MDL Pioneers `Plug-And-Play' Mobile Mapping System

An innovative, integrated `plug-and-play' mobile mapping system, which can be used on land or at sea, is being showcased at Intergeo, Cologne October 5th - 7th 2010. Laser scanning, GPS and an inertial navigation sensor are combined in a single POD for ease of use and versatility in the new lightweight Dynascan, land vehicle and marine vessel Lidar system.

Dynascan, developed by MDL as the first of a new generation of portable, affordable Lidar systems; weighs less than 25lbs and is easily mounted on a range of transportation from rugged all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to golf carts and small inshore survey vessels.

Designed for use by those with little surveying experience or specialist technical skills, Dynascan, which is sold and supported worldwide by MDL and its network of resellers and service centres, can quickly obtain 3D-survey quality data of topography, urban developments and industrial plants, including overhead utility cables, bridges, dams, harbours, beaches, rivers and canal banks.

All the programs necessary to initialise, navigate and provide real-time display of Lidar 2D or 3D scan results is contained in the PC software and a rapid start-up time is available as the Pod sensors are pre-aligned during manufacture.

Innovative display graphics guide unskilled operators to ‘saturate' field work areas with data points which can be overlaid directly in real time to Google Earth Satellite and Air Photos enabling field work, which usually takes weeks, to be completed in hours.

After capture, raw, or edited, data can be exported to most ‘off-the-shelf ‘ CAD modeling packages.
MDL Houston CEO, Steve Ball, says: "At under $100,000 - a fifth of the price of current mobile mapping systems - Dynascan brings Lidar benefits to small-and-medium sized field survey operations for the first time.

"Dynascan will revolutionize how LIDAR is perceived worldwide and will soon become an essential everyday ‘tool' in the construction, earth moving and terrestrial surveying businesses."
MDL has two operating divisions: Sensors, which designs and manufactures generic time-of-flight laser distance meters and Systems, which designs and manufactures laser-based positioning and 3D-scanning products. More details are available at www.mdl-laser.com.