Photo: YellowScan

Xer Technologies and YellowScan have partnered to integrate the YellowScan Navigator bathymetric system into Xer Technologies’ UAVs. This collaboration aims to enhance UAVs’ capabilities for conducting long-range bathymetric surveys and underwater inspections, which are essential in various fields such as environmental monitoring, coastal management, and infrastructure development.

The integrated system allows users to collect high-resolution and accurate bathymetric data, even in challenging aquatic environments. YellowScan’s green laser lidar technology is a key component of this system, providing precise underwater mapping capabilities. Xer Technologies’ UAVs are designed for extended flight durations and can operate for more than two hours, facilitating coverage of larger survey areas in a single mission. This feature is particularly beneficial for projects that require extensive data collection over vast aquatic regions.

The YellowScan Navigator can achieve a precision of 3 cm and can operate at a maximum altitude of 100 m above ground level. The laser has a range of up to 120 m and features a scanner field-of-view of 44 °. It weighs 3.7 kg.

<p>The post YellowScan, Xer Technologies partner for underwater topography mapping first appeared on GPS World.</p>

What is your title and role?

I’m one of the founders of Per Vices. My friend and I started the company a long, long time ago. I’m a physicist. I attended the University of Waterloo, graduated with an honors degree in physics, and have been working with Per Vices for more than ten years. My role has shifted from doing the actual engineering work to running all the other elements of the company, because as we continue to grow, we can’t be doing everything and that was the logical break. So, I definitely have a technical background, but I’m not the one who’s designing the products anymore.

When was the company founded?

In 2006. Our first commercial product was in 2012. We specialize in designing high performance software-defined radios. These are full transceivers that are used across a very wide range of markets: spectrum monitoring, electronic warfare, MRI, radar, test and measurement markets, communications, radio links — you name it and we’ve done some work in that space. The whole idea behind software-defined radios is that they are very flexible systems. So, with the same hardware platform, you can change the software or firmware, and have it used for a completely different application.

Wonderful. By the way, I grew up among physicists. My father was a physicist for 60 years, the last 35 of which at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. My paternal grandmother was one of the first women in Europe to get a Ph.D. in physics and math and Enrico Fermi was one of her thesis advisors.

 Why is SDR important for autonomous systems?

There are eight major points that I’d like to hit on.

Flexibility. Software-defined radios are reconfigurable, which means that the same hardware platform can be used for many different communication protocols, across different radio bands with varying bandwidth. That makes them very flexible for interfacing with other types of systems. So, in terms of the autonomous systems, there are a number of different wireless devices that need to be interoperable.

SDRs are very flexible radio platforms. They’re designed to have very wide operating frequencies with varying bandwidths so as to replace what used to be done in hardware through dedicated DSP chips, replacing dedicated hardware with a software-based architecture.

From a flexibility standpoint, that means that software-defined radios usually use some type some type of DSP mechanism, like a field programmable gate array (FPGA). That allows the SDR itself to process all types of different signals across varying frequencies and manipulate them in different ways. Anything that’s wireless is basically converting an analog signal to a digital signal and then performing some action on that digital signal. SDRs do that in a different way. They still have the hardware that’s used for tuning, but on the software side the decoding and processing happens. In a traditional FM radio, you have everything done in hardware: it has a dedicated tuning block, a dedicated DSP that does the demodulation, and it spits out the audio. So, the same way that computers, way back in the day, were designed and built from the ground up with one sole purpose — whether it be word processing or running complex trigonometry.

But now, if you look at the utility of computers, it is the fact that you can run different software applications on them. So, the same idea is with SDR. Traditional radio devices were built from the ground up for a single application. Now, SDRs are like a modern-day computer, where you can do basically anything within that tuning frequency. Also, just like with a computer, you change the software and use it for different applications.

Flexibility is definitely one of the most important elements. It allows the user or the system integrator to have an SDR that can adapt to different communication standards and frequency bands. This flexibility is crucial for autonomous systems operating in dynamic environments, where communication requirements may change. So, if you’re suddenly needing to change from operating at 2.4 GHz to operating at 5 GHz due to spectrum congestion or something along those lines, an SDR can do that with the same hardware platform.

YellowScan’s bathymetric lidar product, the Navigator, mounted on the Noa from Acecore. This full waveform lidar system ensures continuity between underwater points and the surrounding terrain.(Image: YellowScan)

Adaptive communication. Because SDRs tune to various frequency bands and then all the decoding is done in software, they can support different communication standards with the same hardware platform. That enables autonomous systems to communicate effectively with various entities in the environment, such as sensors and additional equipment.

Spectrum awareness. We can call it smart SDRs, or SDRs where you can integrate with AI or you can do your own pre-programming on it. You can monitor different parts of the spectrum to see which is the least congested, so that you can have a clear frequency band of operation to communicate or to use that information for passing data to and from sensors or a command and control system or anything.

Going back to the hardware component, the FPGA onboard acts as a digital signal processing unit. So, SDRs have those onboard DSP units — usually, FPGAs — and that allows for such things as signal modulation and demodulation filtering, waveform generation. All this can be done in real time. It also allows for all the sensor data to be processed very effectively and quickly, with significantly reduced latencies.

Reduced hardware complexity. This relates to putting it all together. When you have the DSP unit and the flexible hardware platform, you don’t really need anything else. So, you can use that SDR to minimize the complexity associated with the overall system. When you’re using multiple disparate technologies, it does become challenging to make sure that they’re all integrated well with one another and work well together. With SDRs, you can really simplify that, that hardware complexity. Then, because SDRs are programmable and customizable, they can be used all the way from prototyping to production. By changing different software or firmware elements associated with the SDR, you can have it operate in different ways. So, if you want to prototype a different communication band that may work better for some environments, you can do that very easily without needing to re-spin new hardware upon new hardware upon new hardware, which gets to be costly and time-consuming.

Remote monitoring and control. SDRs can be set for what we’ll call static operation, where they will perform only one task, to prevent tampering. You can also set them to be updated over the air or through some type of network. So, again, the flexibility is quite significant and it’ll allow you to mitigate different challenges where some of the systems might not be able to be controlled or interfaced regularly from a hardware perspective. That can all be encrypted.

How does your module interface with autonomous platforms?

The analog connection — to external amplifiers or filters, if you need to have very clean use of a particular part of the spectrum — is via SMA connections, which are pretty standard in the industry. On the digital side, there are two different ports. One is an out-of-band communication interface. That’s just a 1 GB Ethernet port that is very common across the entire industry and is used for configuring the SDR. Again, that’s out of band, so you’re not causing any interference with the actual operation. The other one is the digital interface for sending data to and from the system. That can be done over a 10 G interface, a 40 G interface or a 100 G interface, depending on the platform, how much bandwidth you need, etc.

What is your market at this point?

We don’t discuss our customers specifically, because often they are either very large commercial entities that don’t like to have their names disclosed or they are defense prime contractors that don’t want their names to be disclosed either. So, I can’t really get into customer specifics. What I can say, however, is that our SDRs have been deployed in support of many applications, across such systems as radars, early warning systems, MRIs, signals intelligence, spectrum monitoring, low latency wireless links, and test and measurement. There’s definitely been interest in having our systems deployed for a variety of spectrum monitoring applications on UAVs or other autonomous systems where dynamic spectrum control is important.

That’s exactly where our high-performance products fit the bill, because they have a very wide tuning range — from near DC up to 18 GHz, and it offers up to 16 radio chains, where you can monitor every different part of the spectrum continuously.

Are your systems deployed primarily on land, sea, or air platforms?

Primarily on land and air vehicles. Our system is not miniaturized for robots. When you get into sea, it does become a little bit more challenging.

What about small UAVs?

It depends on how small you’re talking about. Often, those small UAVs will use a card, as opposed to an entire system. So, it’ll be a special PCB, that performs just one dedicated function. For some of the UAVs that demand the highest performance, they usually can support a payload of one of our SDRs. They’re not small, but they definitely can support the size, weight and power of one of our higher end SDRs, which are 19” 3U form factor rack-mountable solutions.

What are a couple of use cases or scenarios for autonomous systems?

Interoperability would probably be one of the biggest that keeps creeping up.

Swarms?

Yes. Basically, the ability for the different elements within a system to communicate with one another. The idea would be having some sort of AI or machine learning applied to autonomous systems, which is the future. The problem right now with it is that many of the autonomous systems utilize different communication protocols. That makes it very challenging to have a single set of controls to interface with them.

For us, one of the use cases would be for SDR to be the intermediary. So, capturing the digital data from each of those different frequencies and combining them into one source for that machine learning or AI to utilize. Imagine that you had sensors that were being used for short range radar, long range radar, communications, etc. You will be across the L band, the C band, the 2.8 GHz band, the 5.8 GHz band. You will be across several different protocols. Not all those systems will play well with one another. So, where we fit in is communicating with all of those disparate devices and converting all that data into a digital domain for additional processing to take place.

Another scenario is what we see a lot in our customers who are doing command and control for various tactical systems and want a single platform on their side to interface with all these separate RF devices.

<p>The post Per Vices: Flexible radios help autonomous systems interface first appeared on GPS World.</p>

SURVEYING & MAPPING

Handheld GIS Data Collection Solution
For outdoor operations

The handheld P6H solution is designed for GIS data collection and outdoor operations. Featuring a GNSS high-precision positioning module, rugged IP67-rated design, and 6-inch sunlight-readable display, the P6H offers positioning accuracy in harsh environments.
Equipped with a SinoGNSS self-developed high-precision K8 board and antenna, it can track all running and planned constellations with 1,590 channels, including GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS, Galileo, QZAA, IRNSS, and SBAS.

The P6H offers users centimeter- or decimeter-level accuracy. Its IP67 rating protects against dust and water to enhance its efficiency and durability in tough environments.

The device comes equipped with Survey Master and robust GIS functions, which allow users to take measurements of geographic elements and store the results as attribute data for subsequent analysis, calculation, and visualization. It also includes a mock location function for users to accurately share Survey Master’s position with P6H. The location data can then be accessed on a third-party GIS software.

It is also compatible with common GIS software such as ArcGIS Collector, Mapit GIS, and QGIS. Additionally, the P6H features an 8-core 2.0 GHz processor, up to 128 GB of storage and up to 6 GB of RAM to offer users smooth software operation and efficient data processing.

PH6, which features a high-precision GNSS module and antenna, also incorporates 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth to improve its data transmission and sharing capabilities.

ComNav Technology, comnavtech.com

Bathymetric Lidar System
Maps underwater topography

YellowScan Navigator is a bathymetric lidar system designed for surveyors to map underwater topography in rivers, ponds, and coastal areas.

The system features a laser scanner developed in-house over the course of five years and has been heavily tested to achieve optimal performance. The compact system can map waterbeds with a depth of up to 3 m and can reach a depth of 18 m in perfectly clear water conditions, according to the company. It can be flown up to 100 m above the water surface and provides measurements with an accuracy of 3 cm. Additionally, a camera is embedded for true-color data visualization.

YellowScan, yellowscan.com

3D Model Editing Software
For aerial surveying, transportation, and emergency responses

DJI Modify is an intelligent 3D model editing software. It can be seamlessly integrated with DJI’s enterprise UAVs and 3D modeling and mapping software, DJI Terra. When integrated with these products, the software can be used for aerial surveying, transportation, and emergency responses.

DJI Modify paired with DJI Terra offers users an end-to-end solution from modeling to model editing. Once DJI Modify has been enabled, DJI Terra files for model editing are automatically generated, including pre-identified objects and pre-processing of the model. It is designed to make repairing common 3D model defects seamless and efficient. As of early 2024, DJI Modify will only support repairing models built by DJI Terra.

DJI Modify allows for model files to be quickly imported and exported to the DJI Terra and other third-party software. Its intelligent auto-repair editing supports flattening, editing textures, repairing water surfaces, removing floating parts, and filling holes. Edits can be made using one-click repairs or manually by selecting custom polygons, areas or meshes.

The software’s smoother model display technology allows high- and low-quality models to be viewed and edited in a single interface. Changes made can be synchronized across both models and previewed immediately, which allows users to address model editing issues in real-time.

DJI, store.dji.com

OEM

GNSS/IMU
Uninterrupted position, orientation, and dynamics

RT3000 v4 GNSS inertial measurement unit (IMU) combines two survey-grade GNSS receivers with OxTS’ IMU10 inertial technology. The RT3000 v4 offers uninterrupted position, orientation and dynamics in challenging environments.

The IMU will reach the desired specification within three minutes of low dynamic movements, which reduces the time and space required for high dynamic maneuvers before each data collection.

Users can customize the INS with optional features and software integrations to create the ideal INS for individualized projects, including lidar surveying and mapping or positioning in GNSS-denied or challenged environments.

Oxford Technical Solutions (OxTS), oxts.com

Precision Lidar Technology
Provides vision capabilities in challenging environments

The Eyeonic Vision System Mini (Eyeonic Mini) supports sub-millimeter resolution in a reduced size. The system integrates a full multi-channel FMCW lidar on a single silicone photonic chip and an integrated FMCW lidar system-on-chip (SoC).

The Eyeonic Vision Chip combines crucial photonics functions into a coherent vision sensor. The system’s accuracy stems from a 4-channel FMCW LiDAR chip — supported by Indie Semiconductor Surya SoC technology — to provide robots with sub-millimeter depth precision from distances exceeding 10 m.

The technology offers enhanced precision and can be used in automation, including warehouse logistics and artificial intelligence (AI) machine vision applications. Palletizing robots equipped with the Eyeonic Mini can view and interact with pallets, which aims to optimize package placement and truck loading with greater efficiency and safety.

SiLC Technologies, silc.com

PNT Platform
Used in critical defense operations

The Endura Epoch Platform provides robust and resilient positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services critical in defense operations.
The MEMS oven-controlled oscillator (OCXO) can boost the resilience of PNT systems and other equipment, including radars, field and airborne radios, satcom terminals, and avionics against spoofing, jamming and other disruptions in GPS signals.

Based on the Epoch Platform, the Endura Epoch MEMS OCXOs are designed to meet the challenging shock and vibration conditions found in aerospace and defense. These devices are manufactured using semiconductor processes that deliver the reliability and quality expected from silicon devices. The same level of reliability cannot be achieved by quartz crystal OCXOs, specifically in extreme conditions.

The Endura Epoch MEMS OCXOs, compared to quartz crystal OCXOs, includes various features and benefits, including programmable frequencies from 10 to 220 MHz; a 20,000 g shock survivability rating; up to 20 times better frequency stability over temperature; up to three times better Allan deviation, a measure of short-term frequency stability; surface-mountable, small footprint and low height 9.0 x 7.0 x 3.6 mm; low weight of 0.35 g; 420 mW steady state power.

SiTime Corporation, sitime.com

IMU
With an XYZ-axis gyroscope and accelerometer

The SCH16T-K01 is an inertial measurement unit (IMU) featuring a XYZ-axis gyroscope and a XYZ-axis accelerometer, for a total of six degrees of freedom.

The SCH16T-K01 includes a sophisticated gyro with typical bias instability of 0.5 dph and up to 0.3 mdps/√Hz noise density. The accelerometer has a dynamic range of up to 26 g, which provides resistance against saturation and vibration.

The component’s output is internally cross-axis compensated, which eliminates the need for extensive calibration. Through the integration of these features, the SCH16T-K01 can deliver accurate measurements in machine control and guidance without field calibrations.

It is suited for industrial applications such as construction and agricultural machines, material handling equipment, marine instrumentation, robotics, and UAVs.

Murata, murata.com

3-Axis Optical Gyroscope IMU
For GPS-denied environments

The ANELLO X3, a 3-axis optical gyroscope inertial measurement unit (IMU), is designed for GPS-denied and challenging environments.

The IMU leverages ANELLO SiPhOG (Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope) technology and serves as a light, low-power tri-axial optical gyroscope offering high accuracy, performance, and reliability for autonomous applications.

The ANELLO X3 can be used in a variety of applications, including autonomous commercial and defense applications involving robots, UAVs, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and various maritime and land vehicle applications, including high-accuracy surveying and mapping.

ANELLO Photonics, anellophotonics.com

MOBILE

Smart Antenna
Centimeter-level RTK positioning

The AntaRx smart antenna is designed for machine automation and control in construction, precision agriculture, and logistics. It is enclosed in a rugged and compact housing for simplified installation and can handle high levels of shocks and vibrations, making it ideal for harsh industrial environments such as construction and mining.

The multi-frequency receiver offers centimeter-level real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning and can be used in inertial navigation system (INS) integration, dual antenna mode, and 4G cellular communication. It is available in several configurations, including as a GNSS smart antenna or a GNSS/INS smart antenna system and can be integrated as an inertial measurement unit (IMU).

The receiver technology integrates the company’s GNSS+ algorithms, including advanced multipath mitigation, which offers uninterrupted operation in challenging conditions such as near high structures or machinery.

Septentrio, septentrio.com

Handheld Scanner
With SLAM technology

The Lixel X1 is a powerful 3D scanner that combines lidar, visible-light and motion cameras, and high-precision inertial sensing using SatLab’s simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology.

Data and scene reconstruction can be previewed in real time and can be exported immediately after scanning without the need for post-processing, which aims to simplify workflows and enhance efficiency.

The system enables scans to be resumed from breakpoints, which allows surveys to be broken up into convenient segments. It provides up to 60 minutes of continuous operation and can be easily mounted to UAVs and other mobile mapping platforms.

SatLab Geosolutions, satlab.com

Ceramic Antenna
For connectivity on L1 GNSS signals

Admotus is a surface-mount ceramic antenna designed for connectivity on L1 GNSS signals on all constellations, including GPS-L1 at 1575.42 MHz; GLONASS L1, 1602MHz; Galileo L1, 1575.42 MHz; BeiDou (B1); and QZSS. It offers comparable performance to a small patch antenna on a small ground plane.

The ceramic antenna has an ultra-low profile measuring a mere 1.0 x 0.5 x 0.5 mm, requires 7 x 15 mm clearance area and offers improved performance on small PCB sizes.

Admotus offers a peak gain of 0.9 dBi with an average gain of –2.6 dB and offers maximum return loss of –11.5 dB and a maximum VSWR of 1.8:1. A companion evaluation PCB is also available for internal analysis.

It is suitable for all GNSS positioning applications in the L1 band (1559 – 1609 MHz) such as wearable devices for fitness and medical monitoring, small portable tracking devices used to track keys, pets, bikes, UAVs, agricultural robotics, and telematics devices.

Antenova, antenova.com

Rugged Tablet
For mobile field workers

The Mesa 4 Rugged Tablet features a 7-inch display and runs on Windows 11. It is designed to provide powerful rugged computing and data collection to mobile field workers.

The Mesa 4 comes with a new Intel N200 processor. It offers up to three times the CPU performance of the Mesa 3 and has an increased RAM size and speed to enhance its processing power. Mesa 4 has an IP68 rating, MIL-STD-810H certification and ergonomic design for all-day carrying.

Juniper Systems, junipersys.com

UAV

UAV Ground Control System
On an 8-inch rugged tablet

The Ground Control System (GCS) for UAVs is centered around RuggON’s LUNA 3 8-inch rugged tablet. It is designed to provide real-time control, telemetry, and satellite positioning for connected UAVs.

GCS is designed to provide users more control over a variety of UAVs by using the LUNA 3 rugged tablet, which has a large and high-definition screen to provide video feedback during operations. The system is also certified to provide GNSS positioning and tracking services.

Featuring a low-latency video software decoder, GCS allows for real-time high-resolution video viewing and data collection. Engineered to withstand dust, shock, and water, the control system can withstand challenging environments.

The LUNA 3 8-inch rugged tablet stands as a powerful and efficient model within its class, powered by an Intel Core i5 processor (1145G7E) with Intel Iris Xe graphics and the Windows operating system. Its sunlight-readable display supports night and stealth modes, which is cruicial for law enforcement and military applications. The tablet offers touchscreen functionality for enhanced operator convenience, complemented by ethernet and optional Wi-Fi 6, and 4G LTE connectivity.

RuggON, rugon.com

VTOSL
Bridging the gap between land and sea

The VT-Naut, vertical takeoff and short landing (VTOSL) is a versatile aerial solution designed for a variety of applications, including high-precision mapping and surveying for inspection, scouting, observation, and agriculture.

The VT-Naut can land on water, which makes it ideal for shipboard or coastal operations, and opens new ways for users to collect and observe data. It has a long-range telemetry link of 30 km and a flight endurance of up to 90 minutes. Its compact and robust body design provides durability and resilience in harsh environments.

The VT-Naut UAV system offers a cost-effective alternative to full VTOL platforms, particularly for users who require extensive surveying capabilities and have some flexibility in landing site selection. The system eliminates the extra costs associated with acquiring and operating a VTOL multirotor drone.

Aeromao, aeromao.com

Folding UAV
For challenging environments

The AIDrone UAV is designed for a variety of applications, from infrastructure inspections and renewables to defense and public safety.
The UAV features a high-performance payload, fitted with a 64MP EO/IR camera mounted on a dual-axis gimbal that can support vertical rotation of up to 200°. AIDrone can spot millimeter-sized cracks and detect subtle temperature changes in challenging environments.

AIDrone uses Nearthlab’s vision-based autonomous flight technology to operate autonomously — in zero-light and GPS-denied environments — both indoors and outdoors.

It weighs around 4 lbs and has a foldable structure. AIDrone is designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) purposes, which makes it ideal for crisis management scenarios such as wildfire response and law enforcement.

Nearthlab, nearthlab.com

ISR UAV
With jamming resistant-radio

The Ghost Dragon intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) UAV offers higher resistance against jamming and spoofing. The UAV is equipped with a thermal and visual light camera and jamming-resistant radio. Its wide frequency hopping radio is used to provide a jamming-resistant video and telemetry link, which makes it difficult to detect the UAV and interfere with the mission.

The Ghost Dragon ISR uses a dual-band GNSS module that operates on both L1 and L5 bands, which allows for flight operations even in challenging environments. The UAV can operate in radio silence mode in the presence of GNSS and store reconnaissance data on an encrypted SD card to view after the UAV has landed. The video and target location information streamed to the operator is also georeferenced.

The UAV can be redirected, flown back to base, or handed to another operator at a different ground control station at any time.

Krattworks, krattworks.com

<p>The post Launchpad: Lidar systems, PNT platforms and UAVs first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Image: YellowScan

YellowScan has released its new bathymetric lidar system, the YellowScan Navigator.

The environmental hazards of climate change have an impact on human activities and infrastructure, such as drier seasons or heavy rains and flooding rivers. Precisely mapping both waterbed and land is required for monitoring, modeling and mitigating coastal erosion and flood hazards and for understanding biodiversity habits.

YellowScan Navigator is designed for surveyors to map underwater topography, in rivers, ponds and coastal areas.

The system features a laser scanner developed in-house over the course of five years and has been heavily tested to achieve optimal performance. The compact system can map waterbeds with a depth of up to three meters and can reach a depth of 18 meters in perfectly clear water conditions, according to the company. It can be flown up to 100m above the water surface and provides measurements with a precision accuracy of 3 cm. Additionally, a camera is embedded to offer true-color data visualization.

<p>The post YellowScan launches bathymetric lidar system first appeared on GPS World.</p>

<p>The post INTERGEO 2023: YellowScan first appeared on GPS World.</p>

On the first day of INTERGEO 2023, attendees flooded the exhibit hall. (All photos taken by GPS World staff).

The 29th INTERGEO conference and trade show on geospatial technology and data was held from October 10 to 12 in the German capital Berlin. This year’s event took place under the famous radio tower and in the brand new Hub27 conference center, part of the 42-acre Messe Berlin exhibit and conference center. The annual event takes place each year in a different German city.

Over the three days, 560 vendors from more than 40 nations exhibited their products, while people from across the globe attended presentations and vendor exhibits on geodesy, geoinformation and land management. Topics covered included Earth observation and environmental monitoring, maritime solutions, unmanned systems, building information modeling (BIM), GIS and artificial intelligence, metaverse and cloud applications, smart cities, digital twins, COPERNICUS and Galileo satellite services, 4D geodata, 3D cadaster, and smart mapping applications. The focus was on how these technologies and data are used to address issues of housing, mobility, sustainability, climate change and internal security, monitoring for disaster prevention and protection, and the creation of more equitable living conditions.

In conjunction with the conference, the German Cartography Congress 2023 also convened, with lectures on such topics as atlases, map collections, map design, and artificial intelligence. In her keynote address, Professor Monika Sester discussed how machine learning methods help with generalization and Professor Sebastian Meier gave a provocative lecture titled “Critical Cartography in Times of Hallucinating Machines.”

Attendees at a presentation from the exhibit hall stage.

Day 1, Tuesday, October 10

On the first day of INTERGEO 2023, keynote speakers included Jack Dangermond, founder and CEO of ESRI, professor Paul Becker, president of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy, Scott Crozier from Trimble and professor Rudolf Staiger, president of the organiser DVW e.V. The main theme was the centrality of geospatial science and technology to sustainability because the basis of socially, ecologically and economically sustainable decisions lies in the understanding of the Earth system. This is increasingly achieve using geoinformation gathered through Earth observation and many other sensors.

GPS World conducted short interviews with Gustavo Lopez, market access manager at Septentrio and Deyn Deng, overseas sales manager at Unicore.

Some surveying supplies that have been used for centuries are still in use today.

Day 2, Wednesday, October 11

On the second day of INTERGEO 2023, the focus of the keynote presentations, like that of many of the products in the exhibit hall, was “smart cities” and building information modeling (BIM), including a panel discussion on the importance of BIM in Germany. Related themes discussed in the presentations, on the exhibit hall stages, and at vendors’ booths included connected urban twins, sensor data, real-time applications, urban twins as drivers of innovation for local governments, maritime solutions, Earth observation, and unmanned systems.

An autonomous bathymetric vessel from Teledyne Marine.

At a press conference on navigating sustainability through geospatial insights the participants were Rudolf Staiger, president of DVW, Boris Skopljak, Vice President survey & mapping strategy and product marketing at Trimble, Thomas Harring, president Geosystems at Hexagon, Gerd Buziek, Business Relations Executive at Esri Deutschland and Godela Roßner, head of Earth observation at Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR).

This UAV from CHCNAV can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane.

GPS World conducted short interviews with Andrew Scott, Head of Marketing & Sales at JAVAD GNSS; Jamie Birch, product manager at OxTS; Mandy Clayton, Southeast Regional sales mganager at GeoMax (part of Hexagon); Florian Ollier, head of marketing & communications at SBG Systems; Andrei Gorb, division product manager, Mapping Solutions at CHCNAV; Rachel Wong, Survey & Engineering Product Line, product manager at CHCNAV; Marcel Visser, CEO of NavCert; Ken MacLeod, product line manager and Bruce Shields systems group director at Tallysman; and Morgane Selve, head of marketing at Yellowscan.

CHCNAV’s Apache 4 autonomous bathymetric vessel.

Visser told GPS World that his company had obtained from the German federal government sole responsibility to certify UAVs in Germany for commercial operations, including flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Trimble’s GEDO CE 2.0 track measurement trolley.

<p>The post INTERGEO 2023: Recap first appeared on GPS World.</p>

L’avion jaune, a French UAV and aerial photogrammetry company, uses the Trimble Applanix APX-20 UAV GNSS-inertial OEM solution and a YellowScan VX-20 lidar on its M600 multirotor UAV. (Image: L’Avion Jaune)

The breakdown of limestone cliffs generates landslides and loose debris that threatens the environment, people and wildlife below. These conditions make it impossible to safely operate traditional survey equipment from the ground for landslide detection. Using UAVs for direct georeferencing is an efficient way to take traditional survey efforts to the sky and enables users to accurately assess land formations while mitigating risk.

One way to implement direct georeferencing on UAV platforms is with the Trimble APX-20 UAV, which is a GNSS-inertial OEM solution that increases the mapping efficiency of small UAVs. It consists of small, low power, precision GNSS and inertial hardware components and POSPac UAV post-mission differential GNSS-inertial office software. The APX-20 UAV eliminates the need for ground control points and reduces the sidelap required to be flown per flight.

The APX-20 UAV contains a precision, survey-grade GNSS receiver and dual inertial measurement units (IMU), so it automatically supports integration on gimballed platforms without requiring an external interface to an autopilot or on a mount. It computes at 100 hz using the embedded IMU while simultaneously logging the raw IMU data from both the internal and external IMU at 200 hz for post-processing in POSPac UAV. The postprocessed position and orientation solutions are suitable for direct georeferencing of cameras, lidars and other sensors.

Trimble Applanix UAV Put to the Test

For fast and safe landslide detection, the Trimble Applanix APX-20 UAV for direct georeferencing was put to the test using a Multirotor M600 manufactured by French company L’Avion Jaune equipped with a VX-20 lidar sensor made by YellowScan, also a French company. This combination produces cost-effective and reliable high-resolution UAV lidar-derived DTMs and 3D models for hazard mitigation and planning.
L’Avion Jaune has performed more than 600 successful mapping missions globally. After pursuing mapping activities with mainly crewed aircraft, it began developing UAVs for long-distance applications for marine, tropical forest and polar regions such as the Multirotor M600/YellowScan VX-20, which offers high-precision, cost-effective and efficient aerial mapping.

The APX-20 UAV and the M600/YellowScan VX-20 were combined and deployed to evaluate landslide activities in France. The mission parameters for this configuration included: high point density; x, y, z precision of 5 cm; access to dangerous zones; map generation under dense vegetation area, and fast deployment. The goal of this project was to enable the implementation of safety and prevention plans for the protection of pedestrians, infrastructure, wildlife and more.

During the six-hour duration of the project, the APX-20 UAV and M600/YellowScan VX-20 configuration was flown four times for 15 minutes each during sunrise. It flew more than 75 ha in surface area with a flight speed of 5 m/s at 60 m in the air, following the topography. Checkpoints were surveyed with differential GPS following the conclusion of the flights. Data processing included computation of the georeferenced trajectory, matching flight lines and point cloud classification, which took two days.

The Results

The flexible UAV deployment of resources enabled the acquisition of dense point clouds and the generation of DTM in less than three days. During this project L’Avion Jaune was able to optimize the choice of material and discover the best practices to collect and process lidar data for mapping in dense vegetation.

<p>The post Trimble Applanix: Unmanned aerial vehicles aid survey efforts first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Editor-in-Chief Matteo Luccio met with two representatives from YellowScan to discuss its global market and a recent end-user success story out of Antarctica.

Featured Photo: GPS World

<p>The post Exclusive: YellowScan discusses market, use cases at INTERGEO 2022 first appeared on GPS World.</p>