Australian geospatial innovation company, Klau Geomatics, was in need of a flexible software solution to help them boresight and georeference LiDAR data with NovAtel navigation data. The solution needed to fit seamlessly into their workflow as it would form part of a wider mapping payload that they would subsequently sell onto their customers.
The products Klau Geomatics offer range from low-cost drone-based solutions to complex, sophisticated manned aircraft mapping systems. They also develop sensor payloads for manned, land-based vehicles. Drones however, have brought aerial mapping and photogrammetry into focus as powerful tools for surveyors.
While drones are effective surveying tools for small areas (up to 10 sq km), they become less viable at a larger scale. On the other hand, while manned aircraft mapping can handle large areas, it comes with significant overheads such as expensive sensors, fleets of aircraft, and high mobilisation costs. These systems are therefore not cost effective at smaller scales (less than 100 sq km).
Klau Geomatics aims to close this gap and make quality data acquisition accessible to professionals irrespective of the size of the area they need to survey. To do this, they began a project to develop their own mobile LiDAR scanning product.
Challenge
The product presented Klau with two specific technology challenges. Firstly, they had to work out a way to calibrate (boresight) the coordinate frames of their navigation device and LiDAR sensor and secondly, georeference the LiDAR data to enable them to create a pointcloud.
As the Klau Geomatics project team is a relatively small team of experts, this presented a major challenge due to the complexity of developing an in-house solution. Although the knowledge was there, the required man-hours it would take to develop a solution meant it wasn’t a viable option to tackle the project alone.
They reached out to OxTS to discuss the challenge…
Download the Case Study and learn more about the role OxTS and in particular, OxTS Georeferencer, had to play.
