Category Archives: Surveying

normal distribution

Surveying Statistics

Part 2: The Normal Distribution Part 1 of this series appeared in the May 2015 issue. Errors in observations can be classified as systematic or random. Systematic errors follow physical laws and can be mathematically corrected or removed by following proper field procedures with instruments. For example, the expansion or contraction of a steel tape...

Normal Distribution Curve

The Normal Distribution, Part 1

Errors in observations can be classified as systematic or random. Systematic errors are errors that follow physical laws and can be mathematically corrected or removed by following proper field procedures with instruments. For example, the expansion or contraction of a steel tape caused by temperatures that differ from the tape’s standard temperature is a systematic...

A mosiac of panoramic images provides a complete, detailed view of a processing facility. A few minutes of imaging can replace hours of more conventional surveying. The precise locations of the photostations (shown as models of the imaging rover) are measured using GNSS or total stations.

Creating Energy From Images

Geospatial information has long played an essential role in the energy industry, but now a new technology is cutting costs while improving the flow of knowledge. Editor’s note: The energy sector, oil and gas in particular, has grown more rapidly in the past half dozen years than in the past half a century. New fields,...

xyHt’s 40 Geospatial Leaders under 40

Join xyHt in Celebrating Young Leadership in Geospatial Professions, Industries, and Sciences!  Who are the current young geo-leaders internationally? And where are they making a difference? There is a maxim:  “We teach children their future, and not our past.” With the exception (in the geospatial realm) of archaeology, forensics, monitoring, and boundary survey (where historical...

The geospatially aware Jackal robots are configured with different imaging and navigation systems depending on the needs of the autonomous application.

Robot Revolution

Clearpath Robotics CEO Matt Rendall discusses unmanned systems, land survey, and robotic industry trends.   The robot revolution is hitting a big milestone. Robotic use is expanding beyond research activities, aerial applications, and industrial manipulators through a new kind of deployment: the service robot. These robots are autonomous, they’re geospatially aware, and they can manipulate...

art of retracement

The Beaten Path

Art of Retracement With a set of eyes that had focused on survey lines through several eras, the Old Man (Glenny Dale, also known as Glutton), took one look at the cluster of three monuments along a right-of-way fence line. The site of three pins at a point where there could be only one legal...