The Transportation Research Board’s AFB 80 Geospatial Data Acquisition Technologies in Design and Construction Standing Committee is holding its summer meeting July 22 – 25, 2018 in Sacramento, CA. The event will be held at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel. Advance registration ends on June 22, 2018. The conference is open to the public.
This is an opportunity to connect with DOT and FHWA personnel that are involved with the investigation and adoption of a number of innovative geospatial technologies including UAV/UAS, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, mobile lidar, geodetic control and more. The private sector will also be represented.
This year’s agenda will include reports from each DOT on current activities, and sessions on:
Augmented Reality in Construction
Geospatial Data Standards
Implementation of the 2022 Horizontal and Vertical Datums
Lidar on Drones
Mobile Scanning
GPR
Autonomous Vehicles
For more information about the conference click here. To find out more about AFB 80 click here.
The Highway Engineering Exchange Program (HEEP) would like to announce an exciting new twist to IHEEP that we have organized as part of the 2018 event. In coordination with our partners on this effort, we extend an invitation to the BIM (Building Information Modeling) for Infrastructure series of virtual meetings.
There will be two virtual meetings in 2018, leading up to a panel discussion at the 60th annual IHEEP conference on September 24, 2018. The second one will be Wednesday June 20, 2018 from 1:00 to 2:00 CDT. You can register here.
BIM for Infrastructure is a topic on everyone’s mind these days. The understanding of the key elements of BIM and its benefits seems to vary from organization to organization.
Like the US, UK public and private transportation entities are being asked to do more with less under strict requirements and significant restrictions. BIM for infrastructure has played an important role, and many lessons have come from experiences in the both the US and the UK. To date in the US, the application of BIM varies from state to state, but the desire to explore it and use it seems to be accelerating. Valuable lessons are available from both the US and UK’s experience with BIM for infrastructure.
These moderated panel discussions are geared around an exchange of ideas, where transportation practitioners can learn and understand key elements of BIM, implementation concepts and further benefits. These meetings will consist of 6 panel members and a moderator with perspectives from the Government, Consulting and Contractor point of view, with participation from both US and UK organizations. These virtual meetings are open to anyone with an interest in BIM for Infrastructure.
Leica Geosystems made two new major product announcements yesterday that deserve your attention. From the press releases.
The first is the launch of the Leica RTC360, a laser scanner equipped with edge computing technology to enable fast and highly accurate creation of 3D models in the field.
The RTC360 combines high-performance laser scanning, edge computing, and mobile app technologies to pre-register captured scans quickly and accurately. With the push of a button, two million points per second of High Dynamic Range (HDR) imagery can be captured to create a full-dome scan in under two minutes. Laser scanner movements between setup positions are automatically tracked by a Visual Inertial System (VIS) while scans are combined and pre-registered on a mobile device, where they can be viewed and augmented with information tags – saving precious time and speeding up decision-making right from the field.
Sounds amazing.
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The second is the Leica BLK3D – a compact 3D handheld imager that improves productivity by enabling immediate and precise 3D measurements from any image it captures.
By combining measurement sensors, software, and on-device edge data processing capabilities, the BLK3D enables in-picture measurements with professional-grade accuracy. Every image captured by the BLK3D is a complete and precise 3D record. Its edge capabilities eliminate the need for network connections and/or cloud services, ensuring professionals can make faster decisions within their daily workflow – whether creating floor plans and estimating building installations or documenting construction progress and creating as-built facility documentation.
“The BLK3D is the latest addition to our award-winning BLK series,” said Ola Rollén, Hexagon President and CEO. “The ability to capture, visualise, and index precise 3D measurement information directly from a 2D image raises the bar, setting new expectations for professionals looking for faster, more accurate ways to get the measurements they need. Not only that, it’s so easy to operate virtually anyone can use it.”
With the expanded functionality of the desktop software, users can create new projects and CAD-ready 3D models from their measurable images. BLK3D connects seamlessly to a laptop or desktop computer – via Wi-Fi or USB cable. Data is automatically synced and measurable images can be accessed, processed, and organised from the convenience of the desktop application.
The much anticipated news coming out of Las Vegas last night at the HxGN Live event was presented by Ola Rollen at his keynote. It’s being called Xalt and its a bold move for a traditional sensor company that is certainly looking to the future by positioning itself as being a leader in leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT).
Xalt is about accelerating digital transformation and it includes every latest buzzword, in addition to IoT that you can think of – AI, machine learning, edge computing, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, the cloud plus a few new ones that Ola coined last night like smart construction, smart autonomous fleets and the one he says will have the greatest impact – smart factories. He claims Hexagon is already implementing Xalt in a number of factory settings.
It’s all part of what Ola labeled as ACE – the Autonomous Connected Ecosystems. If that sounds a little familiar as in AutonomouStuff, the firm Hexagon acquired last week, then you are on the same page as Ola. He said that’s exactly what he sees coming – lots of autonomous “stuff” and he wants Hexagon to be a leader in this transformation. As noted in the previous blog post that is a major shift from just a couple of years ago, particularly as it applies to driverless cars.
Xalt’s framework leverages disruptive technologies that address the critical IoT points of leverage: enterprise integration; cloud orchestration; data visualisation; built-in mobility; intelligent edge connectivity; and artificial intelligence (AI) everywhere. It is the cornerstone of Hexagon’s ACE strategy – delivering industry-specific solutions that integrate sensors, data, and software to create smart digital realities.
“Perhaps the single greatest need in business today is autonomous insight. This means much more than operational line of sight – it means being able to leverage vast amounts of data behind the scenes, where connected devices and machines interpret what’s happening and why, and then act accordingly autonomously,” said Ola Rollén, Hexagon President and CEO. “Customers need to operate based on the whole picture, not just the big picture – something not humanly possible without the aid of AI and visualisation technologies.”
It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the development of this new vision and strategy. It is certainly the direction that the world is moving and Hexagon has a lot of expertise in the sensor side of things. The challenge will be in transitioning the company from one that is built to sell sensors to one that is comfortable with ACE.
The vision is there now it’s all in the doing, or as Ola challenged the audience with – To Take the Big Leap.
I have not had a chance to review this report on 3D Laser Scanning Equipment yet, but I wanted to get this out there as soon as possible as it will certainly be of interest to not only those in the transportation industry, but 3D laser scanning in general.
The Illinois Center for Transportation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has released a report that determines the tangible costs versus benefits and the manpower savings realized by using the 3-D laser scanning in place of or in conjunction with conventional surveying methods. This report reviews surface topography mapping of bridge decks, bridge beam deflection scans, and detailed surface mapping of various structures.
The report used the Trimble TX5 laser scanner for the study.
Two projects were used for comparing manpower requirements for conventional surveying methods with those for 3-D laser scanning. Other projects were included in this evaluation under the objective of expanded use of the laser scanning equipment and included surface topography mapping of bridge decks, bridge beam deflection scans, and detailed surface mapping of various structures.
From an article by Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz):
ICEYE is a high tech start-up based in Finland that just secured another $34 million in financing for what they promise will be the world’s largest Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) microsatellite constellation.
The company’s goal is to build a constellation that can be tasked to image anywhere in the world within an hour, according to CEO Rafael Modrzewski. Two years of funding toward nine satellites gets ICEYE halfway to its goal of 18, which the CEO said would be capable of imaging anywhere in the world in 3 hours. With the previous largest SAR constellation only totaling four satellites, ICEYE is on track to surpass that before 2020.
The cost to build and launch each ICEYE microsatellite is close to the recent amount of funding raised, Modrzewski said, meaning each comes with a price tag near $3 million. ICEYE has “identified over 50 improvements based on” the X1 mission, he added.
With SPAR 3D 2018 wrapped up full attention now turns to the Venetian in Las Vegas and HxGN Live 2018. Beginning on Tuesday June 12 with a wide variety of high level training classes, the official opening sessions will be at 5:30 followed by a kickoff reception. The conference then runs through Friday June 15. Thursday night features the big nightclub event.
There are going to be more than 400 customer-led case studies presented and there is over 120,000 sf of The Zone exhibits.
I know AutonomouStuff will be exhibiting. It will be interesting to see what is said about the recent acquisition.
Day 2 at SPAR 2018 3D opened with a review of the history of AEC Systems and a keynote by a team representing Gensler, the designer of the new headquarters building for Nvidia. The presentation focused on the getting the “soul” of the building captured in the many design iterations. The goal was to create a place of collaboration and all of the modeling techniques were used from cardboard to virtual reality. Nvidia contributed massive computing resources to the design process which resulted in the most simulated building that Gensler had ever been involved with.
I spent the rest of the day on the exhibit floor for the most part. With the addition of AEC Next the exhibit area seemed huge compared to past years. The booths for each conference were mixed together which I think is a good idea. At times there was quite a bit of traffic and it will be interesting to hear if the two groups were talking to vendors outside of their conference.
There were no major product announcements at the show that I am aware of. I think all of the major scanner manufacturers are trying to become more of a total solution provider. This is certainly true for FARO as they have added a number of software products for the construction market.
The interior data collection carts were roaming around, but the product that seems to be hot is the ZEB-REVO handheld scanner from GeoSLAM. In 18 months they have grown from a couple of people to supporting 75 distributors worldwide.
Assemble Systems offers BIM data management software mainly for general contractors. They want to be the one source of truth for all construction data. They are creating a much simpler user interface to working with BIM.
It is going to be interesting to see what the feedback is going to be on the co-location and what the plans are for more integration going forward.
Lights, camera, action and with that SPAR 3D 2018 and AEC Next were launched. The Anaheim Convention Center is a very nice venue. Lisa Murray welcomed the standing room only audience by noting that this was the 15th year for SPAR. While the first one was focused on expensive hardware and early adopters today’s conference is much more diverse. In addition this is the first year for the co-location with AEC Next which will really come into play on day 2 when the combined exhibit hall opens.
The three keynotes on Monday were an interesting mix of a scientist from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, an engineer from oil giant BP and a visualization guru from chipmaker and drone user Intel. The focus of all three talks was on the new technology being employed today such as the virtual reality headsets that NASA is using for their 2020 mission to Mars; the machine learning that is being employed at BP to develop a “cognitive” facility; and the full lidar services that Intel is providing to the public.
For me the more interesting sessions involved three companies that are trying to position themselves as key players in the autonomous vehicle market. The first was Louay Eldada, CEO of Quanergy who emphasized the fact that they have one of the first solid state lidars which he held in the palm of his hand. In a somewhat surprising statement, but one that you know I support, Eldada stated that he does not believe SAE Level 5 is attainable.
James Dawson from Civil Maps has two major rules that support their vision. The first is that all driverless vehicles will be required to communicate with each other and that they must be capable of sending and retrieving data from the cloud. I don’t hear much talk about either of those.
The final presenter was by Barry Behnken, co-founder of AEye who I think had the most interesting premise namely that 80 to 90% of the data being collected by most systems today is not needed and it is causing a lot of problems. What AEye is attempting to do is collect the 10% of information that is really needed. Remember scanners and cameras are dumb.
That’s it for now as I have to get to the morning keynote.
This detailed article in Geospatial World by Anusuya Datta provides an extensive listing and description of a variety of free lidar data sources from around the world, as well as this informative introductory video.
The USGS 3DEP program is the leader in this effort to democratize lidar data here in the U.S. Along the coast NOAA’s Digital Coast covers over 550,000 sq. miles with contributions from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Geodetic Survey.
A group that I have not heard of is the United States Interagency Elevation Inventory which is collaboration of the USGS and NOAA. They provide an inventory of high-accuracy topographic and bathymetric data for the U.S.
There are a number of other resources including sources in the UK, Netherlands, Finland and Spain.
The Transportation Research Board’s AFB 80 Geospatial Data Acquisition Technologies in Design and Construction Standing Committee is holding its summer meeting July 22 – 25, 2018 in Sacramento, CA. The event will be held at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel. Advance registration ends on June 22, 2018. The conference is open to the public.
