Geoinformatics 2013 Vol01

UAV Special Augmented Reality Markup Language 2.
0
3D City Modeling Bentley Be Inspired Awards
Magazi ne f or Sur veyi ng, Mappi ng & GI S Pr of essi onal s
January/February
2
0
1
3
Volume 16
1
Prod_GEO113_1-853087080.e$S_Prod GEO66 24-01-13 13:54 Pagina 1
Some Predictions for the
New Year
At the beginning of the new year, many blogs and geospatial publications pub-
lish lists of predictions for the new year, after having reviewed the past year.
Truth be told, the rst weeks of 2013 have already brought so much product news
and so many acquisitions, that such a list in our publication would already be
obsolete. So what is new? After Esri, we now see Autodesk jumping into the cloud-
based subscription model through their new offering, Autodesk Fusion 360. This
is a cloud-based 3D modeling offering that promises exibility, especially for small-
er companies. Using the cloud means new workows for designers: they can work
from all over the world on one design at the same time. The software doesnt have
to be updated and subscriptions are paid on a monthly rate. No work is discard-
ed: everything is saved in the cloud. The future will tell whether an individual will
be able to navigate swiftly through all this data to nd the latest version of his or
her design.
Safe Software released FME 2013 for both Desktop and Server. In a recent webi-
nar to showcase the new functions and features of both products, the companys
founders joked that downloading is so 2012. Their product works by accessing
and manipulating remote data, such as an FTP-server, without actually download-
ing the data. On the subject of data: its very telling that lots of companies are
now offering webinars on handling point cloud datasets denitely a true geospa-
tial data type that is accepted by the geospatial community. A major software
release that deserves to be mentioned is Intergraph Geospatial 2013; a portfolio
of GIS, remote sensing and photogrammetry software that com-
bines no less than 64 products; nally integrating software releas-
es with new modules in a united portfolio.
A prediction for 2013, which was on every list I have read, was
that UAVs and UAV systems will be everywhere. In this maga-
zine you will nd an extensive overview of the UAVs market in
the UK, which may give you an idea of the amount of providers
and systems that are out there. On the image processing side,
some things still need to be worked out, but this will almost
certainly happen in the near future. Right now, the market
is applying UAVs for new application elds, as the article
on 3D City Modeling indicates. And whilst were on the
subject; what about standards for 3D city models? Yes,
there are many 3D data standards, but not as yet for
the models themselves. With combinations of reality-
based modeling and generic modeling now emerg-
ing, this may be a good moment to create this.
These are, in a nutshell, some observations
on new products and trends. Expect more
to come on other trending topics, such
as indoor mapping and navigation,
mobile apps, big data and location
analysis, to name just a few. The
new year has just begun.
Enjoy reading,
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
GeoInformatics is the leading publication for Geospatial
Professionals worldwide. Published in both hardcopy and
digital, GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and
commentary with respect to the international surveying,
mapping and GIS industry.
GeoInformatics is published
8 times a year.
Editor-in-chief
Eric van Rees
evanrees@geoinformatics.com
Copy Editor
Elaine Eisma
Editors
Florian Fischer
fscher@geoinformatics.com
Remco Takken
rtakken@geoinformatics.com
Contributing Writers:
Waldir Renato Paradella, Philip Cheng,
Natalia Kovach, Martin Lechner, Adam Spring,
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk, Gordon Petrie,
Remco Takken.
Columnist
Lon van der Poel
Finance
nance@cmedia.nl
Marketing & Sales
Ruud Groothuis
rgroothuis@geoinformatics.com
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January/February 2013
P
h
o
t
o
g
r
a
p
h
y
:

w
w
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b
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s
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p
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c
t
u
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e
s
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n
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C o n t e n t
Ar t i c l e s
3D City Modeling 6
Automatic DEM Generation 10
A Russian Airborne Surveying Project 14
Augmented Reality Markup Language 2.0 18
Revisiting the North Carolina Gold Rush 22
GNSS Update 25
Commercial Operation of Lightweight UAVs for Aerial Imaging & Mapping 28
C o l u mn s
Green Surveying 40
E v e n t
Be Inspired Awards 2012 42
Ne ws l e t t e r
CLGE newsletter 46
C a l e n d a r / Ad v e r t i s e r s I n d e x 50

At the cover:
A photo of a senseFly Swinglet CAM, which can be used for photographing
sites such as golf courses, quarries, salt marshes, construction sites, farms etc
at high resolution. Photo credit: Bluesky.
See article on page 28
28
42
10
This article describes how high
resolution satellite data can be
used to extract accurate digital
elevation model (DEM) for a
mining application in the
Amazon region. The resulting
vertical accuracy can be
within RMS error of 1.5m
when using a minimum num-
ber of ground control points.
14
At Bentleys Be Inspired:
Innovations in Infrastructure
conference in Amsterdam, the
featured keynote speaker was
not an engineer or an IT guru.
He was a journalist. Wired
magazines executive editor,
Greg Williams.
In 2012 an airborne survey,
which included airborne laser
scanning, visible spectrum
imagery and thermal survey
was undertaken at the Sayan
Mountains in Russia. The most
interesting challenge of this
project was the production
of a thermal orthophoto.
Over the last few years, the
commercial operation of light-
weight UAVs has become firm-
ly established in the U.K. This
article first outlines the regula-
tory and operational environ-
ment that has allowed this
development to take place.
22
This article examines the post-in-
dustrial landscape of Rutherford
County, North Carolina, prima-
rily through artefacts connected
to the Gold Rush of 1804 -
1828. Data was collected
using an iPad, iPhone, Hedcam
and DSLR camera.
18
Augmented Reality has been
a topic of great popular
interest over the past few
years. To ensure that users
will have the choice of
platforms and applications
they wish to use for AR,
standards are necessary.
25
After years of delay it is finally
happening; the start of the
operational phase of Galileo.
On October 12th another two
Galileo In Orbit Validation
satellites were successfully
launched from Kourou (French
Guyana).
6
3D City models are now com-
mon inside and outside the
geospatial industry. An expert
in the city modeling field, Prof.
em. Dr. Armin Gruen discusses
some current 3D modeling
issues. Special attention is paid
to quality control and data
maintenance.
Data Capture, Maintenance and Applications
3D City Modeling
3D City models are now common inside and outside the geospatial industry. An expert in the city mo -
deling field, Prof. em. Dr. Armin Gruen discusses some current 3D modeling issues. Special attention is
paid to quality control and data maintenance. In addition, he makes a plea for multiple uses of data,
updating city models with real-time data feeds and foresees many new business opportunities in both
data acquisition hardware and software related to 3D modeling practices, based on fieldwork in Asia.
Introduction
A few years ago, reality-based 3D city mod-
els started to become popular at a rapid pace.
Initially, they were often created to show the
uniqueness of a city to the rest of the world.
Today, their usefulness is becoming more and
more diverse. The same goes for generic mod-
eling and, what is even more signicant, is
that the two can be combined. An example
of this is happening at the moment in
Singapore, where ve international science
research centers are involved in various pro-
grams. One of them is the Singapore-ETH
Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability
(SEC). It started with the establishment of a
highly trans-disciplinary project, the Future
Cities Laboratory (FCL), which rapidly evolves
into a global think tank and develops new
methods for better understanding the ever
growing amounts of urban data. Additionally,
it will make this knowledge available to deci-
sion makers, stakeholders and urban plan-
ners.
Different research modules have been
dened and their data needs are combined
and treated on a simulation platform. This
platform includes expertise and software for
GIS, remote sensing, photogrammetry, visu-
alization, simulation and animation, which
help in modeling cities as metabolic objects.
These can be understood as dynamic sys-
tems and can be read in terms of
stocks and ows. Geomatics is
part of these research packages.
For example, theres reality-
based city modeling where satel-
lite, airborne and terrestrial
imagery and laser scans are
used to develop new methods
and software for realistic reality-
based modeling of cities. This
task is being undertaken by Prof.
em. Dr. Armin Gruen, Institute of
Conservation and Building
Research, ETH Zurich, Switzer -
land. Here, he talks about city
modeling in current times, as well as new
applications for city modeling, new data
capture methods and the challenges of mod-
eling today, most notably with UAVs.
Data maintenance and quality
control
When discussing a city model, a question that
comes up sooner or later is how to make a dis-
6
Ar t i c l e
By Eric van Rees
Figure 1. Research modules of the SEC-FCL project in Singapore. The Simulation Platform models information in terms of stocks and flows and
assembles and produces data needed by the other modules for storage, processing, analysis, visualization, animation.
Figure 2. 3D city model of Punggol, a new residential area in Northeast Singapore.
Produced by CyberCity Modeler from a WorldView-2 stereo model.
Armin Gruen
Ar t i c l e
7
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
tinction between a good or bad reality-based
city model. Gruen is very clear about this: a
good city model is one that is maintained, updat-
ed and actual. People discuss how to produce
a city model, but dont discuss how to maintain
it. What is necessary is a procedure to main-
tain or update a city model. What is applicable
for maps is also applicable for city models:
everybody is happy if he has a dataset, but
ve years later its outdated more than ever
before. Updating 3D models with real-time
data feeds is very promising and provides many
opportunities, but theres not much discussion
going on in the community about doing so, says
Gruen: occasionally, people mention it but I
see no concrete development here. People are
still presenting their rst work, which I call a vir-
gin dataset.
Creating this virgin dataset is hard enough,
especially if theres a deadline to be met for a
client. City modeling is almost always done in
manual measurement mode or in a semi-auto-
mated manner at most. Especially quality checks
require much manual work. And this takes time,
says Gruen: its quite an important issue that a
customer very often wants the result in no time,
and this is not possible in Europe, but in China
it is. In Europe, you typically have three to ve
people working on a project, but in China there
are 100 people who can work in parallel, so
that you can fulll almost any deadline.
Here we should clearly point out how we
dene a 3D city model. This is a model where
objects like, buildings or other man-made struc-
tures, vegetation, water surfaces, DTM, etc. are
distinguished from each other. Very often a digi-
tal surface model (DSM) is presented as city
model, with the claim it was produced automat-
ically. This is not the domain we are discussing
here.
The work of amateurs through crowdsourcing is
not something that could solve this European
capacity problem, says Gruen: Im deeply con-
vinced we should leave modeling to profession-
als. Because, who gives you a guarantee if
something is correct or not correct? You see it in
Google Earth very often, that there are funny
houses which do not exist in this form in reality.
Or the digital terrain models are crossly wrong.
Theres the issue of quality control, making sure
that specications are fullled so that the prod-
uct is reliable. This is what we are used to and
this is what we should expect in the future.
A major problem in this context is that there
are no standards available for 3D city models.
CityGML is more a data standard, (a common
information model for the representation of sets
of 3D urban objects as Wikipedia puts it) and
not a specication for content. In 2D mapping
we know exactly what a map at a particular
scale should contain. There is even a list of
objects to be mapped and represented. This is
not yet available for city models and this makes
it difcult to deal with the issue.
Applications for reality-based 3D
city models
Traditionally, there have been a number of
applications for reality-based 3D city models
produced, for example, for the planning of
buildings, roads and location as well as archi-
tecture, monument preservation, tou rism and
environmental monitoring. New applications
are for smart homes, 3D car navigation, trafc
and crowd control, and nally, 3D cadasters.
The usefulness of city models for cadasters
depends on the taxation, says Gruen: the tra-
ditional denition of cadaster is 2D so you
would need a new denition of cadaster to do
it in 3D. In Switzerland they introduced the third
dimension in the cadaster some years ago, but
only as far as terrain is concerned - theyre not
looking into using it for houses. You only need
the third dimension if theres a country which
considers the height of a house for taxation.
Multiple use of a dataset is the key point when
it comes to making a business in city model-
Figure 3. The Falcon-8 octocopter ready for
take-off in front of a satellite image reception
antenna on NUS (National University of
Singapore) campus.
ing these days, says Gruen: the problem to
date was that you always had only one cus-
tomer for a dataset. One should have a busi-
ness model where you can sell the dataset at
all times and have different users. The needs
of users are not that different, and you can
make a low-resolution model out of a high-res-
olution model if necessary.
Generic modeling
Generic modeling has also found its way into
the GIS area, most notably through the acqui-
sition of CityEngine by Esri in 2011. The pack-
age is also used by Gruen and his colleagues
for the modeling of future cities design scenar-
ios. Procedural modeling tools are used for
designing, visualizing and analyzing future
design scenarios. The resulting fancy-looking
models are also being used outside of the
geospatial world, for example, for the enter-
tainment industry, which has been the biggest
customer for these models so far.
Gruen notices a convergence happening
between reality-based and generic modeling:
people now try to make generic models more
and more realistic by using maps or footprints
and build the height of a building generically.
Or, they use satellite imagery and extract the
footprints from satellite imagery and then build
generic models on top of this. So, its a com-
bination of things. Even more, we are doing
rst successful tests to combine reality-based
and generic 3D modeling. We use generic
modeling for the renement of reality-based
models.
UAV imagery can also play a role here, since
theres technically no difference between using
UAV images or images taken from airplanes
or satellites. Gruen: there are small variations
as far as the sensor model is concerned, but
the rest is all the same and you could put
everything into one package. The fact that
commercial software cannot handle all those
cases does not prove the opposite. And
indeed, for satellite image processing we did
that already in Singapore, with IKONOS and
WorldView-2 imagery. We also used Cyber -
City Modeler for 3D modeling, the same soft-
ware as we use with UAV images.
New applications
After using the UAV systems for the rst time
in Singapore, local authorities now see many
new applications for its use, in addition to its
common applications such as 3D base map-
ping and DSM generation. The National
Environment Agency, for example, wants to
use it for real-time detection and the tracking
of oil spills, as well as detection and 3D mea-
surements of water pools where Dengue fever
mosquitos reside. Gruen: oil-spill tracking is
being done with satellite images now but the
results come with a huge delay, because satel-
lite images are not available in real-time. You
may have clouds, and especially in Singapore
you dont get a good image maybe for half a
year. So this is a good example where UAVs
can y under the clouds easily and you can
do data transfer and processing in real-time.
UAVs have the advantage that on-site work
can continue while data is captured from the
air. A problem that Gruen encountered across
all industries which require quality control
using photogrammetry, (for example to mea-
sure an object that is coming from the manu-
facturing process), is that he was asked for a
system that would work fully automatically and
without people walking around. Theres an
area in the south of Singapore where they are
putting up new residential buildings and a
new business district. Gruen: they want to
use UAV for the control of the construction site,
because otherwise people have no overview
of whats going on. With the use of UAV, work
can continue there. Or there are activities
towards ying large plantations in Indonesia
once a week for monitoring of the crop sta-
tus. In such cases the requirement is that the
user should be able to operate the UAV by
himself.
Positive past experiences in the eld have
helped Gruen and his team to get permission
to y now: the rst time we were all alone. I
mean, the National Research Foundation was
our partner, but there was no other partner,
neither private companies nor government
agencies. But now we have contact with the
agencies, which probably makes our point
more effectively.
Future Cities Laboratory (FCL):
www.futurecities.ethz.ch
8
Ar t i c l e
Figure 4. A small 4x4 images subblock of an UAV flight over the NUS campus.
Figure 5. A building (Yusof Ishak House) as example of the very high resolution 3D NUS campus model (UAV image footprint 5 cm).

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Using GeoEye-1 Stereo Data in Mining Application
Automatic DEM Generation
This article describes how high resolution satellite data can be used to extract accurate digital
elevation model (DEM) for a mining application in the Amazon region. The resulting vertical accuracy
can be within RMS error of 1.5m when using a minimum number of ground control points.
D
igital Elevation Model (DEM) repre-
sents the elevation of the top surface
of vegetation cover and other features
(building, manmade structures, etc.) above
the bare earth. It is a very important layer
for many types of applications such as topo-
graphic mapping, three dimensional GIS,
environmental monitoring, geo-spatial analy-
sis, among others. In addition, continuous
growth in the telecommunication and engi-
neering industries has created even greater
demand for DEM data. This data allows engi-
neers to plan and manage infrastructure
growth with the high accuracy required by
new spatial applications. However, for most
areas, DEMs suffer from a few common prob-
lems; they are unavailable, outdated, or
available only in low resolution (such as the
SRTM DEMs, with 1 to 3 arc second spac-
ing or 30/90m postings). DEMs generat-
ed from satellite stereo-pair images can be
used for the applications mentioned above,
and also can address the common problems
customers face when working with existing
(or missing) elevation data. Obtaining DEMs
from satellite images is possible through two
main methods: along-track stereoscopy from
the same orbit, using fore and aft images,
and across-track stereoscopy from two adja-
cent orbits. The simultaneous acquisition of
along-track stereo data has a strong advan-
tage in terms of radiometric variation versus
the multi-date acquisition of across-track
stereo data. The across-track approach has
been applied frequently since 1980, rst
with Landsat TM from two adjacent orbits,
then with SPOT using across-track steering
capabilities, and nally with IRS-1 C/D by
rolling the satellite. Nevertheless, along-
track stereoscopy has recently gained
renewed popularity. Along-track stereoscopy
is applicable to a large number of satellites,
including JERS-1s Optical Sensor (OPS),
German Modular Opto-Electronic Multi-
Spectral Stereo Scanner (MOMS), ASTER,
IKONOS, QuickBird, OrbitView, SPOT-5,
Formosat II, CartoSat, and the latest addition
of WorldView, GeoEye-1 and Pleiades satel-
lites. In this article, we will show an exam-
ple of using GeoEye-1 stereo data to extract
DEM for a mining application in Brazil.
Amazon Forest
The Amazon forest is a moist broadleaf for-
est that covers most of the Amazon Basin of
South America. This basin encompasses
seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion
acres), of which ve and a half million
square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are cov-
ered by the rainforest. This region includes
territory belonging to nine nations.
Approximately, 60% of the Amazon forest
lies in Brazil. In this region, with a continen-
tal dimension (almost 5,500,000 km2 of the
national territory), due to adverse environ-
mental conditions (rain, cloud and dense
vegetation), difcult access and large size,
the topographic knowledge is still poor, with
only 15% of the region covered by maps at
detailed scale (1:50,000). In addition, the
available information for the remainder of
the region was mainly produced in the
1960s and 1980s, and is in desperate
need of updating or needs to be remapped.
This area also includes, under an apparently
homogeneous physiognomy, an enormous
variability in forests, rivers and lakes, soils,
geology, climate, plants and animal. The
lack of reliable terrain information impairs
the ability of the government to formulate
policies, establish priorities and perform
essential activities like regulate colonization
and exploitation of natural resources in eco-
logically sensitive areas.
DEMs are a primary source of input for topo-
graphic mapping. The classication of topo-
graphic maps in Brazil should be performed
in accordance with the National
Cartographic Accuracy Standard (PEC in
Portuguese), established by the Brazilian
Cartographic Commission. PEC is a statisti-
cal indicator (90% of probability) for planial-
timetric accuracy, corresponding to 1, 6449
times the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE)
10
Ar t i c l e
By Waldir Renato Paradella and Philip Cheng
Figure 1: GeoEye-1 multispectral color
composite with main active open
pit mines.
Figure 2: GeoEye-1 full resolution panchromatic image of the western
sector of N4E mine.
(PEC = 1.6449 x RMSE). For a 1:25,000
and 1:10,000 scales A Class map, the alti-
metric RMSE corresponds to 3.33m and 1.66
m, respectively (1/3 of the equidistance of
contour lines on the map scale). A prelimi-
nary evaluation of the altimetric quality of a
DEM extracted from a GeoEye panchromatic
stereo pair was conducted for a mountainous
region of the Carajs Mineral Province. The
results show a promising alternative for a pro-
duction and updated detailed topographic
mapping in the Amazon region, where this
kind of terrain information is lacking or is cur-
rently only available in poor quality.
The Carajs Mineral Province is located on
the easternmost border of the Amazon
region. The Province, with an area of
120,000 square kilometers, is marked by
mountainous terrains, characterized by a set
of hills and plateaus (altitudes from 500 to
900m) surrounded by southern and northern
lowlands (altitudes around 200m), deep
chemical weathering which produces thick
oxisols (latosols) and few outcrops.
Vegetation cover is typical of the Up-Land
Ombrophilous Equatorial forest communities
with complex and multilevel canopies and
numerous species. Since 1967, when the
iron deposits were discovered, a remarkable
geobotanical control given by the iron-min-
eralized laterites and specic vegetation
types has been recognized. The deposits are
covered by thick, hard iron-crusts (lateritic
duricrusts) developed over volcanic rocks
and ironstones. Specic low-density savan-
na-type vegetation (campus rupestres) is
associated with the deposits, and shows a
strong contrast (clearing) with the dense
equatorial forest.
Fully owned by Vale mining company, the
worlds second largest mining company,
leader in iron-ore production and second
biggest nickel producer, Carajs Province
contains known reserves of the order of 18
billion tons with an average grade of 65.4%
Fe content. Following these discoveries,
numerous other metalliferous deposits have
been identied including manganese, alumi-
na, nickel, tin, gold, platinum group elements
and copper. More recently, the area has
been recognized as a major copper-gold
province, after the discovery of a number of
world-class iron oxide, copper-gold deposits,
and an emerging nickel laterite district, mak-
ing Carajs an important and under-
explored metallogenic province. The iron
mining activities in the Province are concen-
trated on two main ore bodies: the N4
(mines N4E and N4WN) and N5 (mines
N5W and N5E). The reserves of both bod-
ies totaled 1.4 billion tons of ore with 65%
of Fe content. Mining is carried out by con-
ventional open-pit methods. In addition, an
important manganese deposit (Azul) was
also discovered in 1971, with reserves of 65
million tons of manganese with manganese
dioxide content of over 75%.
INPE and Vale initiated a research project in
Carajs that investigates the applicability of
orbital Synthetic Aperture Radar Inter -
ferometry (InSAR) to determine surface defor-
mations induced by open pit and mining
operations. Implementing differential interfer-
ometry approaches (DInSAR) for monitoring
of mining deformations could provide better,
continuous coverage. As a consequence, this
should lead to determination of more precise
deformation models of rock strata and
increase the safety margins of mining opera-
Ar t i c l e
11
Figure 4a: Resampled image at 2m spacing Figure 4b: Extracted DEM at 2m spacing
Figure 3: DEM extracted of the entire image
tions. Monitoring of pit depths and deforma-
tions, highlight areas that require real-time
monitoring (e.g. with ground based radar),
identify faults/fractures controlling deforma-
tion in and around pits, heights of stockpiles
and waste dumps, and levels of tailing
dumps, may provide additional important
production data.
The key-element in any interferometric analy-
sis is the phase value of each radar image
pixel. Phase values of a single SAR image
depend on distinct factors, particularly the
contribution of topography. If a detailed DEM
is available, the topographic component can
be known and used in the interferometric pro-
cess. Thus, the production of a high-resolution
DEM was fundamental in the DInSAR project
in Carajs, not only as input for the
Advanced DInSAR approaches (PSInSAR,
SqueeSAR), but also for the production of
orthoimages (panchromatic and multispectral
GeoEye, StripMap TerraSAR-X, etc.), which
are used as geospatial reference basis for the
validation of surface displacements.
A research project was carried out through
support from FAPESP-Vale-INPE (FAPESP pro-
cess 2010/51267-9). Special thanks to
CNPq for a research grant (rst author) and
to PCIs representative Threetek for helping
in the GeoEye data acquisition.
The GeoEye-1 Satellite
The GeoEye-1 Satellite sensor was devel-
oped by GeoEye Inc and features the most
sophisticated technology ever used for a
commercial remote sensing system. GeoEye-
1 is capable of acquiring image data at
0.41 meter panchromatic and 1.65 meter
multispectral resolution in 15.2 km swaths. It
also features a revisit time of less than three
days, as well as the ability to locate an
object within just three meters of its physical
location. The newly developed sensor is opti-
mized for large projects, as it can collect
over 350,000 square kilometers every day.
The spacecraft is intended for a sun-syn-
chronous orbit at an altitude of 681 km and
an inclination of 98 degrees, with a 10:30
a.m. equator crossing time. GeoEye-1 can
image up to 60 degrees off nadir. It is oper-
ated out of Herndon, Virginia and was built
in Arizona by General Dynamics Advanced
Information Systems.
GeoEye-1 Stereo Data
In this article we will test the vertical accura-
cy of automatic DEM extraction using a
stereo pair of GeoEye-1 panchromatic data.
The data was standard geometrically cor-
rected at 0.5m resolution with rational poly-
nomial coefcients (RPCs) provided.
Panchromatic and multispectral in-track
stereo pairs were acquired over Carajs on
July 1st, 2012 at 13:42 GMT with 39.81
and 51.59 degrees of Sun azimuth and ele-
vation. The rst scene was collected with
nominal collection azimuth and elevation of
29.4 degrees and 82.4 degrees, respective-
ly. The second scene was collected with nom-
inal collection azimuth and elevation of
187.42 and 62.20 degrees, respectively.
Figure 1 shows the GeoEye-1 overview
image of the study area and Figure 2 shows
a full resolution of a sector of N4E mine.
Geometric Model and Software
A geometric modeling method is required in
order to extract the DEM from the stereo data.
The Rational Function Method (RFM) has been
the most popular geometric modeling method
in the past decade. This method uses the
Raster Polynomial Coefcients (RPCs) provid-
ed with the satellite data to compute the
model. Since biases or errors still exist in the
RPCs, the results can be post-processed with
a polynomial adjustment and several accurate
ground control points (GCPs). More details
about the RFM can be found in the paper writ-
ten by Grodecki and Dial (2003). Since the
GeoEye-1 data is provided with RPCs, the
RFM can be used to as the geometric model.
The 2013 version of PCI Geomatics
OrthoEngine software was used for this test-
ing. This software supports reading of the
data, manual or automatic GCP/tie point col-
lection, geometric modeling of different satel-
lites using RFM or Toutins rigorous model,
automatic DEM generation and editing,
orthorectication, and either manual or auto-
matic mosaicking.
Two stereo Differential GPS (DGPS) GCPs
were collected on the stereo panchromatic
images. The RMS residuals when using two
GCPs were 0.4m and 0.1m in X and Y,
respectively. When using only one GCP, the
RMS errors of the check points were 0.4m and
0.3m in X and Y, respectively. When both
GCPs were changed into check points, the
RMS errors of the check points were 3.1m in
X and 0.8m in Y, respectively. This means it is
possible to achieve an accurate geometric
model within 0.5m horizontal accuracy with
only a minimum of one accurate GCP. Even
without GCPs a horizontal accuracy within 3m
is still useful for areas where accurate GCPs
cannot be obtained.
DEM Extraction Results
DEMs were extracted at 2m spacing using
zero, one and two GCPs, respectively. The
results were compared with seven well-dened
accurate vertical check points. The RMS and
maximum errors when using two GCPs, one
GCP, and no GCP are 1.4m and 2.2m, 1.2m
and 1.6m, and 1.1m and 2.4m, respectively.
Figure 3 shows the extracted DEM using two
GCPs of the entire image and gure 4a and
4b show the resampled image and DEM at
2m spacing, respectively. Figure 5 shows the
perspective view of the image generated
together with the extracted DEM.
Summary
High accuracy DEMs can be extracted using
the GeoEye-1 stereo data. Only a minimum of
one accurate GCP is required to achieve a hor-
izontal accuracy within RMS error of 0.5m.
The extracted DEM has a vertical accuracy
within RMS error of 1.5m when comparing to
well-dened vertical check points. These results
showed that the planimetric and altimetric qual-
ity of the GeoEye DEM fullled the Brazilian
Map Accuracy Standards requirements for
1:10,000 A class map.
Dr. Waldir Renato Paradella is a senior researcher at INPE (Brazilian
National Institute for Space Research). He can be reached at
waldir@dsr.inpe.br. Dr. Philip Cheng is a senior scientist at PCI
Geomatics. He can be reached at cheng@pcigeomatics.com.
Ar t i c l e
12
Figure 5: Perspective view of image
generated with the extracted DEM
Producing a Thermal Orthophoto
A Russian Airborne Surveying
In 2012 an airborne survey, which included airborne laser scanning, visible spectrum imagery and
thermal survey was undertaken at the Sayan Mountains in Russia. The most interesting challenge of
this project was the production of a thermal orthophoto. This article describes the data acquisition pro-
cess, as well as data processing and data control methods and concludes with a reflection on the expe-
rience of implementing thermal airborne photography using a non-metric thermal camera.
Introduction
Airborne thermal photography occupies a special place amongst the
many methods of remote earth sensing. This method of aerial pho-
tography is not new and is primarily used for the study of urban areas,
pipelines and large engineering facilities (factories, industrial sites).
Thermal surveys allow the identication of objects requiring servicing
(roofs, heating, main thermal insulation and power transmission lines
etc.) and should enable the prediction of possible accident risk with-
in domestic and industrial buildings, with particular regard to differ-
ent thermal and electrical equipment. They also allow the identica-
tion of defects with regard to enclosing constructions, heat leakages
and moisture condensation places.
An Airborne Surveying Project in Russia
This article describes the experience of implementing thermal airborne
photography using a non- metric thermal camera. In 2012 an air-
borne survey including airborne laser scanning, visible spectrum
imagery and thermal survey was undertaken at the Sayan Mountains
in Russia. A total of 345 square kilometers were surveyed. The width
of the survey strip was 1000 meters. The most interesting challenge of
this project was the production of a thermal orthophoto.
Accomplishing this task was complicated by the absence of geometri-
cal settings of the lens (distortion coefcients) and a lack of exact
parameters for the internal camera orientation (principal point, focal
length coordinates). Derivation of parameters was conducted during
the process of imagery (aero photography and thermal) management.
Equipment used
A Riegl LMS-Q680i airborne laser scanner, DigiCam 60 Mp digital
camera and FLIR SC7700 thermal camera were used for airborne
laser scanning and imagery acquisition. The thermal camera is a part
of the airborne survey equipment and is located inside a special con-
tainer on one hard platform together with the laser scanner and the
aerophotocamera. The visor axis of this system was orientated the
same way in nadir, so that the systems visual elds coincided
approximately in the direction perpendicular to the ight. For each
system the external orientation parameters are determined by the
POS/AV IGI DigiControl exact positioning and orientation system,
which is part of the Q680i scanner and works by synchronizing all
data into a single time scale. GPS-time was introduced into the frame
structure with help of the IRIG-B standard in order to synchronize the
thermal data with other systems of the complex. The time each frame
was received was determined exactly down to 10 mks GMT.
The equipment was installed on the AN-2 aircraft. After the installa-
tion and the calculation of the equipment offset-component parame-
ters had been completed, a calibration ight for shooting a test object
(usually a rectangular building) was performed. After processing the
calibration ight using special software, the correction factors were
calculated and added to the trip computer. Data processing of the
calibration ight completed the preparatory stage of the aerial sur-
vey.
During the ight, data was collected simultaneously in different ways:
laser scanning, photography and a thermal imaging survey of the
underlying surface. Each element of this data was strictly synchro-
nized precisely. Thermal data was recorded in the internal format of
the program to control the camera and, after treatment, was convert-
ed to bitmaps or video formats. A thermal imaging survey was car-
ried out at 25 frames/sec. For further processing the frames were
automatically thinned out on the basis of compliance with the longitu-
dinal (60%) and lateral (30%) overlap.
14
Ar t i c l e
By Natalia Kovach
Heat leakage at a pipeline (thermal imaging, visible range photography and their composition).
Thermal survey parameters:
height AGL (above ground level) 800 m
Groundspeed 150 km/h
Frame rate 25 Hz
Interruption time (frame acquisition time) 1 ms
thermal camera GSD* 1 m
the estimated size of the frame on the surface 640 m 512 m
Estimated longitudinal overlap 95%
Estimated lateral overlap 30%
*GSD - ground sample distance
Digital terrain model and orthophoto were created after completion
of aerial photography and airborne laser scanning (precision of
1:1000 to the scale of topographic maps).
To obtain a thermal orthophoto in the project coordinate system the
following set of input data was used:
Thermal data in internal camera format.
Combined GNSS and inertial data trajectories.
Timestamps for each thermal strip.
Orthophotomosaic (scale 1:000) created from the airborne pho-
tography data in the visible scale.
Offset values of the thermal cameras position in relation to the
GNSSantenna.
Thermal camera passport data: frame size, focus distance etc.
Data processing was organized in the following sequence:
Converting thermal video to frames (thermogram).
EO computing using trajectories and timestamps for each thermo-
gram.
Thermal camera calibration (derivation of lens distortion and prin-
cipal point coordinates).
Aerial triangulation creation and adjustment of a photogram-
metric network with the purpose of exterior orientation improve-
ment. Visible range orthophoto was used as a control and check
point source for air triangulation.
Transformation for the DTM. Producing thermal mosaic.
Thermal orthophoto accuracy was checked with eld-surveyed
checkpoints.
Orthophoto creation
The creation of a thermal orthophoto was conducted for specic
areas (urban territories, industrial grounds, articial structures). As
noted above, thermal camera, visible range camera and laser scan-
ner with built-in precision positioning (INS\GPS) were rmly xed
onto one platform during the aerial survey. Thus obtained inertial
navigation measurements are equally applicable to all acquired data
(laser scanning, aerial photography and thermal imaging mode).
Using GPS-tags, i.e. the size of the frame, the original value of the
focal length and offset parameters of the thermal camera, the ther-
mal images were synchronized with the trajectory of aerial frames,
previously revised in the project coordinate system. As a result, the
initial values of thermal elements of interior orientation frame were
calculated for the calibration object. Using the previously created
orthophoto 1:1000 scale, the calibration facility value of the ther-
mal interior orientation and lens distortion was calculated.
During the next stage of processing the triangulation process was
performed. To do this, at least ve tie points on each image were
recruited online in the areas of overlapping of thermal images. Using
orthophoto, 1:1000 scale reference points were identied and
chipped in the areas of longitudinal and transverse overlap. Elements
of interior orientation of thermal images were obtained as a result
of improved values. Thermal
images were made using calcu-
lated elements of exterior and
interior orientation and the
orthotransformation of these
images on the resulting DTM
points of classied laser reec-
tions was completed. As a result
of this transformation, thermal
digital orthophotos with a GSD
1.0 m in the project coordinate
system were received.
Control of the received thermal
orthophoto was conducted as
Ar t i c l e
15

Project
Airborne survey methods (Laser Scanning, Aero photography, Thermal imaging)
the nal step. For this purpose additional
noticeable points (no less than 1 point per
10 images) were identied on visible range
orthophotos and were used as checkpoints.
RMS error of resulting discrepancies was
approximately 1m while maximum error
was about 3 meters.
Conclusions
We may draw the following conclusions
from the above-described:
The FLIR SC7700 thermal camera opti-
mally integrates with the Riegl LMS-Q680i
ALS and DigiCam 60Mp digital photo-
graphic camera.
The FLIR SC7700 can be involved in car-
rying out the aerial survey without addi-
tional installation labour costs and nan-
cial investments.
The thermal imagery obtained with a FLIR
SC7700 camera can be processed via
usual photogrammetric methods (central
projection).
When combining aerial photography or
airborne laser scanning with thermal sur-
veying the internal thermal camera orien-
tation values and geometrical parameter
of the lens can be calculated with a suf-
cient accuracy.
The accuracy of thermal orthophoto is suit-
able for further analysis at this location
using large scales.
Unlike thermal camera video footage, the
use of geo-referenced data opens up new
possibilities for accomplishing a wide
range of tasks (simultaneous interpretation
and positioning of objects, vectorization,
downloads and interactive use of the data
in the GIS).
Natalia Kovach, Head of Geoinformation Technology Division
NIPIStroyTEK, LLC, Research, Development and Design Institute for
Construction and Operation of Fuel and Energy Sector Enterprises
Ar t i c l e
Airborne survey methods (Laser Scanning, Aero photography, Thermal imaging)

1 1 2:13 PM

2:13 PM
AR In a Geospatial Context
Augmented Reality Markup
Augmented Reality (AR), overlaying the real world around a user with computer-generated informa-
tion, has been a topic of great popular interest over the past few years. To ensure that users will have
the choice of platforms and applications they wish to use for AR, and to also ensure publishers of con-
tent that they will be able to reach large target AR-enabled user audiences, standards are necessary.
An example is ARML (Augmented Reality Markup Language) 2.0, which has recently been developed
within the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).
Introduction
As the AR industry grew signicantly from the
end of the past decade, various mobile AR
applications have been developed. The two
types of AR most commonly found today are:
Geospatial AR, meaning that georefer-
enced information about points of interest
is projected onto the screen according to
the devices current location, orientation
and eld of vision.
Computer Vision-based AR that analyzes
the stream of images from the camera,
detects patterns known by the system (such
as colors, edges and other unique features
of the real world, markers or reference
images) and projects (superimposes) infor-
mation assigned by an AR content pub-
lisher onto the pattern.
There are currently thousands of bespoke
applications with AR features that permit users
to experience the information about the real
world. The most widely used type of applica-
tions for AR are so called AR Browsers. As
opposed to AR applications for a particular
use case, AR Browsers enable developers to
address a variety of use cases by providing
a content management and publishing plat-
form.
The feature set of the most popular AR
Browsers is similar, however, the absence of
standards for data format and programming
interface for publishing AR content has meant
that, for maximum reach, developers must
prepare content and separately publish expe-
riences that comply with the proprietary for-
mats and interfaces of each AR Browser. This
is precisely the same situation that existed
with Web browsers before the standardiza-
tion of HTML.
ARML 2.0 A brief Introduction
ARML 2.0 is an OGC standard developed in
a joint effort of AR Browser vendors and AR
content developers to bridge the gap between
the data formats of different AR Browsers and
to allow content for AR to be accessible and
used by multiple AR Browsers and AR imple-
mentations. It is an eXtensible Markup
Language (XML) grammar that enables a
developer to describe virtual objects, their
appearance and their behavior in an AR
scene. The standard targets both types of AR
described above, and builds upon a generic
object model, ensuring that future versions will
be able to support other types of AR (audio-
based, haptic etc.).
ARML 2.0s predecessor, ARML 1.0, is a pro-
prietary data format developed by the cre-
ators of the Wikitude World Browser. ARML
1.0 concepts served as a starting point for
ARML 2.0, but ARML 2.0 is not backwards
compatible with ARML 1.0.
The real world objects that are observed using
geospatial methods (GPS and compass) or in
the camera and augmented in the AR scene
are called Features. Features have one or
more Anchors that locate them in an AR scene.
The following types of Anchors can be used
in ARML 2.0:
(Geo-) spatial Anchors describe the loca-
tion of a Feature using xed coordinates
such as the WGS84 latitude/longitude
coordinates provided by a GPS. Points,
Lines and Polygons are allowed.
Trackables describe the location of a
Feature using tracked targets (unique char-
acteristics of a reference image, a QR
code, marker, 3D model etc.). As soon as
the referenced Trackable is detected in the
video stream delivered by the camera, the
Trackable becomes the location of the
Feature in the AR scene. Two typical exam-
ples of Trackables are shown in Figure 1
and Figure 2
RelativeTo Anchors describe locations rela-
tive to other Anchors or Trackables already
located in the AR scene. This allows an
entire scene to be constructed based sole-
ly on the location of one particular object.
While Anchors describe the location,
VisualAssets describe how the Feature
appears in the AR scene. ARML 2.0 allows
both 2D (HTML, Plain Text, Images etc.) and
3D VisualAssets to represent an object in the
AR scene.
ARML 2.0 also denes ECMAScript bindings
to interact with objects in the AR scene and
react on user triggered events, such as clicks
etc. In the remaining sections of this article,
we focus on the geospatial components of
ARML 2.0 as well as areas where concepts
of geospatial formats are adopted for use
cases other than geospatial.
Representing Geospatial
Information
When we (the OGC ARML Standards
Working Group) developed ARML 2.0, we
had one clear use case in mind that was com-
18
Ar t i c l e
By Martin Lechner
Figure 1: A QR Code
(Quick Response Code)
is the trademark for
a popular type of two-
dimensional barcode.
Figure 2: The OGC Logo used as a reference image. As soon as the
logo appears in the camera, it is recognized, tracked and used as
Anchor for the Feature.
mon to every major AR Browser used. People
wanted to augment a particular xed location
on the earth. Typically, the content developers
would compile or download a long list of geo-
referenced Points of Interest (POIs), for exam-
ple all major tourist sights in a city, then upload
the list via the content management system of
an AR Browser and expect the AR Browser to
render a visual representation of these features
on the screen as soon as this particular posi-
tion was in the users eld of vision. The OGC
KML Standard, the standard used in Google
Maps and Google Earth, appeared to be a
good start for this use case, as its major use
case was visualizing points on a map, which
is somewhat similar to the use case we had in
mind. During our analysis of this standard,
however, we discovered that KML was too tied
to map-based applications and the Earth
Browser use case, and did not allow enough
exibility to meet the requirements of AR expe-
riences. Luckily, KML uses the geometry model
of the ISO 19107 standard to represent
geospatial information, which is the same
geometry model the OGC Geo graphy Markup
Language (GML) Encoding Standard uses.
GML focusses on describing geometries, rather
than using them in a certain context. So we
analyzed GML and decided to adopt the GML
geometry representation.
Types of Geometries
The current version of GML, GML 3.3,
describes a wide variety of geometry ele-
ments, from 0-dimensional and 1-dimensional
to 2-dimensional, with multiple concrete rep-
resentations of those high level geometries.
We decided that the high number of geome-
tries would be too verbose in an AR context.
A typical AR developer is not likely to require
the complex geometries that are required in
complex Geographic Infor ma tion System
(GIS) applications using the latest GML
improvements. In our analysis of existing AR-
enabled applications, every applications
geospatial use cases required only Points,
Lines and Polygons (the major geometry types
in GML 1 and GML 2, as well as KML). This
resulted in the following geometries being pro-
vided in ARML 2.0:
Point: species a position by a single coor-
dinate tuple
LineString: is dened by two or more coor-
dinate tuples, with linear interpolation
between them.
Polygon: a planar object dened by an
outer boundary and 0 or more inner
boundaries. The boundaries are specied
using the exterior and interior elements.
The boundaries, in turn, are dened by
LinearRings (i.e. closed LineStrings).
The default coordinate system used in ARML
2.0 is WGS84, as it is by far the most com-
monly used coordinate system in AR Browsers.
However, if required, other coordinate systems
can be used by specifying the EPSG code or
OGC WKT (Well Known Text) to reference the
coordinate system. As indoor location coordi-
nate systems for AR become established, this
exibility will be important.
In ARML 2.0 terms, the above geometries
describe the Anchors that are then augment-
ed with VisualAssets. A detailed explanation
of VisualAsset types can be found in the ARML
Specication in the url below.
Geometries to describe Relative
Locations
In ARML 2.0, geometries are not only used to
describe geospatial constructs referenced in
an absolute coordinate system; they are also
used to describe locations relative to other
objects.
In AR, a physical object, like a printed mark-
er or logo, might serve as a trigger to some-
thing larger. A printed marker resting on a
table, for example, might not just be used to
put a virtual object on top of the marker.
Instead, it could be used to construct an entire
virtual scene based just on the location of the
particular marker in the real world.
Figure 3 shows an example of relative loca-
tions. The marker on the table is located in a
xed place on the table and is 10 centimeters
wide and high. The dimensions of the table
are 1.5 meters long and 85 centimeters wide.
The application will track the geometrical cen-
ter of the marker (the intersection of the two
diagonals) whenever the marker is visible.
Instead of projecting VisualAssets onto the
marker, the marker is used to augment the
Ar t i c l e
19

Language 2.0
Figure 3: A QR code (10x10 centimeters) on a
table top is used to track the table outline
table top boundaries for example. To achieve
this, a LineString is dened relative to the
markers center, running all around the table
top:
<gml:LineString gml:id=outline>
<gml:posList>0.05 -0.05 0 -0.8 -0.05 0 -
0.8 1.45 0 0.05 1.45 0 0.05 -0.05
0</gml:posList>
</gml:LineString>
The coordinates are specied in meters, with
respect to the coordinate system dened by
the marker. The origin of the coordinate sys-
tem is the center of the marker, the x-axis is
pointing right, the y-axis is pointing towards
the top of the marker and the z-axis is point-
ing up (out of the marker).
The LineString starts at the bottom right corner
of the marker (0.05 meters to the right, 0.05
centimeters towards the bottom and 0 meters
above the markers center), continues to the
bottom left corner (0.8 meters left of the mark-
ers center), top left, top right and nally back
to the bottom right corner.
In the same way, the marker could be used to
place virtual objects on and even beyond the
table. For example, to reference the center of
the table, the following snippet can be used:
<gml:Point gml:id=center>
<gml:pos>-0.375 0.7 0</gml:pos>
</gml:Point>
In this way, an entire scene with multiple
objects can be constructed by using just one
marker that serves as a referent for many rel-
ative locations.
Outlook
ARML 2.0 is currently an OGC Candidate
Standard. After comments received during the
public comment phase, concluded December
2 2012, have been addressed, the OGC
membership will vote to determine the adop-
tion of the standard as an ofcial OGC stan-
dard. Both Wikitude and the Georgia Institute
of Technology, the vendors of two AR
Browsers, the Wikitude World Browser and
the Argon Browser, played a vital role in the
specication phase of ARML 2.0, which
ensures that the standard will be adopted in
their applications. Others are expected to fol-
low soon thereafter.
Building on existing OGC standards, howev-
er, has provided ARML 2.0 with something
much more important than rapid development
and multiple early implementations:
Scalability. OGC standards span the full spec-
trum of geospatial technologies and applica-
tion domains, a scope that includes everything
from sensor webs, text message encoded loca-
tion, aviation information systems, and hydrol-
ogy to GIS and Earth imaging. In addition,
OGC standards are widely deployed through-
out the global geospatial technology industry.
This means that AR applications will be able
to link easily to existing National Spatial Data
Infrastructures, customer databases, crowd-
sourced street databases, cloud-based geo-
processing services and hundreds of other
resources. ARML 2.0 is positioned to be the
key infrastructure element in the next, very
exciting, phase of AR growth.
Martin Lechner, Chief Technology Officer, Wikitude and Chair,
ARML 2.0 Standards Working Group.
For more information, have a look at:
www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/arml2.0swg
Ar t i c l e
Data Collecting using iPad and iPhone
Revisiting the North Carolina
This article examines the post-industrial landscape of Rutherford County, North Carolina, primarily
through artefacts connected to the Gold Rush of 1804 - 1828. Data was collected using an iPad, iPhone,
Hedcam and DSLR camera. The examples outlined were captured with the Third Industrial Revolution
in mind (see GeoInformatics 7, Vol. 15: pp 32-34).
Rutherford County and Rutherfordton
Americas rst Gold Rush occurred in North Carolina following the
discovery of a 17 pound nugget near Charlotte in 1799. From that
point, the Old North State remained at the centre of US gold pro-
duction up to the start of the mining boom in California in 1849
(see GeoInformatics 8, Vol. 13: pp 28 - 30). Rutherford County and
Charlotte became the main areas where mining took place through-
out this period - to the extent that evidence of stream panning and
hard rock mining still show up as cultural and material artefacts on
the landscape. The town of Rutherfordton even monumentalised this
period of its history through the Bechtler Museum and Bechtler Mine,
places that are maintained in order to pay homage to the maker of
the rst US $1 gold coin.
Quality assurance
A jeweller and clock maker born in Germany, Christopher Bechtler
moved to North Carolina in 1830 from Philadelphia. He immediate-
ly opened the Bechtler Private Mint in 1831 and capitalised on the
need for a gold standard in a region where gold was in plentiful
supply. Bechtler coins soon became the currency used for commerce
in North Carolina, with regular inspections from the US Government
in Philadelphia ensuring that Bechtler himself maintained this stan-
dard too. After a Government Mint opened in Charlotte (1835) the
private mint eventually closed in 1850, though its demise still came
after Bechtler himself died from suspected mercury poisoning in
1841. A Bechtler $1 coin is currently worth $3000. The pistol dis-
cussed later in this article has been valued at $50,000.
Digital care in the community
The workow adopted over a four day period focused on public
engagement. A series of presentations were given outlining previous
mid-range TLS, photogrammetric and image based examples. These
acted as a visual means through which basic principle of capture
could be taught, low cost ways of obtaining 3D information with
consumer products introduced and concepts promoting data retrieval
in the long term instilled. Though ideas pertaining to multidimension-
ality, Empirical Provenance and modes of production were includ-
ed, everyday examples were used to translate them to a general
audience.
22
Ar t i c l e
By Adam P. Spring
360 panorama of the mine entrance produced in poor light using an iPhone and the free Photosynth app.
The Bechtler Pistol was reproduced from 32 images.
Translated examples
Spindale Family Medical Practice and Biscuit the dog were used as
the translated examples. The rst provided a real world scenario for
conducting a basic building survey with an iPad equipped with
Hunter Theodolite Pro - in part this was aided by damage to the
facade caused by Hurricane Sandy. Hedcam equipped Biscuit, on
the other hand, happily demonstrated how digital workows are
challenging notions of perspective. Though the latter exercise added
a cuddly dimension to teaching, Hedcam creator, Carl Long, subse-
quently pointed out the compact and durable HD camera is being
used on security dogs as part of surveillance strategies. The Spindale
component of the eldwork informed the 360 panoramas and
GNSS mapping work carried out at the Bechtler Mine - a rare
instance of workings being close enough to the surface to actually
get a GPS signal.
Digital prospection exercise
All Bechtler artefacts were documented using a camera based work-
ow. Hardware included an iPhone, iPad, Canon 60D DSLR cam-
era and an imaging rig that comprised of patio furniture, a surgical
lamp, snooker ball and a $30 dollar tripod. Software was a mix of
open source and proprietary programs that included Photosynth,
PTGui, 123DCatch, Adam Technology 3DM Analyst Suite, RTIBuilder
and RTIViewer. Data capture was focused around the production of
360 panoramas, 3D Imaging through photogrammetry and the col-
lection of surface reectance information.
Bechtler Pistol
The Bechtler Pistol was reproduced with rapid prototyping in mind.
Normally under lock and key in a bank vault, the $50,000 artefact
now provides a rare physical insight into what the Bechtler family
did after the private mint closed. Currently under the guardianship
of North Carolina historian, Robin Lattimore, previous attempts at
reproducing the pistol included a suggested trip to China, a process
that would have involved it being disassembled, copied, reassem-
bled and sent back. A 3D replica based off the point cloud and
mesh generated will now act as the affordable solution the museum
was looking for. In this case, a Polynomial Texture Map (PTM) was
produced to additionally highlight key surface information.
Interactive relighting
Tom Malzbender and Dan Gelb of HP Vista Labs had rened the
PTM process by 2001. Originally developed as an extension to tex-
ture mapping in computer graphic led processes like 3D video gam-
ing, the technique is now used in animations produced by studios
like Pixar. Developed by Disney Pixars Ed Catmull in the 1970s,
texture maps contain colour information collected independently of
lighting, so often, when relighting texture maps, the results are not
convincing. A PTM denotes colour and intensity changes on a sur-
face as a function of lighting direction.
Application and camera calibration
Along with the reective properties of a surface, Polynomial Texture
Maps require the light conditions of the surrounding environment to
be considered. Application includes a camera left in a xed posi-
tion (this includes xed focus of the camera lens), as well as multiple
image captures with a moving, even domed distribution of light using
an external light source. Both are crucial to producing good results.
It is important to calibrate the cameras light settings to be totally
dependent on the external light source - minimising the amount of
diffuse or scattered light taken in a photo. In addition to creating a
mean light value for the PTM, reduction of scattered light allows for
specular or rened light to be extracted, thus giving an additional
surface value that is mirror perfect, enhancing features not visible to
the human eye.
Summary
The use of consumer based products was vital to the data capture
process. It allowed extra work to be achieved in a small window of
time and taught the Rutherfordton community how to think about
their surroundings digitally. They ended up being able to consider
heritage as part of digital geodetic processes. Smart technologies
are reaching a stage where they can be used for applications where
the parameters of use are more rigidly dened. Results were gener-
ated that will be used to enhance and support future work.
Links:
http://video.unctv.org/program/gold-fever-and-bechtler-mint
www.hedcamz.com
http://photosynth.net
www.ptgui.com
www.adamtech.com.au
http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Offer/Downloads
23

a Gold Rush
The first $1 gold coin produced in the US is now worth $3000 per coin.
If a glossy black is included to track the
equidistance light source, raking light can
show so much more.
Ar t i c l e
25
Ar t i c l e
What to use
GNSS Update
After years of delay it is finally happening; the start of the operational phase of Galileo. On October 12th
another two Galileo In Orbit Validation satellites were successfully launched from Kourou (French Guyana).
In December they were declared operational. These two satellites are transmitting on the E1, E5 and E6
signals. The E1 (open) signal is, however, different from the previous In Orbit Validation satellites.
W
ith this launch, users can start test-
ing their Galileo receivers, even
though it will be for just a few short
moments when all four are in view. This means
that users are still a long way from using Galileo
on a daily basis. With three dual launches
planned for 2013, plus two dual launches and
one four-satellite launch for 2014, a minimum
of 18 satellites could be feasible by 2014.
Whether this is realistic remains to be seen. An
EC ofcial has already stated that operational
capability is considering having 12 satellites for
the civil Open Service in 2014 (over Europe).
Compass
Another two BeiDou-2 / Compass satellites were
launched on September 18th. This brings the
total number of satellites to 11; only three shy of
regional operations. This should be good news
for Chinese GNSS users. Western users will
most likely start to prot from Compass at a later
date. They will probably have to buy Chinese
equipment to make full use of Compass as, to
date, no complete Interface Control Document
(ICD) has been made public outside China. This
makes it difcult for system developers outside
of China to create fully compatible devices.
In 2007 researchers from Stanford University
reverse engineered the Compass signals and
published their results. On December 27th 2011
a Test Version of the
ICD was released by
the Chinese Govern -
ment giving very little further information than
that which was already available. Early
December there was an unofcial rumour stat-
ing that the document would be released before
the end of December 2012. At the time of going
to press the ICD had still not been released.
All in all the Chinese government has not been
very forthcoming with information regarding
Compass. The only result seen to date is the dis-
pute between the EU and China over the use of
the frequency spectrum. The dispute was sup-
posedly discussed during a broad EU-China
summit in September and then discussed again
in December 2012. To date there is no further
information on the outcome of that discussion.
GPS
On October 4th the third IIF satellite was
launched. All the satellites frequencies were
switched on a week later. The satellite itself was
set to unhealthy until it reached its nal slot (1
of Plane A) on December 5th. The launch of this
satellite means that a third satellite with the new
civilian L5 signal is available. For full use, how-
ever, a minimum of four satellites will be required
at any one time. Based on the current launch
rate (3 satellites in 2 years), this situation will
probably not be realized for a few
years.
The third GPS generation (GPS III) is
once again one (small) step closer
with the completion of the vacuum
testing for the navigation payload of
the so-called Non-Flight Satellite
Testbed (GNST). Although the name
sounds impressive, this is still just a
prototype that will never see the
(near) vacuum of outer space.
Augmentation Systems
On December 13th the second Russian SBAS
satellite (Luchs-5B) arrived at its geostationary
position. The satellite is part of the Russian
System for Differential Correction and
Monitoring (SDCM) which sends corrections for
GPS measurements in a similar fashion to
WAAS for the USA and EGNOS for Europe.
These SBAS systems are primarily developed
for the safety of aircraft navigation but are also
used, for example, for car navigation. Shipping
has, to date, used dedicated beacons in the
Medium Frequency (MF) band set up near har-
bours. These so-called IALA beacons require
their own maintenance. Earlier this year a test
with the Belgian research vessel Belgica was
performed to examine the usability of EGNOS
for vessel navigation. In addition to EGNOS
signals, the use of Galileo signals was also test-
ed. During the tests the effect of multi-path, from
both the sea as well as from harbour structures
and radar systems, was researched.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com is a free-
lance writer and trainer in the fields of positioning and hydrography.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
Launch of two Galileo IOV satellites (source: www.esa.int)
Galileo IOV satellites on the
Ariane rocket (source:
RV Belgica used for Egnos and Galileo testing (source: www.esa.int)
With Particular Reference to the U.K.
Commercial Operation of Lightweight U
Over the last few years, the commercial operation of lightweight UAVs has become firmly established
in the U.K. This article first outlines the regulatory and operational environment that has allowed this
development to take place. It then goes on to describe the different types of platform and camera that
are being used in the U.K. for a variety of imaging and mapping tasks based on the use of aerial
photography acquired by UAVs. After a discussion of the various photogrammetric approaches that
have been implemented to handle and process this type of photography in the U.K., the article
concludes with a description of the imaging and mapping activities that are currently being under -
taken by a representative group of UAV service providers in the U.K..
I Introduction
It has been very interesting to observe the large number of papers
on imaging and mapping from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) plat-
forms that have been published recently in conference proceedings
and academic journals. For many academic researchers, it is cur-
rently regarded as a hot topic. However, in the opinion of the pre-
sent author, what appears to be missing from many of these publi-
cations and presentations is any reference to the existing routine
commercial operation of UAVs for aerial imaging and mapping,
Which is all the more unusual, given that there has been a very sub-
stantial activity in this eld for quite a number of years in several of
the more highly developed countries in Europe.
By contrast with the situation in the U.S.A. - where there has been
until now an almost complete embargo by the Federal Aviation
Authority (FAA) on authorizing commercial UAV ights the situa-
tion in certain European countries is rather different, with a sub-
stantial cooperation between (i) the constructors and commercial
operators of UAVs on the one hand; and (ii) the appropriate civil
aviation regulatory authorities that are responsible for the civilian
use of airspace. This has resulted in the formation of policies and
the development of regulations that permit the commercial operation
of UAVs for the acquisition of aerial photography, albeit under a
strictly controlled regime. These regulations vary somewhat between
the different European countries. This article limits itself to consider-
ing the situation within the U.K. in the context of lightweight (under
7 kg) non-military UAVs. The precise denition of lightweight will
of course differ from one country to another; current European pro-
posals are to dene it as being under 5 kg.
II Operational Environment
The overall policy of the U.K.s Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA) governing the operation of lightweight UAVs is set out
in a paper by Haddon and Whittaker which can be
downloaded from the Internet using the following URL
www.caa.co.uk/docs/1995/srg_str_00002-01-180604.pdf. A fur-
ther document entitled Unmanned Aircraft System
Operations in UK Airspace [CAP 722] provides general
guidance to the certication and operation of UAVs in the UKs
airspace. This document is available at www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/
CAP722.pdf
(a) Regulation of UAV Flights
Within the U.K., the detailed regulation of ights by lightweight UAVs
that are being undertaken for commercial aerial photography and the
actual permission to y is given by the Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA) in Articles 166(5) and 167(1) of the UKs Air Navigation
Order [CAP 393] that was published in 2009. These set out in detail
the specic conditions under which these ights can be made. In very
broad terms, permission for ights is granted subject to the UAV not
being own (i) at altitudes greater than 400 feet (120 m) above ground
level; (ii) beyond a maximum range of 500 m or out of visual range;
and (iii) over or within 150m of an organised open-air assembly of
more than 1,000 people. (iv) Besides which, the UAV must not be
own over or within 50m of any person not having knowledge of or
not having been warned of the UAV ight. This is reduced to 30m for
the take-off and landing of the aircraft. (v) Needless to say, no opera-
28
Ar t i c l e
By Gordon Petrie
Fig. 1 A Schiebel Camcopter UAV fitted with a belly pod containing a RIEGL VQ-820-GU bathymetric
laser scanning system. (Source: RIEGL)
Fig. 2 A SwissDrones Waran TC-1235 UAV fitted with a Leica Geosystems RCD30 medium-format digital
camera system. (Source: Leica Geosystems)
tor is allowed to y a UAV in various restricted areas without having
rst obtained permission from the CAA. (vi) Furthermore UAV ights
over congested (e.g. urban) areas are very highly restricted and also
require prior permission to be obtained from the CAA. The full text of
the Air Navigation Order [CAP 393} is available from the CAA Web
site using the following URL www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP393.pdf.
The specic Articles 166 and 167 that apply to small unmanned air-
craft are contained on pages 5 and 6 of Section 1, Part 22 of this
extensive (480 page) document.
(b) UAV Airworthiness
Within the U.K., the Light UAS Scheme (LUASS) where UAS
is an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Systems covers (i) the design,
construction (including the functionality of embedded FCS software),
airworthiness and operation of UAVs; (ii) pilot/crew qualications;
and (iii) an exemption or permission to operate a UAV in the UKs
airspace. For detailed information, copies of the LUASS Guide can
be downloaded from the Web site of the European Unmanned
Systems Centre (EuroUSC) which is the organisation that is
authorized by the CAA to issue Design & Construction Certicates
(of Airworthiness) for those lightweight UAVs that are being own
in the U.K. and in those territories that fall under the remit of the
U.K.s CAA. See the following document that is available via the
Internet - http://eurousc.com/documents/LUASS_Brochure_2010
_web_lck.pdf.
(c) Pilot & Crew Qualications
The EuroUSC organisation also manages and offers courses and
examinations for the award of the generic Basic National UAS
Certicate (BNUC), which is the CAAs approved Pilot/Crew
Qualication for operating lightweight UAVs. There are two levels
of this certicate. (i) The BNUC-S (Level 1), which was introduced
in April 2010, is aimed at the operation of lightweight UAV aircraft
below 20 kg. (ii) The BNUC (Level 2), which was introduced in
2008, is aimed at the operation of larger UAVs between 20 and
150 kg in weight. In practice, if a commercial operator of UAVs is
looking for insurance then, almost certainly, there will be the pre-
requisites of (i) obtaining a permit to y; then (ii) ensuring that the
UAV aircraft has been certied; and (iii) that a pilot with the appro-
priate BNUC qualication is being employed to y the aircraft.
(d) Commercial Operators of UAVs
Notwithstanding the various regulatory requirements and restrictions
that have been outlined above, numerous commercial operators of
lightweight powered UAVs are already offering aerial photographic
and imaging services in the U.K. These can conveniently be divided
into (i) those operating xed-wing UAVs; and (ii) those utilizing
rotary-wing UAVs. There are at least 19 companies in the U.K.
operating commercial airborne imaging services using xed-wing
UAVs and more than 50 companies operating rotary-wing (mini-heli-
copter) UAVs. Links to the Web sites of all of these individual U.K.
companies are given within my Web Links Database
Geoinformatics. Please see the links that are given within the
appropriate categories (i) www.weblinks.spakka.net/db/100
for the xed-wing UAV operators; and (ii) www.weblinks.spakka.net/
db/127 for the rotary-wing UAV operators. Of course, there may
well be still more companies that are operating UAVs on a commer-
cial basis in the U.K. that are not known to the present author.
III UAV Platforms
In very broad terms, and leaving aside powered airships, blimps
and parafoils and un-powered tethered kites and balloons then, as
Ar t i c l e
29

t UAVs for Aerial Imaging & Mapping
Fig. 3 The swinglet CAM flying-wing UAV, together with its carrying case and the laptop computer that is
used to control the flight operations of the UAV and to process the acquired data. (Source: senseFly)
Fig. 4 The SmartOne flying-wing
UAV. (Source: SmartPlanes)
noted above, powered UAV platforms based on airframes can be
sub-divided into two main categories (a) xed-wing; and (b) rotary-
wing.
(a) Fixed-Wing Platforms
Fixed-wing UAVs are very familiar from media reports on the
varied activities of large military drones such as the Predator and
Global Hawk that are equipped with powerful engines. However,
very lightweight UAVs lie at the other end of the UAV spectrum in
terms of their size and power. Viewing them purely from the map-
ping standpoint, electrically-powered xed-wing UAVs are the type
that is of most interest. They provide reasonably stable platforms
and modern examples are relatively easy to control during the
autonomous ights that need to be undertaken to cover the terrain
in a systematic manner for mapping purposes. However they do
need to y forward continuously in order to generate enough lift to
take off and to remain in ight and they need space in which to turn
and to land.
(b) Rotary-wing Platforms
By contrast, rotary-wing aircraft are much less stable and are
often more difcult to control during ight. However they can hover
over a xed position and at a given height and they can y vertical-
ly which is essential in certain types of monitoring activity and in
the acquisition of panoramic photographic coverage of an area
around a given position. Furthermore they can take-off and land in
a very small space and at a very specic location. Indeed a number
of UAV systems using rotary-wing aircraft have been developed
specically for mapping purposes by partnerships comprising an
aircraft manufacturer and a mapping systems supplier.
An example is the Schiebel Camcopter S-100 UAV with its rotary
engine, which has been equipped with
a RIEGL CP-820-GU bathymetric laser
scanner [Fig. 1] and (quite separately)
with the Quest Innovations Condor-
1000 MS5 multi-spectral camera.
Another example is the Aeroscout
Scout B1-100 UAV using an air-
cooled gasoline engine which has
been tted with a RIEGL LMS-Q160
laser scanner. Still another example is
the SwissDrones Waran TC-1235
UAV with its twin boxer motor, which
has been equipped with a Leica
Geosystems RCD30 medium-format digital camera [Fig. 2].
However, these are comparatively large UAVs driven by mechanical
motors, which, together with their sensors, weigh 130 kg (Schiebel),
60 kg (Aeroscout) and 50 kg (SwissDrones) respectively. Thus they
do not fall into the very lightweight category that is being discussed
here. Furthermore, in terms of cost, they also fall into a quite differ-
ent category as compared with the lightweight UAVs and systems
that are being covered in this article. None of these much larger
systems are in current commercial operation within the U.K.
IIIA Lightweight Fixed-Wing UAVs
With regard to those xed-wing aircraft that do fall into the class of
lightweight UAVs, there are essentially two main types of airframe
to be considered (a) those with a ying wing design with no
tail; and (b) those with a more conventional design comprising a
fuselage, wings, a n and a tail plane, similar to that of a conven-
tional commercial aircraft, but hugely scaled-down in size.
(a) Flying Wing Designs
This type of UAV aircraft has come into fairly widespread use for
commercial airborne imaging and mapping within Europe in the
form of the Trimble Gatewing X100 (from Belgium); the senseFly
swinglet CAM (from Switzerland) [Fig. 3]; and the SmartPlanes
SmartOne (from Sweden) [Fig. 4]. Each of these electrically-pow-
ered aircraft features a ying wing with a very small n (or evelon)
at each end of the wing. The wing spans of these three examples
are 80 cm (swinglet CAM); 1 m (Gatewing X100); and 1.2 m
(SmartOne) respectively. [N.B. The senseFly company announced at
Intergeo 2012 that it will introduce its new eBee ying-wing UAV
with a 1m wing span at the beginning of 2013.]. Examples of all
three of these ying wing aircraft are in operation in the U.K. They
include several examples of the senseFly swinglet CAM. These are
being used in the commercial mapping
operations that are being carried out
by Bluesky International Ltd.; The
Geoinformation Group; McKenzie
Geospatial Surveys; Digital Mapping
& Survey; exeGesIS Spatial Data
Management Ltd.; Six-West Ltd.;
Walker Ellis Associates; and the large
Costain engineering and construction
company as well as the present
authors own University department!
A short minimal fuselage is incorporat-
ed into the wings of all of these vari-
30
Ar t i c l e
Fig. 6 An example of the MAVinci Sirius UAV. (Source: Grupoacre)
Fig. 5 (a) An early model in the series of Quest Manta 300 UAV flying wing aircraft with the fins (vertical control surfaces) mounted part-way along the wings.(b) A production batch of the later models of the Quest UAV
aircraft with the elevons mounted at the wing tips. Nigel King, the head of QuestUAV Ltd., is the person in the white shirt at the far right of this photo. (Source: QuestUAV).
[a]
[b]
ous ying wing aircraft in order to accommodate the electric motor,
battery, camera, radio link and GPS/IMU and/or autopilot unit. All
three of those ying-wing aircraft mentioned above use electro-motors
driving a pusher propeller for their forward ight. However the pay-
loads of these three UAVs are relatively limited. In order to carry an
increased payload such as a second camera, some of the UAV oper-
ators in the U.K. have designed and built their own ying wing UAV
aircraft. Examples are the Quest 100, 200 and 300 UAV aircraft
[Fig. 5] that have been constructed by QuestUAV Ltd. with wing
spans of 1.5 m and 2.1 m. Another example is the G2 UAV aircraft
of Callen-Lenz [Fig. 24 (a)] with a wing span of 2.0 m and a pay-
load of 2 kg. In this respect, these aircraft are considerably larger
in size than the designs from the three non-U.K. European suppliers
mentioned above. So far, the Quest ying wing aircraft have mainly
been purchased by various universities and research agencies, both
in the U.K. (including Northumbria, Newcastle, Leeds, Exeter and
Stirling Universities) and in Europe (in Austria and Finland). The
Callen-Lenz G2 aircraft have been used mainly to carry out in-house
projects.
(b) Conventional Fuselage Designs
Three representative examples of this alternative type of xed-wing
design that are being used for airborne imaging and mapping in
Europe are the MAVinci Sirius (from Germany); the Trigger
Composites Pteryx (from Poland); and the CropCam UAV (from
Canada) with wing spans of 1.6 m; 2.8 m and 2.4 m respectively
and fuselage lengths of 1.2 m, 1.4 m and 1.2 m respectively. The
CropCam aircraft is essentially a powered version of a model
sailplane. However, there are
only a very few examples of
these aircraft that are opera-
tional in the U.K. Those that are
known to the present writer
include a single MAVinci Sirius
aircraft [Fig. 6] and a single
CropCam. However, again various other similar aircraft have been
produced in-house by service providers in the U.K. An example is
the LLEO Maja UAV [Fig. 7] built by the G2way company, which
is based in Nottingham in the East Midlands of England. Again the
motivation for this development is to be able to carry a greater pay-
load such as the multiple cameras that are required for multi-spectral
photography.
III B Lightweight Rotary-Wing UAVs
There are a large number of lightweight rotary-wing UAVs in use in
the U.K. (a) Quite a number of these are of the single-rotor type,
similar to, but heavily scaled-down models of conventional heli-
copters. In this account, they will be grouped together with those
having coaxial-rotors featuring two contra-rotating rotors that are
mounted one above the other on the same axis. (b) However many
of those rotary-wing UAVs that are being used in the area of imag-
ing and mapping in the U.K. are of the multi-rotor helicopter type
featuring three or more rotors mounted on separate axes.
(a) Single-Rotor & Coaxial-Rotor UAVs
In general terms, at least within the U.K, these types of UAV are in
very widespread use, but mostly for aerobatics and other recreation-
al activities, own by radio-controlled model helicopter hobbyists.
However a number are in use for the acquisition of aerial photogra-
phy. Those single-rotor helicopter UAVs that appear to get most use
in the airborne imaging area within the U.K. are the Joker models
that are manufactured by the German Minicopter company and
various models from Mikado [Fig. 8] and Vario, also based in
Germany. There are further examples of the single-rotor UAVs that
have been built by Align-Trex in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China
and are being used for airborne digital data acquisition in the U.K.
Almost all of these lightweight single-rotor UAV aircraft are powered
by electric motors. However one or two are powered by petrol
engines. Usually these are being employed to carry the heavier
equipment required for professional lming operations rather than
the digital cameras that are being used to acquire the still frame
images required for mapping purposes.
The majority of the single-rotor UAVs that are being utilized for the
acquisition of oblique and panoramic aerial photography in the U.K.
are doing so for publicity, marketing & public relation purposes; for
coverage of sports events; and for use by estate and commercial
property agents and by building contractors (to assess progress on
contracts). For these applications, the hovering capability of the heli-
copter is really useful. However it is interesting to note that a num-
ber of the companies in the U.K. that are engaged in this type of
activity with their UAVs also operate ground-based pole cameras
equipped with telescopic masts that are mounted on vehicles, trail-
Ar t i c l e
Fig. 7 A LLEO Maja UAV that has been fitted with visible & IR cameras. (Source: G2way)
Fig. 8 A Mikado Logo 600SE single-rotor UAV with its Photoship One three-axes stabilized camera mount
that is being operated by sUAVe Aerial Photographers. (Source: Jed Servo)
Fig. 9 Very tall telescopic masts (up to 100 ft
[30 m] in height) equipped with pan-and-tilt
cameras can be mounted on a trailer that, in this
case, is being towed by a four-wheel drive vehi-
cle. (Source: Cloud 9 Photography)
31
ers [Fig. 9] or tripods for use in those areas where the use of UAVs
is either forbidden or impractical. There are over 100 commercial
operators of pole cameras in the U.K. Only a certain relatively small
number of these operate both a UAV and a pole camera.
(b) Multi-Rotor Helicopter UAVs
By contrast with the single-rotor type, a multi-rotor mini-helicopter
UAV requires no cyclic or collective pitch control. Thus it can have
simpler control mechanisms and it supplements these with the addi-
tional electronic stability augmentation components that are required
for stable ight. The aircraft will still be highly manoeuvrable with
the potential to hover and to take off, y, and land in small areas.
Because of these characteristics and their capability to accommo-
date heavier payloads, multi-rotor UAVs are being used ever more
widely by commercial companies in the U.K. for imaging purposes.
Nevertheless many of them are still being used mainly to acquire
oblique aerial photos for pictorial purposes again for use by real
estate and property marketing companies and for environmental
monitoring purposes but also for infrastructure, industrial or build-
ing inspection, rather than mapping applications. However there
are a small number that are equipped with GPS/IMU sub-systems
and suitable autopilots that are capable of autonomous ights in the
grid pattern that is required to cover the ground in a systematic man-
ner so that the resulting aerial photography can be used for map-
ping applications.
The commonly used examples of those multi-rotor UAVs that are
being used in the imaging and mapping eld in the U.K. again come
mainly from German suppliers from the Aibotix, AirRobot,
Ascending Technologies; HiSystems (MikroKopter) and
Microdrones companies. For example, Microdrones MD4 (four-
rotor) UAVs are in use by the Bonnington Aerial Surveys, MW Power
Systems, Skydrones and Skylens companies. The larger Falcon-8
octocopter [Fig. 10] from Ascending Technologies is in use by the
Cyberhawk Innovations, Flying Scotscam and Skylens companies.
Also the Dragany company from Canada and the DJI
Innovations and XAircraft companies from Hong Kong and
South China have supplied multi-rotor (six- and eight-rotor) UAVs to
various operating companies here in the U.K. So has the
Droidworx company from New Zealand though this supply often
takes the form of the main airframe, the stabilized camera mount
and the booms that support the electric motors and rotors: the air-
craft electronics appear to come mainly from MikroKopter [Fig. 11].
Yet another supplier is Freey Systems from the U.S.A. with its
Cinestar-8 UAV. Within this overall class of lightweight UAVs that is
the subject of this article, quite a number of these eight-rotor UAVs
are often classied as being heavy-lift UAVs meaning that they
can carry payloads of 2.5 to 4 kg, rather than the 1 to 1.5 kg which
is typical of the four-rotor models!
IV Cameras
There are very many issues regarding the digital frame cam-
eras that can be deployed on lightweight UAVs. They include (i)
those of the camera weight relative to the available UAV payload;
(ii) the very small formats of the camera images; (iii) the numerous
non-metric characteristics of the cameras; (iv) the need for very short
exposure times to help combat the effects of platform instability; and
(v) the requirements for high framing rates arising from the speed of
the UAV platform over the ground from a very low altitude and the
very large longitudinal and lateral overlaps that need to be employed
for mapping purposes; etc. So much so, that a complete paper could
be devoted to addressing these issues. However, sticking to the sub-
ject of this article that is concerned with commercial usage of UAVs
within the U.K., the cameras that are currently in use range from
lightweight consumer models (weighing as little as 150 grams and
32
Fig. 11 A Droidworx octocopter UAV equipped with a gyro-stabilized camera mount and camera.
(Source: Flying Eye UK)
Fig. 10 An Ascending Technologies Falcon-8 multi-rotor UAV equipped with a Panasonic Lumix camera.
(Source: Cyberhawk Innovations)
Fig. 12 A Canon IXUS
camera mounted on a
swinglet CAM UAV the
silver box at the nose of
the aircraft is the lithium
polymer battery.
(Source: senseFly)
Ar t i c l e
Fig. 13 A Canon EOS 5D camera mounted underneath a rotary-wing UAV (Source: Eyera)
costing 200) at the low end of the cost scale to the much more
expensive (2,000+), more capable and much heavier professional
small-format cameras that are already familiar to the photogrammet-
ric mapping community from their use on manned light aircraft.
Starting with the consumer-level cameras, in the case of those
that are in use in the xed-wing UAV aircraft mentioned above,
both the swinglet Cam and Smart One ying-wing aircraft utilize
certain models in the Canon IXUS range as standard [Fig. 12]. They
are equipped with lenses having a focal length of circa f = 25mm
and generate colour images that are 10 to 12 Megapixels in size.
The Gatewing X-100 utilizes the Ricoh GRD IV compact camera
which has a quite similar specication. In the case of many of the
lightweight rotary-wing UAVs that are operational in the U.K,
the GoPro Hero 2 camera with its 12 Megapixel format is in
widespread use, as are various models in the Panasonic Lumix
range, again generating images with similar (10 to 12 Megapixel)
format sizes. Going to the other end of the price and weight scale,
the most commonly used professional-level camera on UAVs in
the U.K. appears to be the Canon EOS 5D [Fig. 13] in its various
Mk I (12 Megapixel), Mk II (21.1 Megapixel) and Mk III (22.3
Megapixel) forms. Examples of these are in use with the Arc-Video;
Flying Fern Films; Flying Video/ Skylens; Helicam Media; High Spy;
Horizon AP; Microdrones (U.K.); sUAVe Aerial Photographers and
Upper Cut Productions companies. Some other users employ the
Sony NEX-7 (with its 24.3 Megapixel image). At the intermedi-
ate-level, the Canon EOS 7D and 550D models and the Sony
NEX-5N appear to be in fairly widespread use. It goes without say-
ing that there are many other similar cameras from other manufac-
turers that are being used in smaller numbers.
Besides these standard digital frame cameras that are generating
colour or false-colour images, consideration needs to be given to
other more specialized types of airborne camera. An inhibiting fac-
tor in the case of thermal-IR cameras is that, given the embargo
on UAVs being operated over urban areas in the U.K., they cannot
be used for urban heat loss surveys. Nevertheless there are a few
operators of UAV aircraft in the U.K. who are utilizing thermal-IR
cameras on other applications. An example is that own by
Overshoot Photos which utilizes a FLIR Tau 320 model mounted on
a Draganyer X4 UAV [Fig. 14] that is generating images that are
320 x 256 pixels in size. Similarly there are also a few operators
of multi-spectral cameras in the U.K. In the case of QuestUAV,
the company can operate a twin camera unit on its Quest 300 y-
ing-wing aircraft with both cameras exposing their images simulta-
neously. The one camera produces a colour RGB image, while the
other generates an image in the near-IR (NIR) part of the spectrum.
To obtain four-channel data, the separate images from the red, green
and blue channels of the rst camera are combined with the image
data from the near-IR camera. From this data, the Normalized
Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values can be derived for
the vegetated areas that are present on the ground. QuestUAV has
also tted a Tetracam six-channel Mini-MCA (Multi-Camera Array)
multi-spectral camera [Fig. 15 (a)] to one of its Quest 300 UAV air-
craft. Other operators have also tted this camera to their multi-rotor
UAVs [Fig. 15 (b)].
V Photogrammetric Data Processing
In broad terms, the well-known and well-established digital pho-
togrammetric workstations (DPWs) from the mainstream pho-
togrammetric system suppliers such as the Hexagon group of com-
panies Leica Geosystems, Intergraph and ERDAS (with their LPS
& ImageStation systems), BAE Systems (with its SOCET GXP prod-
uct) and Trimble/INPHO are well able to handle the multiple frame
images acquired by UAVs. Within this particular context, and giving
the viewpoint of another of these major system suppliers, it is inter-
esting to note the remarks accompanying the recently introduced
version of the well-established PHOTOMOD DPW software from the
Russian Racurs company. In this account, the company has
Ar t i c l e
33
Fig. 14 A FLIR Tau 320 thermal-IR camera mounted on a Draganflyer X4 UAV.
(Source: Draganfly Innovations]
Fig. 15 (a) This Quest 300 flying-wing UAV is shown together with its Tetracam Mini-MCA six-channel multi-spectral camera. (Source: QuestUAV Ltd.)
(b) This Tetracam Mini-MCA camera is mounted on a Microdrones MD4-1000 quadcopter UAV. (Source: Microdrones)
[a] [b]
observed that certain features of UAV aerial photographic data
pose serious problems for photogrammetric processing. They include
(i) the low quality of the images; (ii) the low accuracy of the on-
board GPS/IMU data; (iii) the use of uncalibrated consumer cam-
eras; and (iv) the problems arising from the instability of the ight.
All of this has required the addition of special tools to the PHOTO-
MOD system to neutralize these disadvantages and to obtain high-
quality deliverables. Similarly, a version of yet another well-known
and established photogrammetric software package EnsoMOSAIC
from MosaicMill in Finland [Fig. 16] has been developed speci-
cally to handle UAV imagery.
However, turning next to the rather different viewpoint of some
(though not all) of the UAV aerial photographic operators in the U.K.
many of which are relatively small start-up companies with low
capitalization these sophisticated and highly capable mainstream
DPWs are regarded by these U.K. operators as being rather too
expensive and requiring too much knowledge and experience of
photogrammetry to be utilized by them for the subsequent image
data processing. Thus the approach that has been followed by these
operators is to simply arrange to have this photogammetric process-
ing work outsourced to external service providers who have the
required expertise. Thus the photogrammetric data processing of
some of this UAV aerial photography has been outsourced to cer-
tain companies in India which already provide photogrammetric
processing services at a relatively low cost to a number of the major
U.K. commercial mapping companies.
Alternatively the photogrammetric processing work is being carried
out by companies that have been set up expressly to cater for this
market. An example of this latter approach is that followed by the
Pix4D company based in Switzerland which, along with its fel-
low Swiss company, senseFly, has recently received extensive
investment and support funding from the French Parrot Group.
The Pix4D company has developed its Pix4UAV photogrammetric
software package with an emphasis on automated DEM and
orthophoto production. The Pix4D package is available either (i) as
a processing service (called Pix4UAV Cloud), which is carried out
by Pix4D; or (ii) as licensed software (called Pix4UAV Desktop) for
use by the UAV operating companies [Fig. 17]. The processing ser-
34
Fig. 16 (a) The target provided
by MosaicMill for the frequent cali-
bration that is required for unsta-
ble small-format camera systems,
such as the compact cameras car-
ried by lightweight UAVs. (Source:
MosaicMill)
(b) The display of an EnsoMosaic
DPW showing the ortho-mosaicing
operation that is being undertaken
on a block of UAV aerial photogra-
phy. (Source: TerraPan Labs)
Fig. 17 - This orthophoto mosaic has been processed using Pix4D software. It took 746 photos (with 80%
longitudinal overlap and 70% lateral overlap) to make this mosaic which covers an area of 2.2 x 2.2 km.
(Source: Pteryx)
Fig. 18 This perspective view of Cliffords Tower, York has been generated using the Agisoft Photoscan
software, based on the DTM and image data acquired by the Align UAV of sUAVe Aerial Photographers.
(Source: sUAVe Aerial Photographers)
Fig. 19 The generation of the
3D model of a specific feature or
object often requires the acquisi-
tion of multiple, overlapping pho-
tographs from the UAV platform in
a circular configuration as input to
the modelling software. (Source:
M.J. Westoby)
Ar t i c l e
[a]
[b]
vice is available either on a subscription basis or on a pay-as-you-
go basis. The Pix4D software can handle the data acquired by most
xed-wing and rotary-wing UAVs. So this service has been utilized
by several of the U.K. commercial operators of UAVs and by vari-
ous U.K. universities that are operating UAVs for research mapping
purposes.
Another software company that offers a comparable alternative solu-
tion of a processing service or licensed software is the Finnish
PIEneering (Parallel Image Engineering) company with its
RapidStation (software) and RapidCluster (service) products. Still
other similar suppliers of alternative software or service products are
the Icaros company based in Israel with the special UAV version of
its IPS3.0 photogrammetric software and DroneMapper based in
Colorado.
Yet another player in this photogrammetric software development is
the Agisoft company, which is based in St.Petersburg, Russia, and
is already well known in the area of terrestrial close-range pho-
togrammetry. It has developed its Photoscan software suite which
is available (i) in a standard edition (costing $179); and (ii) a pro-
fessional edition (costing $3,499). The standard edition simply gen-
erates the 3D point cloud from overlapping photographs and then
forms the 3D model of the terrain. The professional edition allows the
generation of the terrain model data in the 3D coordinate reference
system using airborne and ground control data and the generation
of an orthophoto based on this terrain model data. The suite can also
be supplemented (i) by the Agisoft StereoScan tool that can be
used to create textured perspective 3D models from stereo image
pairs [Fig. 18]; and (ii) by the so-called Agisoft Lens, which is an
automatic lens calibration software tool that uses an LCD screen as a
calibration target. Several
of the U.K. companies that
operate in the commercial
UAV aerial photographic business, including Cyberhawk Innovations;
QuestUAV; Sky-Futures; and sUAVe Aerial Photographers, are users
of these Agisoft photogrammetric software products.
Yet another approach that has been adopted by some UAV aerial
photographic service providers in the U.K. is to use the open-source
software and services that are offered by the University of
Washington (Bundler-PMVS); Microsoft (Photosynth); Autodesk (123D
Catch); and the University of Louvain (ARC 3D). These organisations
offer a Web-based service that allows the user to upload multiple
overlapping photos acquired by the UAV to the cloud-based servers
that are operated by each of these organisations. These servers then
reconstruct a 3D point cloud or a set of mesh data from the multiple
photos in a highly automated manner and supply the user with a 3D
model, which can then be exported for use in other applications.
However the use of such a service means that the users may have to
share their images publicly on the Web which, as far as U.K. users
are concerned, may not be an acceptable solution, either on com-
mercial or on privacy grounds. Furthermore the procedure may not
be wholly rigorous and may not produce the geometric accuracies
that are required by the client. Nevertheless, for some other users,
the results of using the software and service that are offered are quite
acceptable for visualization purposes. This is especially so in the case
when, for example, a large object such as an individual building,
monument or bridge has been photographed from the UAV from sev-
eral different positions and directions, e.g. in an arc or circle around
the object [Fig. 19].
35
Fig. 20 (a) A Maxi Swift flying-wing
UAV that is being operated by Flying
Scotscam.
(b) An aerial photo of a Henge monu-
ment forming a small part of the archaeo-
logical site at Forteviot, Scotland that is
being investigated by the Strathearn
Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF)
Project of the University of Glasgow.
(Source: Flying Scotscam)
Fig. 21 (a) A Mikado Logo 600SE single-rotor UAV being operated on the survey of Monmouth Beach forming part of the Jurassic Coast in southern England. (b) An aerial photo of an excavation being conducted over
Eddisbury Hill Fort. This is an Iron Age monument situated near Delamere in Cheshire that is thought to have been built in the 3rd century BC. (Source: sUAVe Aerial Photographers)
Ar t i c l e
[a] [b]
It should also be mentioned that, in some cases, simple image
matching and stitching software is being used by certain U.K.
operators to produce UAV image mosaics. Needless to say, the result-
ing images might be visually pleasing and map-like, but they still
contain substantial geometric displacements and distortions. Thus
they are not orthophotos. So they will not t the corresponding map
or GIS data and cannot be used for accurate measurements of posi-
tion, distance, angle, area or volume. By contrast, all the various
photogrammetric packages mentioned above have the required geo-
metric basis and components that allow them to fully rectify the UAV
images into orthophotos and orthomosaics using a digital elevation
model (DEM) within the rectication process. Thus the resulting prod-
ucts are free from the geometric displacements caused by tilts and
by terrain relief in those areas with elevation variations. If suitable
ground control points (GCPs) are also utilised in the process, then
very high accuracy orthophotos and orthomosaics will be generated
from the UAV photography which can then be used in the most
demanding topographic mapping applications, e.g. in cadastral
projects and those underpinning large engineering projects.
VI Service Providers
In this section, the aerial imaging and mapping services that are
being offered and some of the work that has been undertaken by a
number of representative companies in the U.K. will be outlined.
They include both small and large service providers operating quite
different types of UAV aircraft and cameras on a great variety of
projects in different parts of the U.K. Hopefully they form a repre-
sentative cross-section of the industry as it currently exists in the U.K.
(a) Flying Scotscam
This is a small company based in the town of Kirriemuir, near the city
of Dundee, Scotland. It mainly utilizes an Asctec Falcon-8 octocopter,
in this case equipped with either Pentax or Panasonic cameras, for
its image data acquisition. However the company has also used an
example of the Maxi Swift ying-wing aircraft [Fig. 20 (a)] built by
MS Composit in the Czech Republic. Much of the companys work is
concerned with the surveys associated with archaeological investiga-
tions [Fig. 20 (b)] and with surveys of historic buildings and their
associated historic landscapes that are being executed on behalf of
ofcial government agencies (especially Historic Scotland) and local
archaeological societies. Other survey and mapping work is being
carried out for local government and national environmental agen-
cies and universities, including the mapping of coastal erosion. The
company also carries out basic inspection services for various indus-
trial and infrastructure organisations. Flying Scotscam mainly out-
sources its data processing, making use of the facilities, software (LPS,
PhotoModeler) and expertise provided by McCreadie Associates
(located near Edinburgh) to produce the orthophotos, DTMs, 3D per-
spective views, etc. that are required by its clients.
(b) sUAVe Aerial Phtographers
This is another small company that, in this case, is based in Wigan,
located near the city of Manchester in north-west England. By con-
trast with the other exemplar companies, the sUAVe company oper-
ates a single-rotor UAV. Originally an Align-Trex model (built in
Taiwan) was used. However currently the company operates a
German-built Mikado Logo 600SE model equipped with a Canon
36
Fig. 22 (a) This Quest flying-wing UAV is being hand launched.(b) A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area around the Roman Fort at Birdoswald, Cumbria. (Source: QuestUAV)
Fig. 23 (a) A MAVinci Sirius UAV that is being operated by Cyberhawk Innovations.(b) A contoured orthophoto of the large Five Sisters bing, located near Livingston, Scotland, that has been produced from
UAV photography. This huge bing contains the waste material from the processing of oil shale that took place in this area during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. (Source: Cyberhawk Innovations)
Ar t i c l e
[a] [b]
[a] [b]
5D small-format (21 Mpix) camera which is mounted on a stabilized
gimbal mount that has been supplied by the Photoship One compa-
ny from the U.S.A. [Figs. 8 & 21 (a)] The nal photogrammetric data
processing has either been outsourced or it has been carried out by
clients such as English Heritage who already possess the required
software and expertize. However the Agisoft Photoscan software
has also been used in-house whenever required, especially for the
initial verication of the aerial data. A great variety of imaging and
mapping projects have been undertaken. They include numerous
surveys of archaeological sites [Fig. 21 (b)] and historic buildings.
The latter include the Roman Amphitheatre and Walls in the city of
Chester and Cliffords Tower (originally built by William the
Conqueror) in the city of York [Fig. 18]. Other projects have involved
surveys carried out in connection with engineering and construction
activities, including ood alleviation projects; the remediation of
industrial land and river frontages; and, not least, a survey of the
roof and the campus surrounding Manchester Citys Etihad football
stadium. A research-oriented mapping project has been the base-
line survey of the wave-cut platforms that form part of the Jurassic
Coast, a major UNESCO World Heritage Site on the south coast of
England [Fig. 21 (a)].
(c) QuestUAV Ltd.
As mentioned above, QuestUAV Ltd. manufactures its own ying-
wing UAV aircraft [Figs. 5 & 15 (a)], which it sells mainly to univer-
sities and research agencies. However the company also operates
as a service provider, formerly under the separate title of Blue River
Studios. The two arms of the now single consolidated company
(since September 2011) are both based in Amble, a small town
located in Northumbria on the north-east coast of England. The com-
panys aerial mapping services are conducted in a conventional
manner using its own Quest ying-wing UAV aircraft with the air-
borne data acquisition underpinned by a network of signalized and
measured ground control points (GCPs) if the accuracy specication
requires it. This is followed by automated aerial triangulation, the
generation of a DTM and the production of orthophotos and ortho-
mosaics using the Agisoft Photoscan software for which the
QuestUAV Ltd. company is now a re-seller. The company also oper-
ates a multi-rotor UAV for use on those projects that require a hover-
ing capability. Many of QuestUAVs mapping projects are research
related, including (i) a survey of Exmoors rare peatlands located in
the south-west of England [Fig. 22 (a)]; (ii) the survey of a National
Trust peatland site in the Yorkshire Dales National Park; (iii) cover-
age of a upland area in Bulgaria, located east of the capital, Soa,
for archaeological prospection, using both multi-spectral and near-
infra-red (NIR) cameras; and (iv) many archaeological and historic
sites in England [Fig. 22 (b)]. Indeed, in May 2012, Nigel King,
the head of QuestUAV Ltd., was presented with the Fox Talbot Award
for 2011 for his professional work by the British Institute of
Professional Photographers (BIPP). Besides which, the Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory (RAL) which is one of QuestUAVs
research customers for its ying-wing UAV has carried out surveys
of an area in the Atacama Desert in Chile that is being used to test
robotic rover vehicles that are planned to be used on the surface of
the planet Mars. A DTM of this test area has been produced based
on the imagery acquired by two Quest ying-wing aircraft.
Ar t i c l e
37
Fig. 24 (a) A Callen-Lenz G2 flying-wing UAV. (Source:Callen-Lenz)(b) A near-IR (NIR) image showing areas of crop stress in Lady Rosetta potatoes that have been captured by the G2 UAV. (Source: Project Ursula)
Fig. 25 (a) This LLEO Maja UAV, equipped with two cameras, is about to be launched using a catapult and ramp. (Source: Low Level Earth Observation (LLEO))
(b) A sample orthophoto mosaic of a golf course. (Source: Bluesky International)
[a] [b]
[a] [b]
(d) Cyberhawk Innovations Ltd.
This company is located in the town of Livingston, near Edinburgh,
Scotland. It utilizes its eet of UAVs (i) to carry out the inspection of
industrial facilities; and (ii) to execute mapping projects. In the case
of the former, it specializes in the inspection of operational facilities
in the oil, gas and chemical industries both onshore and offshore in
the U.K. and abroad using its eet of Falcon-8 multi-rotor UAVs from
Ascending Technologies. These activities include the inspection of
cooling towers, chimneys, live ares, wind turbines and structures
such as the buildings, storage tanks, gantries and walkways in
reneries and offshore platforms. For its aerial mapping work,
Cyberhawk utilizes a xed-wing MAVinci Sirius UAV [Figs. 6 & 23
(a)] for the data acquisition with in-house photogrammetric process-
ing of the acquired data using the Agisoft Photoscan software men-
tioned above and the LSS software from McCarthy Taylor for the
generation of DTMs and 3D visualization products. Many of the sur-
veys have been carried out over potential wind farm sites. Other
projects involve repeated surveys of quarries for volume determina-
tion, management and safety purposes [Fig. 23 (b)]. Still other map-
ping projects have been carried out for the state forestry service and
for cultural landscape and heritage sites. A typical project covers an
area of 200 to 300 ha, but the mapping of larger areas of up to 1
to 2 sq km has also been undertaken.
(e) Project URSULA
Project URSULA (UAS Remote Sensing for Use in Land Appli ca -
tions).is a two-year research and development programme that is
using small unmanned aircraft to explore the potential of imaging in
land applications, primarily high input arable farming which is
being supported by the Welsh Assembly Government. The project is
based in Aberystwyth, a town on the west coast of Wales, and is
developing various agronomy products and services related to agri-
culture and precision farming, based on the image data that is being
captured from UAV aircraft. The project is being implemented
through a close collaboration between two commercial companies
Environmental Systems Ltd. and Callen-Lenz Associates. The Callen-
Lenz company provides technical consultancy in aviation. The com-
panys operational arm is the Gubua Group, which operates both
the in-house developed G2 ying-wing aircraft [Fig. 24 (a)] already
mentioned above, and a G6 multi-rotor UAV with a 1.5 kg payload.
While DEMs and orthophotos are being generated from the result-
ing imagery in the conventional manner, the nal products are ori-
ented towards forestry, agriculture and environmental applications.
Thus, depending on the specic application, the UAVs are equipped
with either colour, colour infra-red (CIR) or thermal-IR cameras for
image data capture [Fig. 24 (b)]. These include the ADC and MCA
cameras manufactured by Tetracam. The Environmental Systems
part of the partnership is concerned primarily with the analysis of
the acquired image and map data and their applications to the envi-
ronmental, agricultural and land use sectors.
(f) Bluesky International
Bluesky International is a major supplier of conventional large-for-
mat aerial photography and mapping products within the U.K. The
company is based in Coalville, Leicestershire in the East Midlands
of England. In addition to its well established aerial photographic
service and products, it is now offering a UAV imaging and map-
ping service, which is aimed at the production of detailed and accu-
rate aerial surveys of small areas (up to 5 sq km). For the aerial
imaging part of these surveys, Bluesky uses the services of the UAVs
that are being operated by other smaller specialist companies.
However it carries out the subsequent photogrammetric processing
in-house, including the geo-rectication and ortho-rectication of the
imagery. This is executed using conventional DPWs, using the pro-
cedures that are provided by the Intergraph/ERDAS ORIMA soft-
ware and various Trimble/INPHO software packages. Applications
have included small-area surveys of golf courses [Fig. 25 (b)]; salt
marshes (for the National Trust); sporting estates; construction sites;
and areas of high-value agricultural crops.
(g) Blom UK
The Blom Group is of course one of the largest companies engaged
in aerial surveys and mapping within Europe with ofces in almost
every European country. These include the Blom UK company, which
is based in Cheddar, Somerset in south-west England. In July 2011,
Blom UK announced that the services of the Personal Aerial
Mapping System (PAMS) that Blom Germany and its daughter
company, Germatics, have developed in cooperation with
SmartPlanes AB from Sweden would be available in the U.K. Several
papers giving details of the system and of Bloms extensive experi-
ences with its 12 operational PAMS systems in Germany,
Scandinavia, the Netherlands & the U.K. have been published by
Dr. Werner Mayr of Blom Germany and Dr. Ralf Schroth of Blom
Romania. As mentioned above, the SmartOne ying-wing UAV [Figs.
4 & 26 (a)] that forms the aerial component of the PAMS system is
produced by SmartPlanes. As utilized by Blom, it carries calibrated
Ar t i c l e
38
Fig. 26 (a) This SmartOne UAV that is being operated by Blom is being hand-launched. (Source: SmartPlanes)
(b) An orthophoto of a gullied area in County Durham in the north-east of England that has been derived from UAV aerial photography. (Source: Germatics)
[a] [b]
cameras producing images in the range 7 to 10 Megapixels in size,
which are acquired in rectangular blocks with 80% longitudinal and
lateral overlaps. Rapid image processing and the production of a
simple rectied mosaic can be undertaken on-site for checking pur-
poses. Thereafter the data is uploaded via the Internet to Bloms
ofce where the nal processing, including the production of the
nal DTMs, orthophotos and visualization products, takes place. The
numerous projects undertaken by Blom include surveys of golf cours-
es, railway infrastructure, quarries, waste dumps, landslide monitor-
ing, as well as mapping for agricultural, forestry and environmental
purposes [Fig. 26 (b)].
The latest development is that Dr. Mayr and the staff of Germatics
concerned with UAV imaging and mapping have all left the compa-
ny and are now working for a new independent company, called
GerMAP. Besides undertaking UAV aerial photography, the
GerMAP company is also offering a data processing service for UAV
imagery.
VII Conclusion
From the account given above, it is obvious that commercial imag-
ing and mapping from lightweight UAV aircraft is already fully oper-
ational in the U.K. On the one hand, where this activity is based on
the use of xed-wing UAVs, the procedures largely follow the
well-known and well-established methodologies of airborne photog-
raphy and photogrammetric mapping that are used in the aerial sur-
veys that are carried out with manned aircraft. However this devel-
opment with xed-wing UAVs has taken place in the U.K. without
really competing with the established commercial aerial mapping
industry. Instead it largely supplements the established industry, hav-
ing opened up a new niche market of mapping small areas such as
(i) archaeological and historic sites; (ii) individual quarries, waste
dumps, construction sites and agricultural farms; (iii) wind farm and
electricity sub-station sites; and (iv) small areas of interest to foresters
and eld scientists. Previously these areas would have been deemed
too small to be considered for mapping using aerial photogrammet-
ric procedures mainly due to the xed overhead costs and the
mobilization costs that were involved. By contrast, rotary-wing
UAVs have (i) opened up a completely new and very different mar-
ket in the area of close-range industrial and infrastructure inspec-
tion, while, (ii) at the same time, offering stiff competition to the large
and well-established aerial photographic industry in the U.K. that
acquires mainly oblique imagery for marketing and pictorial pur-
poses mostly, until now, using manned light (e.g. Cessna 172) air-
craft and pole cameras mounted on telescopic masts.
Gordon Petrie is Emeritus Professor of Topographic Science in the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences of
the University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. E-mail Gordon.Petrie@glasgow.ac.uk ; Web Site
http://web2.ges.gla.ac.uk/~gpetrie
Ar t i c l e
C
O
L
U
M
N
Not long ago I was asked during an interview, for a big surveying
project, about the way my company looks at sustainable entrepreneur-
ship.
I
interpreted this question to mean how green is
your survey company? The answer which
immediately came to mind was: not as green
as I would like it to be. Ideally, I would like to trav-
el to the site on my bicycle, but equipment and
tools are often too heavy or big to be transported
by bicycle. Does this mean that my company is
orange or even red instead of green?
Substantial companies do
sometimes look at the com-
bination of prot, the effect
on the planet (environment)
and the people (social).
The study of these three
factors is generally known
as the triple bottom line or
triple p and it is commonly
accepted that these three
elements should be in some
kind of balance. This is
done by capturing values
and using criteria for mea-
suring success; economical
as well as ecological and
social. As is often the case,
there is a standard for this.
In this particular instance it
is the ISO 26000, but this
standard is not intended or appropriate for certi-
cation purposes (www.iso.org).
Other certications clearly state, however, that
they are based on the ISO 26000, which makes
the difference between guideline and certication
very small.
So what often happens is that bigger companies
tend to get ofcial certication to prove that they
are doing something with the triple p bottom line.
For smaller companies this is not so easy. In most
cases it is difcult and expensive to get certica-
tion. But what is this sort of certication worth?
A good example is the ISO 9000. For most con-
struction companies they insist on yearly calibra-
tion of the tools including the surveying tools. This
results in an impressive sticker on the side cover
of the instrument which tells the user when the
instrument should be calibrated and sometimes
when the last calibration took place. So when you
have an instrument with such a sticker on the side
cover, which states it should be calibrated in, for
example, July 2013 and you ask the user of this
instrument if this instrument
is ok, in most cases the user
will say the instrument is ok.
If, however, the sticker
would say the instrument
should have been calibrat-
ed in July 2012, the cus-
tomer is normally not so
sure if the instrument is ok
or not. I often pose these
sorts of dilemmas to
employees during training.
When I tell them that the
instrument was transported
from the supplier to the con-
struction site by parcel ser-
vice, they are even more
hesitant as to whether the
instrument is still ok, even if
the sticker on the side cover
states that it doesnt need to
be calibrated until July 2013. Surely it would be
better to write in the requirements that the user
should check the instrument before using it. The
user is actually more important than the certica-
tion.
How green is my own company? We recycle
paper, the ballpoints are made of compostable
material instead of plastic, and we do not use the
standby, but turn off the computers when we go
home. We are making a signicant contribution,
but we still dont have any certication. In gener-
al, for smaller companies certications only cost
money and time.
Ing. Lon van der Poel is director at LEOP,
a company which combines surveying and
training of surveyors www.leop-bv.nl.
Green Surveying
C o l u mn
40
We are making a significant
contribution, but we still dont
have any certification.
In general, for smaller
companies certifications only
cost money and time.
Information Mobility
Be Inspired Awards 2012
At Bentleys Be Inspired: Innovations in Infrastructure conference in Amsterdam, the featured keynote
speaker was not an engineer or an IT guru. He was a journalist. Wired magazines executive editor,
Greg Williams, intelligently matched his vision with that of Bentleysindustrial apps for mobile devices.
T
hese mobile Apps had been presented
the day before, which made Williams
thoughts on mobile most appropriate.
For instance, in his keynote Williams men-
tioned the great efforts of the Open Street
Map team right after the March 2011 tsuna-
mi in Japan. Most people working in a CAD,
construction, or GIS environment are new to
innovations like Arduino, the open-source
electronics prototyping platform based on
exible, easy-to-use hardware and software
that Williams discussed. He also showed
some mind-boggling inventions, mostly made
by hobbyists and creative artists. For a sam-
ple, check out the Arduino-based Enough
Already product designed to block or can-
cel annoying celebrity voices on your TV set!
Winner Innovation in
Government
During the main part of the conference, some
usual suspects popped up. It wasnt the rst
time representatives of the London Crossrail
project had attended a Bentley event to talk
about GIS and asset models. Still, the projects
efcient information ow, data management,
information accessibility, and data interoper-
ability deserve and gain respect enough to
become a winner in the category Innovation
in Government. Crossrail is being built under
central London to link network rail lines to the
east and west of the United Kingdom capital.
The project includes 21 kilometers of twin tun-
nels and multiple below-ground stations. The
project demonstrates a federated data
approach that links systems and 2D/3D data
repositories. Crossrails strategy incorporates
a combination of standards, methods, and
procedures as well as software, tools, and
hardware. To ensure integrated data manage-
ment throughout all phases of the project,
Crossrail integrated MicroStation, Pro ject -
Wise, Bentley Map, Bentley Geo Web
Publisher, gINT, Hevacomp, Bentley RailTrack,
and STAAD.Pro.
Finalist Innovation in
Government
In New Zealand, Napier City Council dealt
with water issues and a proprietary GIS his-
tory. Moving forward, during Napiers GIS
renewal, it reviewed everything, replaced
the old software as well as model data and
data migration. Napier City Council consol-
idated its infrastructure asset management
systems, known as WorkIT, to create a sin-
gle authoritative data source for surveying,
CAD, GIS, and asset management applica-
tions. Standardizing on one technology plat-
form allowed data to be reused without
being reworked. The new data ow begins
with the existing CAD drawings and then
moves to survey data of the actual as-built
situation, into GIS, AMS, and nally the
Oracle database for storage. Bentleys
Enterprise License Subscription saved the
Council money since it no longer needed
separate GIS licenses. WorkIT II has
improved workow and data ow while
maintaining data accuracy. For city water
supply services, Bentley Map has replaced
the existing GIS product; Bentley Water pro-
vides tools for enforcing business rules; and
an Oracle database tracks data changes.
Winner of Rail and Transit
The Hallandsas Live BIM Railway Project
is a Swedish 3D object library/BIM platform
that notably includes a tunnel section. This
tunnel section will increase capacity from
four to 24 trains per hour as well as allow
the weight of the freight trains to be dou-
bled. The Swedish Transport Administration
manages and provides template and control
les that support building information mod-
eling (BIM), which was implemented to cre-
ate value during several stages of the pro-
ject. Sweco used MicroStation, InRoads,
Bentley Rail Track, ProjectWise, and Bentley
Navigator as the BIM platform for the rail-
way from Frslv to Bstad, Sweden.
Environmental studies
Also worthy of note is Quigg Engineering
Inc., whose project submission in the Rail
and Transit category for its work on the
Chicago-St.Louis high-speed rail project was
42
E v e n t
By Remco Takken
Innovations in Government. From left to right: Richard Zambuni,Global Marketing Director
Geospatial and Utilities at Bentley Systems, Daniel Irwin, GIS Technical Analyst at Crossrail
and Ton de Vries, Solutions Executive, Government at Bentley Systems
named a nalist. For its extensive environ-
mental studies conducted to help minimize
the projects footprint, Quigg used lots of
maps to help visualize the situation. With
natural resources preservation a condition
for construction, Quigg Engineering per-
formed environmental studies along 35.24
miles of mainline track to locate sensitive
areas, endangered species, and wetlands
within 100 feet of the centerline. Micro -
Station and GEOPAK enabled the team to
produce aerial plan sheets for eld work,
associate correct plane coordinates with
DGN les, attach GIS shape les to correct
locations, and identify natural features on
aerial plan sheets for the environmental
assessment.
WinnerWater and Wastewater
Treatment Plants
Another winner in the Be Inspired competi-
tion was A 4D Giant project by Carollo
Engineers in Denver, Colo., USA. Basically,
4D is a 3D model with the addition of time
as the fourth dimension. Carollo Engineers
had been reviewing a contractors construc-
tion schedule in the South Secondary
Improvements Project, a wastewater project
initiated by The Metro Wastewater Recla -
mation District in Denver, Colo. The District
is modifying and upgrading the South
Secondary Treatment facilities to treat 114
million gallons of wastewater per day. The
project had to be completed within the state-
mandated compliance schedule, requiring
the contractor to place approximately
75,000 cubic yards of concrete and install
the major electrical, mechanical, and instru-
mentation equipment in the rst 2.5 years.
4D has been used as a tool for risk mitiga-
tion, detailed review, and identication of
issues in a schedule. Within the 4D model
the start of a new activity turns the new item
green within the model. After nish activi-
ty, it turns it to the standard model color.
Some of the information mobility implica-
tions include the risk of not working with the
right version of a document. Also, people
are bringing their own devices to the work
space. In logistics, cost and time are an
important factor. In review, mark-up capture
should be clear and accurate. Lastly, syn-
chronization is important for feedback to the
working team. Carollo Engineers used
MicroStation, Bentley Navigator, Project -
Wise, and InRoads to link 12,154 activities
from the contractors Primavera P6 baseline
schedule with the 3D model to create the 4D
visualization.The detailed 4D model aided
the project team in evaluating whether the
accelerated schedule was achievable.
Bentley Utilities Designer
One of the technology previews at Be
Inspired 2012was the V8i (SELECTseries 3)
release of Bentleys Utilities Designer. The
biggest announcement: Bentley Utilities
Designer is now completely GIS agnostic,
meaning that it does not require replacement
of your existing GIS. Furthermore, it is a sin-
gle-install product, with all the necessary
MicroStation functionalities right in it. This
might seem a very logical thing to the end
user, but Bentley watchers might see it as a
sign: the free functionality of classic
Bentley (and/or former Haestad) products
are gradually becoming a commodity.
Bentley and Trimble
During the 2012 edition of Bentley Systems
annual Be Inspired event, Bentley Systems
CEO Greg Greg Bentley noted the recent
strategic alliance with Trimble. He explained
that geospatial coordinates, as measured by
the surveying equipment of Trimble, provide
a simulation of real-world conditions that
serves as a dial tone through which one
can connect back to information about the
real world using information modeling.
This alliance between Bentley and Trimble
is meant to enhance construction and oper-
ations quality, efciency, and safety.
Employing advanced information mobility
innovations, the exchange of physical and
virtual data can be more easily leveraged
by engineers and contractors to reduce pro-
ject risk while increasing overall productivi-
43
E v e n t
For its extensive environmental studies conducted to help minimize the projects footprint, Quigg associated correct plane coordinates with DGN
files, attached GIS shape files to correct locations, and identified natural features on aerial plan sheets for the environmental assessment.
The tunnel section of Hallandsas Live BIM
Railway Project, a Swedish 3D object
library/BIM platform.
ty, according to both parties. In the result-
ing environment, physical and virtual infor-
mation can be used to improve and validate
on-site construction processes. The seamless
exchange of information between the virtu-
al and physical can be achieved by utiliz-
ing Trimbles eld positioning technologies,
such as robotic total stations, 3D laser scan-
ners, and global navigation satellite system
(GNSS) positioning solutions, and Bentleys
information modeling softwarewith work
sharing and dynamic feedback being man-
aged inProjectWise.
Greg Bentley said: Through the intrinsic
geo-coordination in Bentleys applications
and ProjectWisegeospatial services, almost
every projects information modeling content
is virtually positioned with engineering pre-
cision in the project space. Intelligent posi-
tioning now enables these engineering mod-
els to be real-time and real-place referenced,
from and into mobile devices in the eld,
through immersive environments from both
Bentley and Trimble. Users pilotingthe inte-
gration of physical positioning from Trimble
with virtual positioning from Bentley, facili-
tated by information mobility innovations,
have identied signicant savings of time
and money, and continue to uncover new
benet cases.
Industrial Apps
When Greg Bentley talked about informa-
tion mobility, he was not only referring to
eld surveyors deploying GPS and sending
data back and forth to the ofce. Lately,
Bentley has been watching the huge growth
in iStore apps available on the market, and
recognises the opportunities for Micro -
Station users: Having more apps is good!
Bentley stated. He doesnt feel challenged
by the fact that consumer apps are practi-
cally given away, and only make a prot
after a million downloads or so. Looking at
the installed base of Bentley users, he
remarked: Essentially, we have been a sub-
scription company from the start.
Within Bentleys own industrial apps align-
ment, licensed users are entitled to a pass-
port to get their apps, which are mostly
designed for one specic purpose. One of
those new apps is the Microsoft Sur -
face/Windows 8: ProjectWise Server.
Bentley Map Mobile supports Android
devices, and, later on in 2013, will support
iOS. This tool is meant for eld workers,
who might be non-GIS users. Data is com-
ing in via connected webservices; when
working on a disconnected SQL-database
on a mobile device, Bentleys i-model con-
cept is being called upon. Being able to
work disconnected with Bentley Map Mobile
on portable devices is essential, for instance
in the case of crises or outages.
Please touch
During the Be Inspired event, a please
touch environment was set up with many
examples of devices running the new indus-
trial apps. Attendees could try them out for
themselves, with competent assistance of
course. Bentley Vice President Product
Management Robert Mankowski showed a
live demo of the Android version of Bentley
Map. While most apps currently support
Android, one of Mankowskis app demos
was already running on Apple iOS:
ProjectWise Explorer was shown in action
on an iPad. Features like 3D visualisations
and redlining popped up, and it appeared
that the app was also running ne in dis-
connected mode. Deploying its Enterprise
License Subscription to the max, Crossrail in
London is one of the rst users with its own
App Store containing Bentley iWare. Some
of the industrial apps used by Crossrail
include Structural Synchronizer, Navigator
Pano Viewer, and ProjectWise Explorer.
Next issue
Bentley Systems COO Malcolm Walter con-
vincingly advocated the idea that the venue
of this years Be Inspired Awards celebra-
tion, the beautiful 19
th
century Hotel
Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam, would have
been a sure winner of at least three awards
for its deployment of several building, elec-
trical, and architectural innovations of its
time. If only the Be Inspired Awards had
existed one hundred years ago. In 2013,
the Be Inspired event and awards ceremony
will not be taking place in Amsterdam,
though its new location has not yet been
revealed.
For more information, have a look at:
www.bentley.com/en-US/Corporate/Be+Inspired+Awards+Event
E v e n t
44
During the Be Inspired event, a please touch environment was set up with many examples of devices running Bentleys new industrial apps.
Carollo Engineers used MicroStation,
Bentley Navigator, ProjectWise, and
InRoads to link 12,154 activities
from the contractors Primavera
P6 baseline schedule with the 3D
model to create the 4D visualization.
The Outcome of the 2012 CLGE Students
Contest heralds the 2013 edition!
Winner in category Geodesy, Topography.
Geodetic Works In Research And Development
Plan For Remediation Of Landslides Kostanjek.
Diana Beirevi, Daria Dragevi, Jakov Magani,
Kristina Opati, Ljerka upanovi (Croatia)
The modern surveyor can play an important role in the eld of dis-
aster risk management, although in most cases, the activities will
take place as part of multidisciplinary task forces.
In this student paper, the results of the students eld workshop on
the Kostanjek Landslide were presented.
The whole idea was realised in 2011 and 2012 within the frame of
a scientic Japanese/Croatian project and will continue. The entire
work is important for further implementation of this international pro-
ject which is being implemented in three Croatian universities.
According to the data from the existing investigation, the Kostanjek
Landslide is the largest landslide ever to occur in Croatia and since
its activation in 1963, has caused substantial damage to infrastruc-
ture. The topic has been increasingly important for local administra-
tion which has implemented a plan for recovery after landslides in
2001.
Student workshops, which include the application of different meth-
ods of geodetic surveying in the research of landslides, were imple-
mented in several phases. Each phase, survey method and the
required accuracy was adjusted to the needs of further research.
The application of different surveying methods shows the important
role of geodetic science in the management of high-risk areas such
as landslides.
The work is unique because of the multidisciplinary approach to solv-
ing the problems of rehabilitating the largest landslides in Croatia.
Winner in category GIS and Mapping.
Impact of Persistent Organic Pollutants on human
health and analysis of the damage caused by
them using GIS tools.
Constantin Gisca (Moldova)
The main purpose of this project
is to research the damage
caused by persistent organic
pollutants on the environment
and public health
namely causes for the in -
creas ed number of cancer dis-
ease cases
using Geographic Information
System (GIS) tools.
The lack of an adequate
infrastructure for appropriate-
ly locating, storing and man-
aging dangerous household
waste, i.e. the problem of
Persistent Organic Pollutants
(POPs), is regarded as one of
the most pressing environ-
mental problems. Organic
pollutants have a negative inuence on human health. One of the
negative consequences of POP is the mortality rate increase caused
by cancer.
This paper shows the analysis of POP warehouses in Moldova. High-
risk index warehouses were selected, but also included were those
located close to populated areas. They were surveyed to determine
the adverse effects of POP on human health, namely how it increas-
es the number of cancer diseases.
The following results were achieved:
the surface of soil contaminated by persistent organic pollutants
constitutes approximately 4500 ha. Most of these soils have the
quality index of over 65;
in the districts with the greatest number of cancer diseases, a large
number of warehouses with persistent organic pollutants stored
were identied, 30-50% of these warehouses are located close to
populated areas and 30% have a high risk index;
districts reporting an increase of cancer diseases have a signi-
cant number of warehouses with POPs and the rate of warehous-
es located close to human settlements constitutes 30%.
The results analysed show that persistent organic pollutants present
a great danger for public health and quick intervention is required
to remove them.
Omar-Pierre Soubra, Trimble, Addresses the Croatian winning team in the category Geodesy Topography
Ne ws l e t t e r
46
On 10 October 2012, CLGE presented its first Students Contest Award during the CLGE Students meet-
ing at INTERGEO. In this issue we have produced the abstracts of the two winning papers. The full ver-
sions as well as the other contending papers are available on www.clge.eu. Moreover, the regulations
for the 2013 edition are also available on our website. As well as Students, Young Surveyors may
now take part in the third category entitled Students and Youngsters engagement.
Constatin Gisca from Moldova presents his winning paper
in the category GIS and Mapping
Ne ws l e t t e r
O
n Wednesday 19th September partici-
pants were received by Mayor Fabian
Stang for a reception in the City Hall,
before the formal opening took place on
Thursday 20th September. The opening was
attended by representatives from the Ministry of
Environment, Norwegian Courts Administration,
Norwegian Mapping Authority, and the presi-
dent of CLGE.
The opening ceremony underlined the impor-
tance of good land administration in modern
societies, and that higher education and com-
petence are essential for the land surveyor to
fulll the role in society. Key note speaker at the
congress was Ed Parsons, Geospatial
Technologist at Google. He presented his views
on our technological future. While in former
times the main user of geoinformation has been
the hardhats, that means the military and peo-
ple in the construction industry, it is now the hip-
sters who are increasingly using maps and spa-
tial data in all possible contexts. Ed Parsons
suggested that this trend will continue in the
future.
The Congress was based on Nordic presenta-
tions in four sessions focusing on a) modern
mapping techniques b) 3D and BIM c) infras-
tructure in the underground and d) the land sur-
veyors role in conict prevention/resolution.
Modern mapping techniques: National digital
elevation models are established in several
Nordic countries. The Swedish elevation model
is established by airborne laser scanning and
has a resolution of 0.5 -1 points per m
2
. There
is great emphasis on quality assurance systems,
developed in collaboration with the supplier -
Blom. Accuracy is 3-5 cm in open areas, when
scanning is performed at an altitude of 2000
meters. Also presented in this session was the
major trend with respect to the use of drones
(UAS) for mapping. In the U.S. there are now
more UAS pilots than regular pilots in the U.S.
military. Drone mapping is used for the map-
ping and monitoring of smaller areas/infrastruc-
ture projects. Mobile mapping from road vehi-
cles is also a technology that is developing
rapidly, using kinematic laser scanners rotating
360 degrees. The result is a point cloud which
provides an image of the surface. One advan-
tage of this is that the eld work can be done
rapidly, with high accuracy and with low risk of
injury for the surveyor. In Denmark surveys of
protected natural areas are now conducted by
47
We are inviting all European Bachelor and Master Students to join the
CLGE Students Contest 2013. The full rules can be found on our web-
site www.clge.eu (questions: contest@clge.eu).
Interesting prizes are on offer. You can win a 1000 award, which will
include participation in a major European or Worldwide event orga-
nized by one of our main sponsors.
Two academic categories are available:
Geodesy and Topography
GIS, Mapping and Cadastre (thus this category was opened for
papers about the Cadastre).
The third category concerns Students engagement or Youngsters attrac-
tion to the profession (2010 2013).
In this category both students and young surveyors may apply. The com-
petition is open to anyone who will be younger than 36 years old on
31st December 2013.
In this category, there will also an award of 1000. Additionally, the
winner will be appointed as a special board member of CLGE, in charge
of implementing the project that he or she has designed.
Apply for Edition 2013!
The XXII Nordic Surveyors Congress. Oslo,
September 19-22, 2012.
Yet another smart tradition from the North: the Nordic Surveyors Congress has been held since 1920,
generally every four years. At this years XXII Nordic Surveyors Congress in Oslo, the participants
experienced a comprehensive and extensive program, both academically and socially.
Reception at the Oslo City Hall.
Ne ws l e t t e r
eldwork and aerial photography to collect
information about the natural areas character,
animal and plant life and conditions etc. A new
WebGIS system has been developed for the pro-
ject; if irregularities are found, the area must be
checked in the eld. New methods for the
assessment of forests have been developed by
the Norwegian researcher Erik Nesset. Laser
Scanning is used as a method for creating a ter-
rain model and colour aerial photography is
used for classication. The methods are in use
in several countries in Europe, mostly in
Scandinavia and Finland.
3D and BIM: In connection with the renova-
tion of the National Theatre in Oslo, Statsbygg
initially wanted a 3D laser scanning model of
the facades, and later this was extended to all
inside building elements. This resulted in large
savings and did away with huge paper stacks.
An open question is: how will the point cloud
be used in the future. In Sweden it is now legal
to register 3D properties. 3D properties follow
the same rules as all other properties. The bound-
aries must be described and documented and
a 3D survey must be performed exactly as a
regular survey. There is still no 3D cadastre in
Sweden. The session ended with a presentation
about free geographic data in Finland. There
has been pressure on the Land Survey for 20
years to release their data; this pressure had
increased over the last 2 years. After becoming
a political issue, all data has now been released
and is open to the public. This means that all
laser data, orthophoto and topographic data,
are now available free of charge! After only 3
months, the use of this data has increased 50
fold.
Underground infrastructure: All Nordic
countries have extensive challenges with under-
ground facilities. The underground infrastruc-
tures represent great value. Questions about
compensation for losses that occur, how to
improve the legislation, conditions to put cables
in the underground, need to be answered. The
cadastral surveyor in Sweden can establish a
right for pipelines in a survey. In Finland the
major impact of more extreme weather, caus-
ing damage to the pipelines and blackouts for
longer periods in the affected areas was an
issue. Good overviews in the form of maps and
records are essential to prevent and manage
critical situations. Another key question is how
the underground infrastructure can be affected
by deformation from buildings and structures on
the surface. Also presented was how
Copenhagen has established a system for real-
time measurement and monitoring of deforma-
tions during construction of the new Metro. Large
amounts of data will be collected and all defor-
mations mapped. In Norway there are efforts
to create good cooperation forums between
institutions, to create more effective interfaces
and data exchange.
The land surveyors role in conict
prevention/resolution: This session was
devoted to one of the land surveyors more fun-
damental tasks; conict prevention and con-
ict resolution. The Danish chartered surveyor
provides a thorough description of boundaries
to public records and, thereby, contributes to
conict prevention and possible future con-
icts. A land owner cannot go directly to court
with a boundary dispute in Denmark, as prior
to the court case a survey must be conducted
by a chartered surveyor. Approximately 70
disputes are handled by the chartered survey-
ors every year, with an average of 12% going
to court. The majority of these conicts are
about adverse possession. In Sweden the
cadastral surveyor is a state or local govern-
ment ofcer. Generally the surveyor is a bach-
elor or master within the eld of surveying,
but nowadays lawyers can also become
cadastral surveyors.
Boundaries and rights are handled in the sur-
vey and the Swedish surveyor has the author-
ity to make decisions. Normally surveys are
based on mutual agreements by the parties,
but if there is a dispute the surveyor will make
a decision. In Finland the situation is general-
ly the same as in Sweden for cadastral sur-
veying. The Land Court is an old institution
from the 1700s, and handles all appeals
about cadastral surveys. Since 2010, the Land
Court has also handled land registration
appeals. In Norway there is a special situa-
tion compared to the other Nordic countries.
Local authorities are responsible for ordinary
cadastral surveys, but cannot make decisions
if there are disputes. The Norwegian land con-
solidation courts solve problems and make
decisions in land disputes, and have land sur-
veyors. There is no link between local authori-
ties and the land consolidation court. There
are many conicts about boundaries and
rights in Norway.
In addition to the four sessions with Nordic
speakers, there were several plenary speak-
ers. Lyn Wilson from Historic Scotland pre-
sented how historians have worked with tech-
nical specialists in the terrestrial scanning of
Rosslyn Chapel. David Powell from England
explained how resolving border disputes are
possible even in a country that does not have
accurate surveying and mapping of property
boundaries. Line Langkaas and Per-Erik
Opseth from The Norwegian Mapping
Authority presented plans for the construction
of a new geodetic observatory on Svalbard.
The new observatory will map the movements
of the Earth, the Earths rotation and its pre-
cise location in space and provide basis for
accurate climate monitoring of the Arctic
region. Torbjrn Tveiten from Via Nova pre-
sented the use of 3D and BIM for infrastruc-
ture in model-based design and practical use
in the construction phase of Ring 3 at kern,
a major development project in Oslo. The
congress ended with a technical and social
tour visiting the kern project and the old
Observatory. This observatory was an astro-
nomical observatory for 100 years from
1833, and is the foundation for institutions like
the Norwegian Mapping Authority, Norwegian
Metrology Survey and the Norwegian
Meteorological Institute. Accompanying persons
visited the Munch Museum and Holmenkollen
Ski Museum, and there were the traditional
home visits. At the gala dinner, congress prizes
for excellent work were awarded to young sur-
veyors, Cecilia Rogvall and Camilla Backman
from Sweden, Eivind H. Ramsjord from Norway
and Karin Kolis from Finland.
Read more on the website about the XXII Nordic Congress surveyor here:
http://kongress2012.njkf.no.
Leiv Bjarte Mjs, Chair of the Organizing Committee and CLGE vice-president
48
Kristin Andreasson from Sweden presenting the Swedish surveyor taking a decision when there is a dispute
Februari
14-15 February IV International Conference
Geodesy, Mine Survey and Aerial Photography.
At the turn of the centuries
Novotel-Hotel, Moscow, Russia
Internet: http://con-g.ru/?r=indexen
19-20 February MapInfo Professional Foundation
Level Training Course
CDR Group, Hope, Derbyshire, U.K.
E-mail: sales@cdrgroup.co.uk
Internet: www.cdrgroup.co.uk/train_mi2info.htm
26-28 February Munich Navigation Satellite
Summit
The Residenz Mnchen, Munich, Germany
Internet: www.munich-satellite-navigation-
summit.org/Summit2009
27-28 February International Workshop The Role
of Geomatics in Hydrogeological Risk
Padua, Italy
Internet: www.cirgeo.unipd.it/geomatics4risk
March
04-05 March Powered by INSPIRE/ Safety,
Mobility, Sustainability and more...
Brussels, Belgium
Internet: www.poweredbyinspire.eu
05-06 March MapInfo Professional Advanced
06-08 March GeoViz_Hamburg 2013: Interactive
Maps That Help People Think
Hamburg, Germany
E-mail: geoviz@geomatik-hamburg.de
Internet: www.geomatik-hamburg.de/geoviz
07 March GEO-North
Reebok Stadium, Bolton, U.K.
Internet: www.pvpubs.com/events.php
07-08 March EUROGI Conference 2013
Dublin, Ireland
Internet: www.eurogi.org/conference-2013.html
11-13 March Wavelength 2013
Glasgow, U.K.
E-mail: andy@rspsoc-wavelength.org.uk
Internet: www.rspsoc-wavelength.org.uk/wavelength2013
19-20 March MapInfo Professional Foundation
19-20 March 12. Internationales 3D-Forum Lindau
Lindau, Germany
Internet: www.3d-forum.li
24-28 March ASPRS 2013 Annual Conference
Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, MD,
U.S.A.
Internet: www.asprs.org/Conferences/Baltimore2013
April
03-07 April 11th Vespucci Institute Synthesizing
Population, Health, and Place
Catalina Island, CA, U.S.A.
E-mail: info@vespucci.org
Internet: www.vespucci.org
08-10 April 8th EARSeL IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY WORK-
SHOP
Nantes, France
Internet: www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/lpgnantes/earsel-is-
2013
15-17 April 19th Annual CalGIS Conference
Westin Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.
Internet: www.calgis.org
16-17 April MapInfo Professional Foundation
17-19 April International Forum Integrated
Geospatial Solutions - the Future of Information
Technologies
Moscow, Russia
Internet: www.sovzondconference.ru/2013/eng
18 April FMEdays 2013
Dublin, Ireland
E-mail: fme@conterra.de
Internet: www.fmedays.de/index_en.shtm
21-23 April Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event
(JURSE 2013)
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Internet: www.inpe.br/jurse2013
23-25 April ENC 2013 The European Navigation
Conference
Vienna, Austria
Internet: www.enc2013.org
25-26 April 3D Documentation Conference
Marina Mandarin Hotel, Singapore
Internet: www.3d-documentation-conference-2013.com
May
01-02 May GEO-South
Holiday Inn, Elstree, U.K.
Internet: www.pvpubs.com/events.php
13-16 May Geospatial World Forum
Beurs/World Trade Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
E-mail: info@geospatialworldforum.org
Internet: www.geospatialworldforum.org
14 May FMEdays 2013
Milan, Italy
14-15 May MapInfo Professional Foundation Level
Training Course
15-17 May The fourth China Satellite Navigation
Conference (CSNC 2013)
Wuhan, China
Internet: www.beidou.org/english/news.asp
21-22 May Location Intelligence + Oracle Spatial
and Graph User Conferences 2013
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center,
Washington, D.C.
Internet: www.oracle.com
21-24 May ISPRS Workshop High-Resolution
Earth Imaging for Geospatioal Information
Hannover, Germany
Internet: www.ipi.uni-hannover.de/isprs_hannover2013.html
22-24 May FOSS4G North America 2013
Marriott City Center, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
Internet: http://foss4g-na.org
23 May FMEdays 2013
Fribourg, Switzerland
28 May FMEdays 2013
Brussels, Belgium
29-31 May UDMS 2013, 29TH Urban Data
Management Symposium
University College London, London, U.K.
E-mail: info@udms.net
Internet: www.udms.net
30 May FMEdays 2013
Malmo, Sweden
June
03-06 June Hexagon 2013 (ERDAS, Intergraph,
Leica, Metrology)
Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Internet: http://2012.hexagonconference.com
03-07 June 11th Vespucci Institute Ontologies
and models for integrated assessments of multi-
ple-scale processes
Fiesole, Italy
E-mail: info@vespucci.org
Internet: www.vespucci.org
04 June FMEdays 2013
Barcelona, Spain
06 June FMEdays 2013
Madrid, Spain
11-12 June MapInfo Professional Advanced Level
Training Course
Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to: calendar@geoinformatics.com
C a l e n d a r 2 0 1 3 / Ad v e r t i s e r s I n d e x
DATEM www.datem.com 16
ERDAS www.erdas.com 9
Esri www.esri.com 52
FOIF www.foif.com.cn 41
Geneq www.geneq.com 20
GEO-North/GEO-South www.pvpubs.com 26
GIS Research UK 2013 http://liverpool.gisruk.org 39
International Forum www.sovzondconference.ru 45
Leica Geosystems www.leica-geosystems.com 2
Microsoft UltraCam www.iFlyUltraCam.com 13
Optech www.optech.com 51
Pacic Crest www.paciccrest.com/adl 17
Riegl www.riegl.com 24
SPAR www.sparpointgroup.com 27
SuperMap www.supermap.com 49
Topcon www.topcon.eu 21
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