All posts by Gavin Schrock
What’s Inside Your GNSS Rover? Part 1
The venerable GNSS rover, has evolved into an essential part of a surveyor’s toolkit, although some mystery remains as to what that magic box does and how it does it. To demystify this, we engaged GNSS engineers to help craft this three-part “explainer” series. Part one The work of a surveyor requires a lot of...
HAS Potential
Free and Global: The new high accuracy positioning service (HAS) of the Galileo constellation and its advantages for GIS and asset mapping If you consider field mapping applications, such as for GIS, asset inventory and management, and field operations for utilities, how wonderful would it be to have sub-foot positioning in real time, with no...
Autonomous Drone Mapping
How interior spaces like mines are being scanned and imaged by a drone that works without a pilot or connectivity. There is a scene in the Ridley Scott-directed 2012 sci-fi thriller “Prometheus” where a deep space exploration crew lands on a planet and discovers an underground labyrinth. They lob a levitating orb down a tunnel,...
The Advantages of “Built Here”
There are reasons other than policy and security to consider domestically produced drones. Yes, when it comes to the drone market there is an almost “default” choice. Having established dominance, it further benefits from price by volume. And then they can invest more in R&D from the increased profits—if they choose to and do not...
Mechanics, Science, Chemistry, and Surveying
The genesis of modern surveying and geodetic instruments sprang from a convergence of multiple sciences I held the century-old instrument, a compact high-precision optical theodolite, and thought: ‘This has more in common with our present-day instruments than not. And who were the geniuses that engineered and built such things?’ Surveying instruments have been in a...
The Construction Automation Continuum
It’s more about many minor triumphs than major leaps. Surveyors can play an essential role in implementing these changes To those outside of the industry (and some within), the term “construction automation” evokes visions of bots and autonomous equipment plying construction sites—efficient and tireless—yet always on some far horizon. In present reality, construction automation takes...
