PASCO Corporation is one of the world’s largest suppliers of geographic information and one of the leaders in implementing the most advanced surveying and GIS technology in the Far East.  Based in Tokyo, PASCO is heavily involved with digital data capture for the airborne, marine and land survey markets for various GIS, engineering and land development programs in Japan, and
around the world.

Challenge

The company utilizes a number of Applanix position and orientation systems (POS LV) installed on land vehicles equipped with thermal sensors, digital cameras, and laser scanning technology. The mobile mapping system, known as REAL (Road Excellent Automatic Logging), is designed for sophisticated monitoring of road surface conditions, infrastructure planning and maintenance, and transportation network design.

Solution

The POS LV systems are used as the geopositioning component for the onboard sensors, providing the position and orientation information for the digital video and still
cameras, and laser scanning equipment. The POS LV system’s ability to operate very effectively in dense urban environments has proven to be a tremendous advantage. When GPS signal reception is blocked by tall buildings, the system will still provide accurate positioning and orientation information.

Japan boasts approximately 1,152,207km of roadway, including 6,114km of expressways.
In addition, a high-speed network of limited access toll roads connects the major cities on
the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, all of which need ongoing inspection and monitoring to ensure they remain fully operational.

Generating accurate and detailed data without interrupting the flow of traffic is very important, and the REAL system has been used very successfully on many of the busy transportation routes throughout Japan.

Result

The system is capable of collecting multiple data sets simultaneously while driving at normal traffic speeds of up to 100kmh. It is able to acquire three sets of georeferenced road image data in a single pass of the vehicle: the condition of the pavement, the location and shape of the road, and the road asset features.

Used in conjunction with airborne digital imagery, the data produced is GIS-compatible
and easily utilized by the various transportation engineering and planning departments for their specific requirements.

PASCO’s REAL system combines precision sensor data with Applanix fully integrated Inertial/ GPS technology to provide the geospatial community with the most accurate data possible.

Image 1: Explanation of combining images to create 3D model

Image 2: a PASCO van showing sensor and IMU

Image 3: LIDAR image showing pavement analysis