Skip to main content

Laser mapping speeds up survey measurement

British scanning company 3D Laser Mapping is hoping to benefit from a £3 million ($5 million) fund announced recently by the UK government for police forces to purchase laser scanning technology for accident recording and investigation.
February 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
British scanning company 1639 3D Laser Mapping is hoping to benefit from a £3 million ($5 million) fund announced recently by the UK government for police forces to purchase laser scanning technology for accident recording and investigation.

Use of scanners and point cloud software to collect data is speeding up traditional survey measurement and, on motorways particularly, this can save hours of disruption when traffic is held up, a major benefit to the economy. Laser scanning works in low light, night conditions and bad weather and collects far more data than a total station.

3D Laser Mapping has already supplied one of the UK's road death investigation units with equipment, in this case a Riegl VZ-400 which can produce high quality graphics and detailed plans of collision scenes for court use.

The company claims greater detail and colour compared to other laser scanners.

The VZ-400 has echo digitisation and online waveform analysis for a high performance with accuracies claimed of 5mm at ranges of up to 600m measuring up to 122,000 points/sec in a 100 by 360° field of view.

The evaluation of multiple targets combined with a reliable, robust and lightweight construction makes the VZ-400 also suited to civil engineering the firm says.



















For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Fast and accurate control with Topcon
    September 20, 2021
    Topcon’s sophisticated GT Series ultrasonic robotic total stations are said to be fast, accurate and versatile
  • Faster surveying with Leica Geosystems
    June 16, 2016
    Leica Geosystems says that the new LS15 tool can be used to complete all the key stages for levelling. The system has a high accuracy of 0.2mm, which can be achieved by aiming at the target via the colour touch display and pressing the measuring button. Key working features include an electronic bubble and tilt checks prior to each measurement and autofocus. These are said to help to reduce fatigue over a shift and help minimise the risk of working errors, ensuring consistently high accuracy of measureme
  • Xtend your site protection
    April 24, 2013
    Vital Technology has launched Xtend - a mobile rapid deployment CCTV and onboard video analytics tower system which provides surveillance and intelligent scene analysis at locations that are proving vulnerable to theft, trespass and vandalism. Described as purpose-built to cope with difficult terrain and weather conditions, the ruggedised solution incorporates a hydraulic mast (extendable to 9m) and 360° rotation tower housed in a trailer base unit with an environmentally-friendly 3000rpm generator. Xtend i
  • Sokkia’s accurate surveying tool
    April 24, 2019
    Sokkia has widened its iM line of manual total stations with the introduction of the iM-50. The firm says that the tool can be used for jobs such as site layout or as-built survey and claims that the unit delivers high-end performance and functionality. The iM-50 EDM features a prism range of up to 4,000m and up to 500m in reflectorless mode with a 1.5 mm/ 2ppm accuracy. The company claims that the beam can measure walls, corners, manholes on the road surface, even chain-link fences and tree branches