Houston, TX April 17, 2017 Viametris, Louvern, France, a leader in mobile scanning technology announced at Spar 3D in Houston last week the introduction of their new Mobile Scanning System for Vehicles – vMS3D. The Mobile Mapping system is dedicated to outdoors, roads and urban areas utilizing unique technology for localization not dependent upon GNSS receivers and poor GNSS reception quality is no longer a problem.
This technology is no longer tightly dependent on GNSS receivers. Based on unique technology, and years of expertise in indoor mobile scanning, Viametris has become the leading expert in mobile scanning in GNSS-denied environments. Mobile Mapping Systems allow rapid measurements, faster than any other technologies. But one main issue remains: what happens in urban canyons and poor GNSS cover areas. Thanks to post-processing software PPiMMS and improved trajectory using Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) technology, Viametris has addressed the issues of poor or no GNSS coverage.
SLAM is an algorithm developed for the robotics industry however it became evident that it can be applied to other disciplines. The principle uses either image or LiDAR based localization to determine the distance between the sensor and surrounding objects. Feature based SLAM uses corners or particular shapes to calculate the position of the sensor however in areas without feature to locate such as land fields or wide open area this approach falls short, said Jerome Ninot, president and founder of Viametris. LiDAR based SLAM uses all points from the LiDAR point cloud and finds the best position of the sensor by minimizing the difference from frame to frame. The advantage of this approach is the ability to scan any type of environment. Moreover it is easier to merge it with other approaches such as integrating IMUs or DMIs and ground control points to achieve greater accuracy in areas not suited to SLAM.
PPiMMS post processing software manages the dataset coming from the system. Its mission is to calculate, control and improve the trajectories. The user can manually add GCPs to constrain the result when GNSS reception is poor. But, in most cases, the user will be able to include postprocessed global positions using GNSS Post-Processing Software. Additionally, the panoramic camera can be used to colorize the point cloud using PPiMMS.
Benefits of vMS 3D from Viametris:
Urban Canyon and Poor GNSS reception
Panoramic Images and High Definition 360 scanners
Absolute accuracy using GCPs or GNSS
Easy to use Fast setup and initialization
The vMS 3D is designed for surveys in any condition including Urban Canyons with poor GNSS signal, Highways and Freeways, Large scale areas with open-skies, Construction site with open-sky areas, and Optimal GNSS reception.
Applications:
Traditional land surveys: Topometric measurement for as-built or Construction progress
Autonomous vehicle advanced maps: Knowledge road database to help robots to relocalize themselves on the road
Mapping and Navigation: To create itineraries of trucks or special vehicles, measuring outages and localizing POI
Road Inventory: Knowledge of road features need efficient tools to collect them efficiently
About Viametris:
Viametris was created in 2007 in Laval, France to capitalize on the results of its founders, Jerome Ninot, doctoral thesis, (Recognition and Automatic Image Analysis for Road Environment Scanning). Their challenge to find solutions to improve acquisition processes and data management for Lidar based mapping, point cloud management, and integration of subsequent data collection. In addition to the new vMS3D outdoor mobile mapping system, in 2011 Viametris developed an indoor mapping system using 3 lasers and a panoramic camera. One of the three laser scanners are oriented to continuously measure its surroundings. Viametris proprietary trajectory software calculates the scanners motion using the data from the continuous measurement. The iMS3D is a hand push cart mounted with sensors that generates point clouds and images with centimeter accuracy at walking speed. The iMS3D captures up to 500,000 SQ FT per day and calibrates imagery with point cloud data even in GNSS-denied areas using SLAM technology. In 2015 Viametris released the second version of the iMS3D as well as the iMS2D, a portable handheld 2D interior scanner.
