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ASPRS Meeting Looks at Past, Future

Airborne 1 was pleased to host the SW Regional Technical Meeting at its El Segundo headquarters on March 26, 2008. Airborne 1 CEO Todd Stennett opened the meeting, welcoming a crowd of about fifty ASPRS members from across the region. Some attendees had travelled from as far away as Mexico. He showed a flyover video using LiDAR mapping data in Google Earth, and briefly noted huge changes in the mapping industry as a result of technological advances like Google Earth, GPS, and further changes that are likely to result as the demand for location-based services grows.

Lee Harbers, President of the ASPRS Southwest US Region provided the keynote address. He emphasized a recurring theme throughout the meeting—that while technological advances have transformed the industry, it’s important to remember the industry’s roots.

He enthusiastically stressed that the SW regional group is alive and well in his 37th year as a member. In that time, he noted, he’s watched the tools of the industry change from aerial photos to imagery, and from pencil manuscripts to CADD.

He acknowledged the students in the audience, emphasizing that “students are the backbone of the Society.”

“The business used to be all about competition,” he said. “Now, there’s a need for sharing capabilities, and competitors have to communicate with each other in order to be successful.”

Online Data Sources for High Accuracy Airborne-GPS Missions

Alan Frank, Vice-President of Johnson-Frank & Associates, presented the first technical discussion, which examined online sources of free data. Frank noted that, like Harbers, he is also an ASPRS “veteran”, having been in the industry for 33 years. He educated the crowd about the various sources of free data, including the California Spatial Reference Center, and the National CORS Network.

Airborne-GPS Mission without Local Base Stations

Jas Arnold of Rick Engineering focused on Airborne-GPS missions without local base stations. He pointed out the ways that GPS has opened up the field and revolutionized surveying.

“There are 24+ satellites circling the earth,” he said. “They allow us to generate positioning data without any information from the ground.”

Positions of satellites are influenced by many different factors; ocean currents and solar weather can cause small positional changes in satellites. He pointed out the need for a precise emphemeris that takes these factors into account to inform the formula that “nails down where the satellites are.”

He explained that precise point positioning is offered for free by the Canadian government. It’s a spatial reference system whereby a user can put data in it, and it’ll return the user’s position, similar to OPUS.

LiDAR Applications

Todd Stennett followed with a presentation on LiDAR applications. He described how LiDAR (laser mapping) can save various industries money in applications such as:

1. mapping utility corridors
2. vegetation analysis for the utility industry-vegetation gets in the way of powerlines and causes brownouts. Investing in mapping can save millions in the long run.
3. forestry applications for agencies such as USFS
   1. paper companies doing inventory assessment (automating an arcane system)
   2. mapping assessments can save between $40-200 million per year
4. urban planning.

Stennett surmised that urban planning would be bigger than any of the other applications, due to the growth in location-based services and other GIS applications. “This is the future,” he said.

Latest Advances in Aerial Digital Sensors

The latest advances in aerial digital sensors were addressed by Alistair Stuart from Intergraph Corporation, a photogrammetric firm, and Shawn Slade of Leica Geosystems Inc. Stuart described how DMC (Digital Mapping Camera) systems have evolved to the point where there is no need for a separate laptop computer, and DMC systems provide real/time control of multiple sensors. DMC systems are currently being used for everything from very high altitude projects, to small-scale county/state projects. Slade presented information about Leica’s ADS40-their second generation sensor with upgrades such as higher sensitivity and integrated workflow.

John Parker from Woolpert discussed Woolpert’s oblique aerial view imagery solution, called SmartView, a custom, state-of-the-art digital camera system. Oblique photography enhances surveying by putting a terrain’s features into better context. He explained Woolpert’s unique continuous oblique image-based concept, which uses a “mosaic’ technique that improves upon traditional frame-by-frame image gathering.

Dr. Stewart Walker of BAE Systems, National Director of the ASPRS Southwest US Region, presented the final remarks and tied everything up by congratulating the speakers and closed what proved to be a highly successful meeting.

Photos

Todd Stennett and Bryant Bertrand of Airborne 1, taking a break from the seminars

Lee Harbers, President of the ASPRS Southwest US Region

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