Yesterday, Trimble announced the next generation of its Trimble Indoor Mobile Mapping Solution, TIMMS. The system, which is manufactured and sold by Applanix, is designed to speed the production of accurate maps in difficult-to-navigate indoor spaces where GPS is unavailable. The new generation of the system, like its predecessor, comes equipped with LiDAR and spherical video sensors as well as functionality like geo-location and the ability to translate captured data directly into 2D and 3D models.
In developing the TIMMS 2, Applanix has accounted for customer feedback from the first generation and made significant changes to the system to improve ease of use.
Lighter, Smaller
“On the hardware front,“ Applanix President Steve Woolven explained to SPAR, “the new generation of TIMMS is significantly smaller, lighter and more maneuverable than the previous product.” Due to that smaller size and a newly shortened wheelbase, he says, “It can easily be carried up and down stairways; it can be maneuvered around fixtures and furniture within a room.”
TIMMS 2’s lower weight and smaller size makes it usable in a much larger range of indoor spaces, including those with tight corners, closets, and catwalks, and even spaces where no elevator is available to transport the mapping system between levels.
Woolven explained that “it is simple for a single operator to capture large projects unaided and in a short amount of time.“ For solid numbers, he says that an operator can capture “upwards of 250,000 square feet of indoor space per day.”
Applanix has also tweaked the hardware to help reduce the physical challenges of indoor mobile data collection. They changed the location of the battery and other heavy equipment to increase stability, and moved the spherical imaging camera to sit directly above the operator to keep him or her out of the picture and maximize the amount of usable data captured. They have also replaced the laptop interface with an easier to use tablet.
Processing Improvements
Woolven emphasized that Applanix has put a great deal of effort into improving ease of use on the processing side, too. They’ve updated their software workflows, including offering full integration with Applanix’ POSPac post-processing suite and Trimble’s Business Center (TBC) platform. As Woolven explains it, full integration with TBC will allow “operators and data processors to produce and share mapping and modeling products much more quickly and efficiently than the previous version of TIMMS.”
Trimble touts the system as “an effective and high-productivity indoor mapping solution for buildings and facilities of all shapes and sizes, including large or small areas, multi-level, industrial, or commercial spaces.” They list possible candidates for indoor mapping as public buildings, industrial facilities, transportation hubs, retail spaces, entertainment venues, and residential properties.
Essentially, the TIMMS 2 is designed so that a single operator can quickly and efficiently map nearly any man-made indoor space.
Woolven told SPAR that “from shipping, set-up, maneuvering and data collection, to post-mission processing and delivery of data to end users, the user experience is much more efficient–both in terms of time and cost.”
The TIMMS 2 will be sold by Applanix and available in the first quarter of 2016.
