Considerate of this edition’s wide-scale distribution at Intergeo 2024, held in Stuttgart, Germany on 24-26 September, we have endeavored to imbue the following pages with some European flavor. On page 48 you’ll find part II in the series “Elevations for the Nations” by Ada Perello of EAASI1, reporting on five more countries’ approaches to national elevation datasets. Two of them, Belgium and UK, have regional solutions, so it’s a complex picture.
A quick note regarding this month’s coverstory: in 2022, I visited Vexcel Imaging in Graz, Austria, after the ISPRS Congress in Nice and the YellowScan “LiDAR for Drone” user conference near Montpellier, on the way to my unforgettable day at RIEGL in Horn, Austria. I spent a morning with CTO Dr. Michael Gruber, who showed me round and discussed Vexcel Imaging in depth. Impressive though its airborne cameras were, there was no direct lidar connection. Now there is. At Intergeo in 2023, Vexcel Imaging announced a new product, UltraCam Dragon 4.1, which incorporates a RIEGL VQ-680 OEM 2.4 MHz lidar sensor, integrated into the same housing as the RGBN camera system. Previously, Vexcel Imaging customers had flown separate lidar sensors in their aircraft alongside the cameras, but now they can work with a single sensor—a world-class integration, indeed. Secondly, Michael retired recently, having been a company stalwart for 30 years. We should honor his contributions.
Beginning on page 26, we offer an account by Adina Gillespie and Layton Hobbs of Hexagon describing the creation of a digital twin of the city of Nottingham in England. The end-users are departments of Nottingham City Council and the beneficiaries are the citizenry. It’s enthralling to learn about further data being added to the digital twin, which is based on the imagery and lidar flown by Bluesky International (5 cm/30 ppsm), and how the digital twin is being used.
The Nottingham digital twin is above ground. This could change. The Brits have become concerned that a hole is dug every seven seconds, threatening the web of underground pipes and cables, about which information is scanty2. There are 60,000 strikes per year, costing $3.1bn. Whereas the national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, has been making superb maps since the 18th century, there has been no corresponding subterranean responsibility. Hence the Geospatial Commission is promoting a National Underground Asset Register, a digital map of the trenches, cables and pipes that lie beneath Britain. The project began in 2019 as a pilot in London and the north-east of England; it should cover the whole of Britain by the end of 2025. It’s voluntary, however, so who will contribute? Who will have access? Is this a nationwide opportunity for ground-penetrating radar?
Readers may remember a recent article on standards and guidelines by Qassim Abdullah3. I am delighted to report that Marc Cheves, editor emeritus of our sister magazine, The American Surveyor, admired it as much as I did and has published it too4. Marc particularly liked Qassim’s clarification of nomenclature, especially the term “absolute accuracy”. Thank you, Qassim.
Leafing through the latest issue of xyHT, I was pleased to see an article about Italian supplier Stonex5. It is active in North America and its huge portfolio includes lidar. Stonex attends most trade shows, so some background is useful. I was drawn particularly, however, to the caption of one of the graphics, which reads, “Stonex emphasizes repair, service and support.” Earlier the same day, I had enjoyed recording one of The LIDAR Magazine Podcasts, on which my guest was Dr. Tristan Allouis, CEO of the French UAV-lidar integrator YellowScan. Tristan used almost exactly the same words! He also described the development of the topobathymetric sensor that YellowScan uses in its Navigator system6. This was developed in-house: thus YellowScan is not only an integrator but also a manufacturer.
There’s a host of fascinating material in Photonics Spectra. The lidar supplier Seyond7, for example, has partnered with the city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia to create safer streets and smoother traffic flow8. Seyond’s Falcon K lidar sensors, which operate at 1550 nm and have a maximum range of 500 m, have been deployed at selected intersections. Seyond is a Silicon Valley lidar firm in the automotive space, where it is well established, delivering over 200,000 units in 2023. It also offers Robin W, a shorter-range (905 nm; 150 m), wide field-of-view model.
For many years, the massive potential of the automotive market has motivated lidar suppliers to develop lighter, smaller, less expensive sensors. Our geospatial industry has benefited, because these offer combinations of performance, weight and power consumption ideal for UAV-lidar. We are blessed with imaginative, energetic and talented UAV-lidar integrators, several of which have been featured in LIDAR Magazine. They monitor these sensors as they emerge and select candidates for their integrations. It’s gratifying to learn, therefore, that vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which we have mentioned in editorials before, are developing apace, targeted primarily at the automotive market. VCSELs have been around for decades, but current advances, mainly beyond my understanding, are dramatic9. Interestingly, VCSELs enjoyed a boost in popularity when they were deployed in Apple’s iPhone/iPad “Face ID” feature in 2017.
Doubtless many readers receive emails from Markets and Markets, announcing new industry reports. Have you noticed the impressive growth rates that many of these reports announce? There’s a recent one on machine vision that predicts a CAGR of 7.3% from 2023 to 2028. Others on AI cameras, 3D printing, 3D cameras, AI sensors, UAVs and hyperspectral imaging give CAGR estimates of 23.9%, 16.4%, 20.3%, 41.6%, 9.9% and 12.6% respectively over similar periods. What does this mean for lidar? Not very much in the direct sense, but there’s an underlying message that those technologies which abut our geospatial world are vibrant. We will be able, therefore, to draw on these as building blocks for our purposes. Two reports in areas that already use lidar as one of the enabling technologies, people counting and the automated guided vehicle industry (in applications such as warehouses), give figures of 11.6% and 6.9%. Thanks for reading. Wishing you and yours a bountiful autumn season.
