Livingston Engineering utilizes state of the art scanning equipment and software as part of our precision surveying services, including LiDAR equipment.
LiDAR stands for Light Detection And Ranging. These devices come in a variety of forms including tripod mounted stations and mobile units attached to ground vehicles such as cars or trucks. They can be mounted to boats, mounted to rail vehicles for railroad applications and even aerial vehicles such as drones, helicopters and airplanes.
LiDAR is used to create a 3-D representation of the environment. This allows surveyors to gather a large amount of data very quickly analyzing far more points than would ever be possible with traditional survey techniques. This additional data proves useful in the office where engineers and analysts can create wire frame models and solid surface models to create a plan set from, or to compare what was built to an existing plan set.
LiDAR also works well where it would be difficult, impossible or dangerous to survey with traditional means. Imagine a partially excavated site, the shape of the Earthwork is not uniform, so setting up on the surface may be tricky and calculating a volume proves difficult. With LiDAR it is possible to set up at a considerable distance from the object of interest and still collect data. Uneven surfaces are not a problem, since the LiDAR unit scans millions of points forming a surface with software, calculating a volume is trivial task.
Livingston Engineering works closely with our clients combing an array of services including LiDAR to deliver what you need when you need it.