Thursday, August 26, 2010

Velodyne Introduces HDL-32E LiDAR Sensor

Morgan Hill, CA (August 23, 2010) Velodyne Lidar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of high definition LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors, today announced the introduction of the HDL-32E to meet the demand for a smaller, lighter, and less expensive product for autonomous vehicle and mobile mapping applications.

http://www.velodyne.com/lidar/hdlproducts/hdl32e.aspx

The HDL-32E extends the core technology developed for the revolutionary HDL-64E introduced in 2007. The HDL-32E measures just 5.9 inches high by 3.4 inches wide, weighs less than three pounds and is designed to meet stringent military and automotive environmental specifications. It features up to 32 lasers aligned over a 40 Vertical Field of View (from +10 to -30 degrees), and generates 800,000 distance points per second. The HDL-32E rotates 360 degrees and provides measurement and intensity information over a range of five centimeters to 100 meters, with a typical accuracy of better than +/- 2 cm. The result is a rich, high definition 3D point cloud that provides autonomous vehicles and mobile mapping applications orders of magnitudes more useful environmental data than conventional LiDAR sensors.


About Velodyne
Velodyne LiDAR, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of high definition LiDAR sensors. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, the company's HDL-64E and HDL-32E sensors are used in a variety of military and commercial autonomous vehicle applications as well as 3-D mapping, surveying and other applications.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Create a new Job in Topcon TopSURV

1. To create a new job, tap Job > New Job or tap the New button on the Open Job screen during initialimage startup. The New Job screen displays. Enter the Name of the job and corresponding information (that is, the name of the surveyor and any necessary comments). The date is stored automatically. Tap Next to move to the next screen. At any stage, select the Finish button to create a new job. See the following sections to create a new job for your mode of survey.

A Job file contains all the pertinent data for the work being done; settings of the performed work and information on the Survey Configuration.

Tap Finish at any time to make the new job current and use the settings from the previously open job.

A Survey Configuration is a set of settings, such as instrument parameters or radio settings, which are independent of the job (one configuration can be used on several jobs). Configuration settings are applied to the equipment only after opening a screen that measures and stores data in the job file.

Survey configurations are stored in the Styles.tsstyles file in the TopSURV directory.

2. By default all job files are stored in the Job folder of the TopSURV directory. To change the location of the job being created, tap Browse on the New Job screen.

3. On the Survey Style screen, select the Survey image Configuration, for both the GPS+ and TS and tap Next.

A Survey Configuration is a set of parameters that describe work conditions and depend upon the instrument used for the survey. The last Open configuration will initially display.

Selecting a Configuration

A new configuration is performed with the help of a Wizard.

When creating a GPS+ configuration, use pre-defined configurations or create new ones. The pre-defined configurations are listed in drop-down menus in the corresponding fields. In the GPS+ Configuration field, choose one of the pre-defined configurations or tap the List button to create a new one or edit the parameters of an existing configuration. The Configurations screen displays. Once the survey configuration has been selected, other job settings can be selected by tapping Next on the Survey Style screen.

Coordinate System

1. On the Coord System screen set the parimageameters of the coordinate system used: the projection, the Datum, and/or Geoid, then tap Next.

Adding a Geoid File

Geoid is a physical reference surface. Its shape reflects the distribution of mass inside the earth. Geoid undulations are important for converting GPS-derived ellipsoidal height differences to orthometric height differences.

Install the geoid file on the controller prior to adding it to the list.

Global geoid files can be opened and truncated in Topcon Link to fit the file to the job area.

Some geoid files can be installed on the controller during TopSURV installation. They are provided to the user with the TopSURV installation program as “.gif” files.

To add a geoid file to the drop—down list in the Geoids field of the Coordinate System screen, tap the List button next to this field.

1. On the Geoid List screen, this is initially imageempty, press the Add button.

2.On the Add Geoid screen, select a Geoid tile from the controller directory to view the boundaries of the geoid application. Select Geoid 99/2003, Australian, Canadian 2000, Canadian 95, Geoid File Format, Mexico 97, Sweden, Denmark, Dutch2004 Files, or Norwegian Files.

3. Press OK to return to the Geoid List screen with the geoid tile added. This list corresponds to the Geoids drop-down list in the Coord System screen.

Grid to/from Ground Transformation

If necessary, perform the Grid to Ground coordinate transformation.

A ground projection is a grid mapping projection rescaled to convert point coordinates to another reference surface (up to the average project elevation) to produce near ground distance values. The ground system can be rotated and shifted relative to the grid system. The ground coordinates can be converted back to the grid projection.

It is very important that you understand the various factors and methods for “Grid to Ground” scaling prior to using this option.

Unitsimage

Set the distance and angle units of the job on the Units screen and tap Next. For the Total Station mode, also select the temperature and pressure units.

Display

Figure 7. Display

On the Display screen select the Display parameters: the type of Coimage ordinates displayed, the plane coordinates order, the reference direction for Azimuth and representation type and the method for displaying position on the Centerline (Station or Chainage). If the Station is selected as representation type to display position on the CL, set the Full Station value. Then tap Next.
Alarms

On the Alarms screen, check and enable the Audible Alarm field to enable a sound for alarms in the Controller, Receiver, or Total Station. Place the check marks, where necessary.

Tap Finish to save for the newly created job