Autonomous vehicles

Flying FARO Laser Scanner Focus3D

Just a quick reference to an article in our sister publication American Surveyor describing an application where the FARO Focus 3D was mounted on a multicopter. You are looking at the future. We just need to get the FAA on board.

5 Comments

  • Well, being a user of a Faro Focus, i have to say that or they are crazy, or they are rich and don’t care if they end up with a very expensive pancake :-))) Around here i have notice of several copters having catastrophic failures and going down! Having said that, it had passed my mind as possible, but only for a couple of seconds, since the weight makes it impractical. Also i dont think they have the sensors onboard with the needed precision to make any of this useful. But i wait for the next generation of scanners with half the weight, and batteries with twice the efficiency. Cheers.

    • Hi Victor despite the price of a 3DLS on board of a chopper there is other reasons to be considered:

      What you are going to survey ?? a Plant ?? what altitude ? where will be installed the targets ? how you manage the point clouds taked with different altitudes ?? I think this is funny but it is most suitable for Lidar or the MTLS !!! than TLS static…???

      Or I am wrong ??

      • The future is fly around and scan around using self referential algorithms…sure we are not there yet…FARO is forward thinking and visionaries take a lot of criticism…the entire industry was caught off guard by the Focus 3D….what might be next?

        Getting back to your criticism…organic shapes will be a challenge, but the oil rig I mentioned will have lots of sharp corners and every one is a target. For an absolute point of reference, there is an answer for that also….just stay tuned….

    • Notice the redundant motors….this is capable of being made more reliable than you are used to…If FARO is going to continue to lead in this space they will have to solve the 3D position knowledge issue….if they don’t, someone else will…I think they are working on it…I know one solution using FAROs existing technology….this would have a few limitations…

      Let’s see what the next couple models of the scanner look like before we jump to any conclusions…..

  • On the flip side, if FARO doesn’t have this capability at some point in the future others definitely will. Multicopters such as this are FAR safer and cost effective than having a human piloted helicopter fly in close vicinity to an oil rig say…and if you lose a scanner every now and then, no biggie!

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