Nottingham, UK, 03 March 2008 – 3D Laser Mapping has successfully completed a rigorous field test of the StreetMapper mobile laser system on behalf of the Danish Road Directorate, which resulted in accuracies of better than 13mm.

 
The survey of a stretch of dual carriageway just outside Copenhagen was undertaken to demonstrate the accuracy and coverage of mobile mapping system compared to traditional survey techniques. The StreetMapper system which uses a series of vehicle mounted lasers combined with an on board global positioning system achieved virtually like for like results when compared against readings taken from a stationary GPS receiver, Precision Alignment Levelling and Total Station surveying.
 
The Danish Road Directorate, part of the Ministry of Transport, is responsible for the management of Denmark’s National Roads that carry almost 30% of the country’s total road based transport volume. The Construction Unit undertakes maintenance of the existing network, including rebuilding, and the construction of major, as well as smaller, new roads and this requires highly accurate and detailed surveys, specifically measurements of elevation. Current survey techniques, for example manual surveying using Total Stations, are slow and disruptive, not to mention dangerous due to the existing traffic on the highway.
 
“For this trial StreetMapper surveyed a series of control points. Each point had been previously measured by the Danish Road Directorate using traditional survey techniques in order to obtain exceptionally accurate readings; better than 10mm in both plan and elevation,” said Dr Graham Hunter, Managing Director of 3D Laser Mapping. “When we compared the StreetMapper readings against the control measurements we found the results were comparable. The result was 10mm compared to the control points and 12.3mm compared to the surveyed points. This is a significant achievement considering the additional benefits offered by the StreetMapper system, which include increased speed and coverage of surveying, better passibility on the road during survey and improved safety for survey operatives.”
 
StreetMapper uses well-proven laser scanning technology to capture highly accurate measurements at speeds of up to 70 km per hour. A series of laser scanners can be mounted on virtually any vehicle and arranged to suit the specific requirements of the survey project. Each scanner has a range of 150 metres, an 80-degree field of view and can capture up to 10,000 measurements per second. When combined with an on board Global Positioning System StreetMapper can achieve positional accuracies up to 3 centimetres within the data. 
 
StreetMapper was jointly developed by 3D Laser Mapping and German based guidance and navigation specialist IGI mbH. 3D Laser Mapping is a specialist in laser scanning solutions, the Riegl Premier Distributor for the UK, Ireland and sub-Saharan Africa and the leading distributor of TerraScan software.  3D Laser Mapping integrates laser scanner hardware systems with their own software and peripherals to create robust solutions for sectors such as mapping, mining and manufacturing.