Mobile Mapping: The Future of Digital Reality
The term "digital twin" has become established in various industries and pursues the goal of mapping our physical world in digital form. This transformation is time-consuming and cost-intensive and will be with us for many years to come. Therefore, it is crucial to find efficient ways to digitize this reality. This is where mobile mapping comes into play. With various carrier systems, environments can be captured faster and more cost-effectively than with static solutions. However, data quality often suffers when moving around. In addition, mobile systems are usually tied to specific platforms, which limits their flexibility.
Zoller + Fröhlich tries to close these gaps with their new developments. The claim is no less than to create maximum flexibility between the systems and at the same time to achieve very high accuracies that were previously not possible with mobile measurements. Here, the versatility of the applications poses a great challenge. The conditions for scanning in an industrial hall are fundamentally different from the environmental conditions on roads or on rails. Therefore, universal solutions offered by Zoller + Fröhlich with the Z+F FlexScan and Z+F PROFILER systems are of great advantage and cost-effective.
Z+F FlexScan: The mobile mapping SLAM platform
Accuracy often requires static scans from multiple angles. Mobile solutions, on the other hand, focus on capture efficiency. Zoller + Fröhlich's Z+F FlexScan platform combines the advantages of static scans with the efficiency of mobile systems. This is ideal for projects in architecture, facility management, process industries, cultural heritage and forensics.
The flexibility of the Z+F FlexScan 22 allows it to be used on a variety of support systems, whether as a backpack for hard-to-reach areas, on mobile systems for simpler environments, or on tripods for static scans. The system features a panoramic camera to colorize mobile scan data and offers seamless integration with Z+F LaserControl software or export to standard formats for third-party software.
The measurement accuracy of the Z+F FlexScan 22 benefits from the quality of the Z+F IMAGER 5016 high-end static scanner and achieves an accuracy of approximately 2.5 mm in the SLAM result.
With 10,000 points per scan profile, the finest details in 3D representations are captured and by adding control points, even the highest accuracy requirements can be met.
Z+F PROFILER 9020C: The mobile 2D laser scanner with integrated cameras
The Z+F PROFILER 9020C is a 2D laser scanner that can be flexibly installed on a wide variety of mobile platforms intended for road, rail and more. In addition, the Z+F PROFILER 9020C is the world's first mobile 2D laser scanner with integrated cameras. With four 5-megapixel cameras covering the entire 360° scanning range, color point clouds can be generated without the need for external cameras, so that color images can be taken at the same time as the geometry is being used. The images are characterized by high color fidelity and high dynamic range.
Installation is simple, requiring only a USB-3 cable for data transfer and control. The cameras are fully calibrated and perfectly matched to the scanner, further increasing accuracy. With 267 profiles per second, 2 million points per second, a range of 182 meters and a 360° field of view, the Z+F PROFILER 9020C offers impressive technical highlights.
Conclusion
Mobile mapping promises to shape the future of digital reality. Companies like Zoller + Fröhlich are setting new standards for flexibility and accuracy in mobile measurements. Their innovative solutions, including the Z+F FlexScan 22 and the Z+F PROFILER 9020C, enable efficient and precise mapping of environments in various application areas. These developments help to realize the digital twin of our world step by step and open up new opportunities for research, planning and innovation.
