fly was only 60 acres in size and had 550 feet of elevation change. Note that the trees on the site had already been harvested, so the land was relatively clear. There’s about a 550-foot difference from the projected launch point (purple dot) to the northern and western end of the site. Following is the mission plan for the site I was planning to fly.
Figure 4. 60-acre site with ~550 feet of elevation change.
To give you an idea of the slope, the solid red lines in the following image are 100-foot elevation contour lines. The green triangle is the projected UAV launch point. This was a great launch point because I could see the entire site and maintain VLOS.
Figure 5. Site topo with projected UAV launch point.
I chose to fly the mission at 300 feet AGL. I figured it would be high enough if there was some “slop” in the SRTM elevation model. Still, I was concerned about the resolution of the SRTM data because at 300 feet AGL, my UAV would be flying below the launch elevation due to the extreme elevation slope on the site. Remember, the Terrain Awareness feature of the mission planning/control software is based on the SRTM elevation data, and not based on any sensors in the UAV itself — if the SRTM elevation data was incorrect, my UAV might crash into the ground.
Following is the SRTM elevation data along with the flight path data displayed in the mission planning/control software.
Figure 6. The projected UAV flight path based on the SRTM elevation data.
The moment of truth came when I launched the UAV from the start point (purple dot) and watched it rise to 300 feet AGL to start its mission. The first few swaths were uneventful. After that, it started to fly into the canyon, following the terrain as programmed, then rise up from the canyon during each pass. It was a thing of beauty to watch.
Unfortunately, about 70% of the way through the mission, it started raining, so we called it quits. However, we proved that at least on the four sites I flew that day, the SRTM data and Terrain Awareness feature were effective in collecting data in steep-slope environments. Following is the 2.69-cm/pixel orthophoto generated from the flight. Note the tracks where the logging rigs pulled the logs up the steep slope.
Figure 7. 2.69-cm/pixel resolution orthophoto.
Following is a zoomed-in view of the UAV launch site.
Figure 8. Zoomed-in view of the orthophoto.
Following is an image of the 5.37-cm/pixel DEM generated from the flight data. Notice the logging tracks.
Figure 9. 5.7-cm/pixel image of the DEM generated from the flight data.
Following is a zoomed in view of the 5.37-cm/pixel DEM image.
Figure 10. Zoomed-in 5.37-cm DEM image of UAV launch point.
The mission was successful in proving that SRTM elevation data was sufficient enough to fly a mission with a dynamic AGL. It handled the steep slopes by maintaining a sufficient AGL elevation as I hoped it would despite only having 30-meter x 30-meter block elevation resolution. The image processing software seemed to like the UAV data, as you can see from the results above. I didn’t have to spend any additional processing time over and above what I usually spend in order to generate these products.
I did experience a hiccup with the mission planning/control software running on my iPad Mini 2. It turns out that the Terrain Awareness feature in my mission planning/control software requires some extra CPU horsepower — the software overpowered my iPad Mini and crashed once during a mission. The UAV kept flying its intended course as instructed, but it stopped taking photos when the software crashed, so I brought it back to the launch point.
After visiting the software vendor’s website, it became clear to me that it’s probably time to upgrade my iPad Mini to the latest model to keep up with the new features being implemented in the software.
A Quick Note on High-Accuracy GNSS
In March, I attended the Hawaii GIS conference and decided to perform some benchmark testing on a survey mark using WAAS and a high-accuracy GNSS receiver.
My goal was two-fold.
See how WAAS is behaving in Hawaii. WAAS in Hawaii is an anomaly because it’s far away from the Continental U.S. (CONUS) where all the WAAS reference stations are located (there’s one in Honolulu, but that’s it). In other words, Hawaii is the most challenging place for WAAS accuracy in North America.
See how many GNSS satellites I could track and use in Hawaii.
Holy moly, was I surprised at how good it was. I’ve tested WAAS in Hawaii several times in the past many years. The last time I tested it was in 2013 and the GNSS receiver I used (GPS + GLONASS) achieved a steady 80-cm accuracy. That was pretty darned good for WAAS in Hawaii at that time.
I packed up some receivers and hiked about 4 miles to a survey mark I could find in Honolulu. I was a great survey mark for testing because it was on the sidewalk of a quiet residential street. Following is a photo of the survey mark.
Figure 11. PID DK4162 survey mark in Honolulu.
I set up on the survey mark and then looked at the satellites the receiver was tracking. I wanted to know how many GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou satellites were being used. Following is a screen shot.
Figure 12. Total number of GNSS satellites being used – 23.
Twenty-three GNSS satellites being used! Are you kidding me? This is more than double the number of GPS satellites being used. This illustrates the power of four-constellation GNSS that is only going to continue to get better over the next several years.
What surprised me the most was the number of Galileo satellites being used, and this was before two Galileo satellites were declared healthy in late May.
My next test was to evaluate WAAS accuracy. Who cares how many satellites the receiver is using if the accuracy isn’t improved? I plumbed the receiver antenna on the survey mark and plotted ~7 minutes of data.
Figure 13. Accuracy plot compared to the DK4162 survey mark coordinates.
Yep, that’s about 30-cm accuracy over a 7-minute period. That’s better by a factor of two compared to the accuracy I saw in 2013. Sure, WAAS has improved somewhat, and maybe the ionosphere was particularly happy that day, but I have to believe that the additional GNSS satellites contributed the most to the improvement in accuracy. In the next few months, I’m going to be performing more tests with WAAS and RTK on my GNSS test course near my office. I’ll keep you posted on the results of those tests.
The Esri International User Conference – July 10-14
As usual, I’ll be attending the largest gathering of GIS professionals in the U.S. next month, the Esri International User Conference. 16,000 of our colleagues will descend upon San Diego to share, network and enjoy the spatialness that we have for one another.
If you’re interested, I’m giving a couple of presentations at the Esri UC:
Tuesday (July 11), 08:30 a.m., Room 28B (subject to change)
Paper Title: An Efficient, Accuracy Mobile GIS Workflow using RTK GNSS
Session Title: Mobile Data Collection
This is cool project I worked on with WaterOne, a large water utility, to design a real-time, high-accuracy GNSS workflow in the Esri environment. They are collecting data at the centimeter level for mapping their above-ground assets as well as new construction using tablet computers and RTK GNSS receivers.
Thursday (July 13), 8:30 a.m., Room 29C (subject to change)
Paper Title: UAV (drone) applications for water utilities
Session Title: Applied GIS: Three Unique Examples
This is some groundbreaking work I’ve done with American Water on using UAV technology for mapping and inspection. We did a lot of experimenting during the proof-of-concept phase to figure out what applications are practical and which aren’t.
Hexagon announced today its new Leica Cyclone REGISTER 360 laser scanning software for simpler, automated registration, and its Cyclone Cloud Services platform for secure global collaboration through an on-demand software-as-a-service model.
Together, the new products offer users smarter ways to register, visualize and collaborate around digital reality projects, delivering solutions into the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), plant, survey and public safety markets through the connected Leica Cyclone family.
“Digital realities are enabling professionals and newcomers to laser scanning to shape the world around us. Whether it’s on a construction site for building documentation or in a plant environment for life cycle updates, efficiencies and productivity gains are realised with the ability to merge reality and digital data quicker and with more accuracy,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “These new developments in laser scanning registration with our Cyclone software improve the user experience and overall workflow of point cloud processing.”
Cyclone REGISTER 360 is the a professional-grade registration software that combines automation, high performance and ease of use into one powerful package available to novices and experts alike. Simplifying and automating the entire production process, Cyclone REGISTER 360 enables users to automatically process, validate and deliver point clouds according to rigorous quality control and reporting standards.
Cyclone Cloud offers professionals a new way to consume and deliver digital reality data through a highly scalable, intuitive and web-based platform. TruView Cloud Services is the only cloud-based digital reality visualization and collaboration platform that enables quick setup of private user communities, connecting with and making the data available anywhere in the world.
Users can publish digital reality content in Cyclone from handheld devices and terrestrial, mobile and unmanned aerial vehicles. With open application programming interfacing, the data can be delivered in any device and operating system with connectivity for building information modeling, geographic information systems and computed-aided drafting.
Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar System (CZMIL) to be shared at conferences as a critical rapid environmental assessment tool for both natural and manmade disasters
Teledyne Optech’s Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL) system is a critical rapid environmental assessment tool for monitoring natural and man-made disasters. From detecting sewage pipe leaks, mapping oil slicks and measuring coastline changes after hurricanes, to counting underwater debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, CZMIL excels at identifying and monitoring oceanic environmental changes, especially in emergency scenarios.
At the Oceans ’17 MTS/IEEE conference in Aberdeen, Scotland, Senior Scientist Viktor Feygels will present “CZMIL as a Rapid Environmental Disaster Response Tool.” Using case studies from CZMIL and its predecessor systems, Feygels will describe four distinct applications of Teledyne Optech lidar bathymeters. Attendees can catch this presentation in Room 15 on June 21 at 12:10 p.m.
Research Scientist Hieu Duong and Marine Business Manager Bob Marthouse will present “Small-Object Detection using Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL)” at the Teledyne CARIS International User Group Conference in Ottawa, Canada. Conference attendees can hear about these applications on Thursday, June 22, 10:05 am, in the Rideau Room.
“CZMIL has proved to be ideally suited for rapid environmental assessment and small-object detection,” said Bob Marthouse. “Both the upcoming MTS/IEEE Oceans ‘17 conference and the recent United Nations Ocean Conference during the week of June 5 underline the urgent requirement to more critically monitor our oceans and coastlines. At Teledyne Optech, we were pleased to be part of this ongoing effort.”
Leica Geosystems has released its new DX Office Vision utility post processing software for mapping ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data from the field into a CAD drawing.
DX Office Vision allows even non-experienced users to obtain professional 3D CAD drawings and visualize the detected underground utilities in a simple way, according to Leica. The intuitive interface enables users to filter, select, identify and make annotations of the located targets. With DX Office Vision, post-processing for all ground-penetrating data requires no add-on or third party software.
“Following the demo of the new DX Office Vision I have to say I am impressed. The user interface is very intuitive with key processing views easily manipulated for fast interpretation of ground penetration radar data. I was particularly impressed with the DX Office Vision feature that allowed me to clean up the scan and highlight certain areas to give a clearer view of hyperbolae,” said Alex Rampton, surveyor at Plowman Craven.
DX Office Vision was developed by utility surveyors who know what is needed from a post processing software. The software was created to reduce the post processing time and eliminate all unnecessary steps to convert data or chose parameters. The software guides the user to create a reliable 3D map of the underground detected utilities with minimal training.
“DX Office Vision aims to make interpretation of GPR data easy to master for constructors and surveyors who are not familiar with how to interpret it,” said Tughan Telatar, product manager, Construction Tools for Leica Geosystems. “DX Office Vision is so simple to learn that anyone from the crew can take over data processing into professional CAD drawings in five steps and 50 per cent faster than traditional methods.”
Harris Corporation and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) are partnering to provide industry training for NGA employees, including skills in industrial practices and procedures which are not available through military or civil education programs.
Participants in the Training with Industry (TWI) program spend a year at Harris learning its business practices — such as workflows, innovative technologies and commercial processes — and then execute an assignment directly related to the training they received.
Harris Corporation and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) are partnering to provide industry training for NGA employees, including skills in industrial practices and procedures which are not available through military or civil education programs.
Participants in the Training with Industry (TWI) program spend a year at Harris learning its business practices — such as workflows, innovative technologies and commercial processes — and then execute an assignment directly related to the training they received.
Organizations work together to fight cyber attacks with innovations to visualize threats.
Esri and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to collaboratively research and create prototype concepts with a specific focus on location intelligence solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure and critical missions.
The work will also estimate the impacts on critical infrastructure caused by exploited cyber vulnerabilities and targeted attacks.
Esri provides geospatial analysis and visualization capabilities across infrastructure industries like water, electric, oil and transportation, as well as in support of federal, state and local governments charged with the mission of protecting those industries.
These capabilities, combined with INL’s knowledge and capabilities for securing these systems from physical and cybersecurity threats, make this cooperative research and development effort truly unique in addressing crucial gaps in cyber/physical analysis and situational awareness technologies.
INL is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development, working in energy, national security, science, and the environment. Esri and INL have worked together for more than three years.
“We are looking forward to working closely with INL in this capacity,” said Brian Biesecker, technical director, Esri intelligence community. “As the government continues to embrace new technologies, CRADAs provide a great way for private and public partnerships to continue moving our country forward.”
Drone Delivery Canada Corp. (DDC) reports the success of a pivotal milestone towards commercializing its drone logistics platform after successfully achieving beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in test flights.
The success of these flights, which took place in Foremost, Alberta, after DDC received a Special Flight Operating Certificate from Transport Canada, prove that DDC’s BVLOS technical capability has now passed the most important landmark that enables the DDC platform to run commercially.
The systems tested predominantly include DDC’s proprietary FLYTE management system, its avoidance technology and communications platform. During the flights, DDC’s Mission Control Centre in Toronto, 2,500 kilometers away, successfully monitored and record telemetry in real time for each flight.
DDC is set to become the first and only drone logistics compliant operator approved by Transport Canada, which is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2017, followed by commercial operations in the first quarter of 2018.
Commercial operations are forecast to be based on a revenue model that comprises of integration fees, set-up fees, and on going reoccurring revenue. DDC’s revenue is based on a traditional software as a service
(SaaS) model format.
Below is a video of DDC in Foremost, Alberta, performing Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) testing.
“We are the only pure play drone delivery company that has ever successfully achieved BVLOS flights under Transport Canada’s oversight,” claimed Richard Buzbuzian, president of Drone Delivery Canada. “This is a major milestone for our company. With this success in hand, we now have greater visibility than ever before to operate commercially. Additionally, more than ever, we are also seeing international inquiry for our platform. This win has been a major step forward for us, both domestically and internationally.”
“The success of these flights now allows us to expand our testing with both new and existing clients that include large corporations and government organizations in Canada and abroad,” said Tony Di Benedetto, CEO of Drone Delivery Canada. “Given Canada’s geography and some of the obvious and social opportunities in Northern Canada, we believe the best place to start commercializing this platform is in our own backyard, then internationally as we prove out our systems.”
The BLK360 is now available for reservation in Europe.
Leica Geosystems’ BLK360 miniaturized 3D imaging laser scanner is now available for reservation within Europe, for delivery in summer. The laser scanner simplifies the collection of as-built reality capture data for work in architecture, design, construction and engineering among other vertical markets.
The Leica BLK360 is an easy-to-use and powerful reality-capture solution that enables professionals to capture 360-degree HDR spherical imagery within minutes. Users place the lightweight BLK360 on a level surface or tripod and, with the push of a button, it captures 360-degree HDR spherical imagery and takes a 360,000 point per second laser scan.
The BLK360 features +-4 mm accuracy at 10 meters and an overall 0.6–60-meter range. Within three minutes, the spherical image and laser scan is completed and ready to view in the Autodesk ReCap Pro for mobile app, which runs on an iPad Pro. From there, users can take measurements, add markup and annotations or share onsite data with their colleagues back in the office.
“If you’ve ever relied on pencil and paper, tape measures, or other laser measuring devices to capture a room’s dimensions and images, you know that there’s always redundancy and missed measurements,” said Steven Gross, architectural engineer, Valley Home Improvement. “With the BLK360 those issues disappear. Everything is captured on the first visit, which streamlines the process, saving us enormous amounts of time. Not to mention that it makes us look that much more professional to our clients.”
“The BLK360 brings together exclusive technologies to deliver outstanding performance, all while simplifying the process of 3D image scanning and reality capture through the touch of a single button,” said Burkhard Boeckem, CTO, Leica Geosystems. “This has enabled us to create new opportunities for scanning experts and introduce entirely new audiences to laser scanning while uncovering possibilities that were previously unimaginable.”
The BLK360 has already earned several prestigious industry awards including the PRISM Award for Photonics, iF Design Award, the Red Dot Design Award, and the Geospatial World Innovation Award, and was also a CES Innovation Award nominee.
