October 24, 2017

3D Target's SCANFLY lidar mounts on any kind of vehicle

3D Target’s lidar sensor SCANFLY has gotten a redesign, which includes a new layout, more resources, new features, and increased storage capability.

Initially developed to provide 3D laser-mapping capabilities to the emerging UAV market, SCANFLY is an ultra-compact and lightweight solution based on Velodyne LiDAR VLP-16 Puck and OXTS IMU that mounts on any kind of aerial, terrestrial, or marine vehicle.

New mounting kit

With SCANFLY V2, 3D Target introduces a new Universal Mounting Plate kit and a backpack equipped with a 4-hour autonomy battery pack. This opens up the possibility for users to easily switch from vehicle-mounted mode to backpack option and use it indoors. The backpack offers a INS mode (with inertial system and GNSS) and a SLAM mode for automatic indoor localization and mapping.

This is not the first time we see a system such as this one. Last year, we wrote an article covering 3D Laser Mapping ROBIN LiDAR system, which is basically a very similar solution to 3D Target SCANFLY.

Specs

The lidar Sensor features a dual return and a 16-channel laser scanner that captures 300,000 points per second. It has a range of 100 meters, with a 360º horizontal and 10/15º vertical field of view.

The new version of the SCANFLY will include one or two 5-12 megapixel Global Shutter RGB cameras to add RGB values your point clouds, and a backpack-only 360° panoramic camera with more than 90 megapixels. It will also feature an extra-long Wi-Fi connection up to 150 Mbps; new push-pull Connectors for power, external connections, and camera control; 32 GB SSD internal storage + 32 GB extended storage capability with External USB 3.0 key.

SmartSurvey

The company is also launching a SCANFLY dedicated application, SmartSurvey, which allows users to control the sensor remotely. It also provides real-time point-cloud streaming as well as RTK correction of the position/trajectory in real-time directly on a computer.

Lidar

IT and videogames are João's topics of interest since a very early age. Videogames, the Internet, game consoles and computers became his normal toys, as result of being the son of a journalist writing about the infancy of the Web, the games industry and hardware in general. Small game reviews published on the first Portuguese computer games magazine, back in the early 2000s ignited a passion – writing - he now pursues, along with his other interests: programming, web designing and hardware. Technology in general makes him tick.