Can multi-beam flash lidar provide a low-cost and accurate surveying opportunity for commercial helicopter operations?

Vision Air Services Inc.是一家商业直升机服务提供商，总部位于加拿大新斯科舍省哈利法克斯。Vision Air提供专业的直升机服务，如环境和野生动物研究和监测的航空调查，电力线和公用事业支持解决方案，以及航空地球物理调查。激光雷达（光探测和测距）是一种广泛接受的技术，用于收集高精度的测量数据，用于许多高成本的应用。技术进步使激光雷达传感器变得更简单、更小、更节能，从而使消费者能够以比过去更低的成本获得技术。Vision Air打算走在这些新发展的前沿，并使用新一代多波束闪光激光雷达（MBFL）传感器为客户提供地形激光雷达测量。与传统的大画幅系统相比，MBFL提供了许多优势，将其纳入Vision Air的客户服务将打开新的市场，并将公司定位为更具竞争力的企业。直升机安装的地形激光雷达将为市场提供一种“中等格式、中等成本”的激光雷达采集解决方案，填补了飞机和无人机平台之间的空白，并允许加拿大各地的新客户使用空中激光雷达。为了实现这些成果，Vision Air需要新斯科舍省社区学院应用地理信息学研究小组（NSCC-AGRG）的应用研究支持。MBFL系统处于开发的前沿，目前还没有针对系统安装和使用的最佳操作实践定义。nscc - agg的研究人员是激光雷达数据收集、处理和分析方面的专家，他们将把他们的技能应用到该项目中，以制定安装指南、定制软件解决方案，并将进行性能测试和激光雷达数据评估。在该项目结束时，Vision Air将通过租赁或购买激光雷达传感器，立即利用项目成果，为现有客户群和许多潜在的新客户提供独特、创新和低成本的服务。

Vision Air Services Inc. is a commercial helicopter service provider based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Vision Air offers specialty helicopter services such as aerial surveys for environmental and wildlife research and monitoring, powerline and utility support solutions, and airborne geophysical surveys. Lidar (light detection and ranging) is a well accept technique for collecting high precision survey data for numerous applications at a high cost. Technological advances have made lidar sensors simpler, smaller, and more energy efficient resulting in technology that is available to consumers at a lower cost than in the past. Vision Air intends to be on the cutting edge of these new developments and use a new generation of multi-beam flash lidar (MBFL) sensors to offer topographic lidar surveys to their clients. MBFL offers many advantages over traditional large format systems and its incorporation into Vision Air's client services will open new markets and position the company as a more competitive business. Helicopter-mounted topographic lidar will offer a "medium format, medium cost" lidar acquisition solution to the market, filling a gap between aircraft and drone platforms, and allowing new customers across Canada access to aerial lidar. To achieve these outcomes, Vision Air requires applied research support from the Nova Scotia Community College's Applied Geomatics Research Group (NSCC-AGRG). MBFL systems are on the cutting edge of development and no operational best practices have been defined for system installation and use. Researchers at NSCC-AGRG are experts in lidar data collection, processing, and analysis and will apply their skills to this project to develop installation guidelines, customized software solutions, and will conduct performance testing and lidar data evaluation. At the close of this project, Vision Air will be positioned to immediately exploit project results by renting or purchasing a lidar sensor to offer as a unique, innovative, and low-cost service to their existing client base and many potential new clients.