February 12, 2023 - Montreux, Switzerland - TOPODRONE, a Swiss based designer and manufacturer of high-precision surveying equipment and a partner of Velodyne, will exhibit multipurpose surveying and mapping equipment at Geo Week 2023. The company will present professional laser scanners which integrate specially calibrated Velodyne laser sensors with a high-performance GNSS-aided inertial navigation system.
Survey grade TOPODRONE LIDAR systems (HI-RES, ULTRA, HDL) are enabled with Velodyne laser sensors and can be mounted on board of different drones DJI M200/300/600, a wide range of VTOLs and on any car and backpack. The user is able to carry out scanning work over large areas using a UAV or any vehicle and backpack in no-fly zones (such as cities or nearby airports) with the same set of TOPODRONE LiDAR equipment: it will provide a rapid field data collection of a highly detailed and accurate point cloud.
Fig. 1. TOPODRONE LIDAR HI-RES on board of DJI M300 drone.
In February 2023 Jack W. Berry & Associates a leading aerial mapping and aerial Photography LIDAR service provider in Georgia and Southeast of United States tested the synchronization of drone based LiDAR, Photogrammetry and mobile laser scanning survey approach. They performed a mapping project in Peachtree city, GA.
LiDAR datasets were captured by TOPODRONE LiDAR HI-RES while photogrammetry data was collected with TOPODRONE P61 camera. Both devices were simultaneously installed onboard of DJI M300 drone. After finishing the flights the same TOPODRONE LIDAR HI-RES was installed on a vehicle to perform mobile laser scanning of the road and surrounding infrastructure.
Fig. 2. TOPODRONE LIDAR HI-RES on the vehicle.
Drone and mobile laser scanning datasets were automatically processed in TOPODRONE Post Processing software and required no additional actions to couple them together. As a result a highly detailed point cloud with 1-3 cm x,y,z accuracy was generated which allows to automatically trace and create CAD data of roads, borders, road signs, power poles, wires, buildings, trees and terrain level etc.
A number of ground control points were measured in the field to evaluate the quality of the data, automatically generated accuracy report is represented in Table 1.
The test identified a following advantage of the solution: the same LiDAR equipment can be used on different platforms providing the outstanding level of versatility, efficiency and accuracy.
"Berry and Associates is a full-service Aerial Surveying and Mapping firm utilizing the latest LiDAR and digital imagery technology. For large area aerial photography & LIDAR survey we use Optech Galaxy T100 LIDAR system and Phase One 150 Mp aerial camera on board of Twin Commander airplane.
The TOPODRONE equipment has made it possible for us to expand our business into the areas of small area surveying and mobile laser scanning, where it is not possible to get an aircraft into the air.
We are completely satisfied with the accuracy and quality of the LIDAR HI-RES data. We would like to highlight the quality of photos captured by the TOPODRONE P61, which is as good as the more expensive aerial cameras" - Salah Ezzaoudi, CEO of Jack W. Berry & Associates said.
| ID | X | Y | KnownZ | Z | dz |
| GCP1 | 724497.189000 | 3696888.517000 | 229.712000 | 229.710200 | -0.001800 |
| GCP2 | 724671.957000 | 3696711.852000 | 229.227000 | 229.235400 | 0.008400 |
| GCP3 | 724418.237000 | 3696987.557000 | 229.617000 | 229.631900 | 0.014900 |
| GCP4 | 724531.162000 | 3696864.740000 | 230.921000 | 230.936000 | 0.015000 |
| GCP5 | 724449.760000 | 3696995.375000 | 232.558000 | 232.539500 | -0.018500 |
| GCP6 | 724675.525000 | 3696785.214000 | 232.875000 | 232.903000 | 0.028000 |
Average Magnitude: 0.014
Std Deviation: 0.016
Root Mean Square: 0.017
Average dz: 0.008
Minimum dz: -0.019
Maximum dz: 0.028
Fig. 3. Drone LIDAR point cloud.
Fig. 4 UAV & mobile point cloud captured by TOPODRONE LIDAR HI-RES.
Fig. 5. UAV & mobile point cloud captured by TOPODRONE LIDAR HI-RES.
Fig. 6. UAV LIDAR point cloud profile.
Velodyne Lidar announced multi-year supply agreement with TOPODRONE in September 2021. In a year the companies disclosed the synchronization of LiDAR PRIME scanner and aOrion Heli-E UAV enabled by Velodyne’s Alpha Prime sensor. The mapping solution was expected to fill the gap between heavyweight and expensive manned aerial lidar systems and lightweight drone lidar systems.
To learn more about the solutions meet TOPODRONE team at Geo Week 2023, stand #1135, Colorado Convention Center (Denver, CO, USA), between February 13 and 15. To get a complimentary entry ticket from TOPODRONE visit https://www.xpressreg.net/register/GEOW0223/index.php?sc=GEO2330443