OxTS develops inertial navigation solutions for the automotive, and surveying and mapping industries. They have more than two decades of experience in combining high-precision GNSS receivers and world-class inertial navigation expertise to help companies achieve precise measurements with confidence.
By Velodyne Lidar
OxTS Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for mapping combine GNSS with inertial measurements, along with integration of Velodyne lidar sensors, to support the generation of accurate and consistent position, orientation and heading. OxTS INS is used for airborne and vehicle-based survey and mobile mapping applications, where continuous position and high accuracy orientation information is essential for georeferencing sensor data.
To learn more about OxTS and how lidar with GNSS/INS technology can help systems know their location and orientation, we connected with Paris Austin, Lidar Survey Business Manager of OxTS.
Q: Why should companies pair an Inertial Navigation System with 3D lidar – how do the technologies complement each other?
Paris: In my mind, pairing these two technologies creates a perfect combination that shares their strengths and offers completely mutually exclusive features. Lidar provides an external sensing method and answers the question “how far away is that object to my left?” This information gives you range and angle to the target which is entirely relative to the lidar’s current location. As soon as the lidar moves or rotates, that historic measurement is no longer valid unless you have a reference for where it was when it took that measurement. Inertial Navigation Systems offer that information for 3D position and orientation and they offer it with an absolute coordinate system reference – the Earth. This paired with nanosecond accurate time synchronization (thanks to GNSS) means the lidar data can go from being valuable in an instantaneous way to being valuable in a perpetual way.
For the full interview on inertial navigation and lidar CLICK HERE.
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