Some of you might be aware of this but it is new to me.
My youngest step daughter who has a masters in Civil Engineering has gone back to work part time. She works at a small startup firm that reduces data taken by a low flying helicopter over railroad right of way. The 'Copter slowly flies at about 150 feet above the ground. The data is from GPS, photos, LIDAR and probably a couple other sensors.
I was amazed at the data reduction she does. She has two 21 inch LCD panels in front of her. Some kind of CAD software. It is something to see the different layers she makes up from the data. Railhead height, roadbed, structures, control boxes, under passes, over passes, culverts, power lines, probably stray sticks, you name it. I think she is doing some data reduction for BNSF and CSX.
Here is a link a railroad that has done this.
http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=625
I was not aware anything like this was going on but it is explained in the above article.
Rich
Rich:
The technology is still in its infancy and is prone to flaws. Surveyors are getting very leary of airborne gps/lidar in the way it is sold to the civil engineers. Most civil engineers cannot tell you the difference between accuracy and precision. They merrily take the data (its got coordinates, right?) and manipulate the data to do their design and then are dumbfounded when trying to lay it out on the ground and mysteriously nothing works. Same thing happens with GPS technology and civil engineers. Throw in now that many CE’s graduating from school now do not even have a single surveying course and you have the foundation for future troubles.(Don’t get me wrong, the technology will grow to be more reliable. The people using the technology have got to better understand the data they are being provided.)
It’s a great planning tool and an emerging technology now which is a good thing for CE/daughter. Hope she’s watching us out on the ground and seeing what we are encountering. Hope she is watching the other technologies in similar fields as it grows and evolves as well.