Visitors and participants to the 11th International LiDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF) held at the Astor Crown Plaza 
Hotel in New Orleans, La. February 7-9 were amazed by GeoDigital International, Inc.’s, latest achievement in mobile geospatial and survey data acquisition and processing.
ILMF attendees were shuttled off site Tuesday, February 8 to a special parking lot where they had the opportunity to view, touch and explore GeoDigital’s Mobile Acquisition Platform – MAP, the only mobile acquisition and processing truck of its kind in the world. The system comes complete with a helicopter, data processing suite, GeoDigital TCOR LiDAR and camera systems, plus a kitchen, bathroom and shower for a crew of five.
GeoDigital International Inc., Hamilton Ontario and Lompoc California, is the leading North American provider of Airborne Right of Way (ROW) and asset management services to the energy & infrastructure industries, entertained visitors with refreshments on a rather chilly February evening in New Orleans but wowed them with MAP’s capability of traveling nonstop over 600 miles in quick response for acquisition and remote site processing.
“MAP is designed to carry a helicopter and all the systems to remote process from anywhere in North America. Built around a highly customized utility trailer, MAP has 12,000 cubic feet of storage, maintenance, and operational space to support a five person acquisition team remotely,” said Alastair Jenkins, CEO, GeoDigital. “Central to MAP’s capabilities is the helicopter which can be configured with any of GeoDigital TCOR LiDAR and camera systems. Whether to identify vegetation encroachments for a power company or acquiring base mapping data for an engineering client, MAP’s onboard helicopter can dispatch at a moments notice to virtually anywhere in North America.”
MAP can acquire over 100 miles per day of corridor or over 50 square miles per day of wide area mapping. Due to the self-contained nature and versatile design of MAP, it is able to relocate as needed and move to another job location if the situation demands it. For example, if weather conditions are a problem at its current location, the entire systems can redeploy to another location if priorities change quickly. In addition to conventional survey acquisition, MAP’s ability to mobilize quickly makes it the perfect platform not just for engineering projects but also for post disaster mapping and relief missions.
MAP has the ability to remotely process data acquired each day with over ten terabytes of data storage as well as a complete network of onboard servers to handle any level of post acquisition processing that is required. In addition to its onboard computing capabilities, MAP has a highly advanced remote data link that enables remote access to data captured for QA/QC purposes.
The MAP system is able to track the crew and aircraft in real time and uploads deliverables to a secure web portal with client authenticated logins, providing clients with rapid access to time sensitive data, reports, change management data, and other asset management needs.
About GeoDigital:
GeoDigital International Inc. and its predecessor companies have a 20 year history in airborne mapping for the Utility industry. They were instrumental in developing video mapping, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and associated services for the electric and gas pipeline industries. GeoDigital has an experienced and proven team that provides leading-edge solutions for mapping, vegetation inspection and line rating & clearance analysis services to customers throughout North America.
