CASESTUDY

Woolpert Models Devil’s Tower withVisionMap Airborne Imaging System

The Challenge

Woolpert’s objective was to create a high quality orthophoto and 3D model of the area of Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming, USA. Devil’s tower is made up of hard igneous rock that allowed it to remain while surrounding sedimentary rocks eroded, forming a landscape of predominantly badlands topography.

The final products required were a 7.5 cm resolution orthophoto and derived 3D products such as colorized point clouds and textured meshes of various formats. The aircraft flown was Woolpert’s Cessna 404.

For this particular project Woolpert was under strict budgetary constraints, had little manpower available, and were completing other projects simultaneously. They required a system that could meet the high resolution requirements, capture the high quality imagery needed for 3D model generation, and create the model with as little manpower as possible.

Established in 1911, Woolpert is one of the largest design, geospatial and infrastructure management firms in the United States.With 25 offices nationwide, Woolpert provides cutting-edge technologies for government and private sector customers nationwide.

VisionMap is a leading provider of state-of-the-art digital aerial survey and mapping systems. It's innovative data acquisition and automatic processing systems optimize mapping work, setting a new standard for productivity in the geospatial data industry.

The systems support extremely large scale projects and automaticallyproduce Aerial Triangulations, DSM and Orthophoto mosaic as wellas Stereo Models and Geo-referenced Oblique images. VisionMapsystems are successfully deployed around the world.

For more information, visit www.visionmap.com

The Solution

For this project, Woolpert used the VisionMap MIST Airborne Imaging System. Unlike oblique cameras that photograph at a fixed 35° or 45° angle, MIST captures each point from many different angles - a unique capability that minimizes issues with shadows and occlusions, and provides for much higher quality 3D products. In addition to oblique images, the unique MIST camera captures nadir images at the same time.

VisionMap’s LightSpeed Automatic Processing System was used to pre-process the imagery and generate the bundle-adjusted block. LightSpeed is the only system that provides simultaneous adjustment of vertical and oblique images. Its high photogrammetric accuracy and large number of overlaps yield an end-product of the highest quality.

The processed MIST imagery was exported into Bentley Systems’ Smart3DCapture™ software, whichautomatically created a stunning high resolution, photo-textured 3D model of Devil’s Tower. LightSpeed is fully integrated with Smart3DCapture™, facilitating the seamless creation of 3D models.The entire workflow, from LightSpeed processing to the creation of the model was completed in under a week. The workflow was highly automated, with less than 20 man-hours required.

Woolpert’s Response

Joseph Seppi, Project Director at Woolpert commented, “We were very satisfied with the performance of the MIST system for this project. The results were so stunning that we decided to make it a marketing tool. We have posted the data and presented it with various viewing applications.”

“MIST has always been reliable and best of all versatile”, he added, “It is many cameras in one.”

Of particular importance to Woolpert was the system’s flexibility in what can be done with the captured images - especially openness to multiple software applications such as Smart3DCapture™.

Seppi commented on the processing system, “LightSpeed is tightly coupled with the VisionMap sensors, the workflow is seamless, and the system is fast and relatively easy to learn.” He added, “The results are quite good. Another processing system would require significantly more time and resources to process the data.”