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OCTOBER 2016 » VOLUME 07 » ISSUE 03 | ISSN 2277–3134 www.geospatialworld.net
RISE OF THE
FARM
ROBOTS
FEATURING
DRONES & ROBOTICS
ALSO READ
MADE IN MALAYSIA
CORNER OFFICE
P8
GREG SCOTT
Inter-Regional Advisor of the UN Committee of Experts on
Global Geospatial Information Management
COULD YOU
MAP CANADA
IN A SEASON?
SPOT 6/7: BREATHTAKING ACCURACY AT RECORD

BREAKING SPEED.
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Areas as big as Canada can easily be mapped within a
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changes. If you want accurate maps and you want them
fast, talk to us. Find out more at geo-airbusds.com
08
CORNER OFFICE
National Bottom-up
Approach for Data Integration
Greg Scott, Inter-Regional Advisor,
UN Committee of Experts on
Global Geospatial Information
VOLUME: 7 ISSUE: 03 Management (UN-GGIM)
Farms of the
Chairman
24 M P Narayanan
FUTURE
Editor & Publisher
Sanjay Kumar
Managing Editor
HIGH-ACCURACY GPS- OR GNSS-BASED FULLY Prof. Arup Dasgupta
AUTONOMOUS OR ROBOTIC FIELD MACHINES ARE A HIT
WITH SMALL-SCALE, HIGH-PROFIT AGRICULTURE Editor — Defence &
Internal Security
Lt Gen (Dr) AKS Chandele
AGRICULTURE INDOOR MAPPING (Retd)
Executive Editor
42 Hunting Halal from Farm-to-Table 48 Never Get Lost Again Anusuya Datta
Senior Assistant Editor
54 Case Study: Ishveena Singh
39 Nobody buys Technology Assistant Editor
Indoor Mobile Mapping takes off at LAX
for Technology’s Sake Meenal Dhande
MICHAEL GOMES Case Study: Sub Editor
58 Manoj Joshi
VP – Business Development, Campus Compass for stressed out Students
Topcon Precision Agriculture Senior Producer
Amit Raj Singh
44 New Tools for Old Crops OTHERS Assistant Producer

Mahashreveta Choudhary
JAGRESH RANA 21 Case Study: Pruning Power Problems
Design
Asia-Africa Lead,
Subhash Kumar
Monsanto 60 Accessing GIS – Information made Easy
Circulation
KALYAN NETTI
Vijay Kumar Singh
National Geophysical Research
46 The Future lies in Machine Learning
Institute Disclaimer
ROGERIO BONIFACIO Geospatial World does not necessarily
Head, Geospatial Analysis Unit, subscribe to the views expressed in the
UN World Food Programme 63 A 5D approach to Data Visualization publication. All views expressed in this
issue are those of the contributors. Geo-
KENYON WAUGH spatial World is not responsible for any loss
Executive Director, Smart M.App to anyone due to the information provided.
COUNTRY FOCUS Solutions, Hexagon Geospatial Owner, Publisher & Printer Sanjay Kumar
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Advisory Board
Ahmad Fauzi Bin Nordin Sr
Director General of Survey
and Mapping (JUPEM), Malaysia
Prof. Arup Dasgupta
Managing Editor, Aida Opoku-Mensah
arup@geospatialmedia.net Special Advisor: SDGs/Agenda 2030,
UN Economic Commission for Africa
Barbara Ryan
Farmer shouldn’t have

Secretariat Director,
Group on Earth Observations
to be a ‘one man army’

Christopher W Gibson
Vice President & Executive
Committee Member, Trimble
T
he world is grappling with the task economic factors and even financial sup- Derek Clarke
of providing a sustainable future port can waver depending on the state of Chief Director-Survey and Mapping &
National Geospatial Information,
in the face of burgeoning popula- the economy. And yet, the farmer ploughs
Dept of Rural Development & Land
tion and climate change brought his field and sows his crop and hopes for Reform, South Africa
on by global warming. Organizations the best. He is on his own.
and groups like the UN Committee of Modern geospatial technologies are Dorine Burmanje
Chair-Executive Board, Cadastre, Land
Experts on Global Geospatial Information increasingly being tailored to assist in Registry and Mapping Agency (Kadaster),
Management (UN-GGIM) and the Group such a typical ‘one-off’ scenario. Regional The Netherlands
on Earth Observations (GEO) are looking weather forecasts are augmented with
Ed Parsons
at one aspect of the problem — the open micro level data to create localized
Geospatial Technologist, Google
availability of data which can support weather predictions. Irrigation needs,
activities which can ensure sustainability. application of fertilizers and insecticides Greg Bentley
CEO, Bentley Systems
While such comprehensive databases can can be pinpointed to specific parts of the
be of great help to authorities in planning, farm through high-resolution data from Prof. Josef Strobl
execution and monitoring of projects, they unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and Chair, Department of Geoinformatics,
can only provide generalized solutions. the use of DGPS on farm machinery University of Salzburg, Austria
They cannot help at micro levels. can ensure that these needs are fulfilled Kamal K Singh
Consider the example of agriculture. precisely at these locations when needed, Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group
Farm labor is becoming scarce as more saving resources, cost and time. UAV
Kumar Navulur
and more people migrate to cities. At surveillance is low cost and on-demand. Director, Next Generation Products,
the same time, the need to augment food Data interpretation can happen in near- DigitalGlobe
production is increasing not only with the real-time. This becomes imperative when
Mark Reichardt
population rise, but with the increasing disaster strikes and the farmer needs to be
President and CEO,
ability of the population to buy more and compensated through crop insurance. Open Geospatial Consortium
better food. Agriculture management Such applications may be apps
becomes the task of one person — the available on-demand on a smartphone. Mladen Stojic
President, Hexagon Geospatial
farmer who has to study and understand Development of these apps will need
the seasonal market demand and balance considerable data and modeling and is Mohd Al Rajhi
his choice of crop on the demand, the a potential area for Deep Learning tech- Asst Deputy Minister for Land & Surveying,
Ministry of Municipal & Rural Affairs,
associated risks and costs. He may be niques. Sounds Orwellian? Consider that Saudi Arabia
helped through subsidies and loans, Microsoft, Facebook and Google are all
through extension workers who can pro- working on such techniques to create sim- Sandeep Singhal
Director, Cloud Storage, Google
vide modern scientific and technological ple apps in different fields for the common
inputs and market analysts who can assess man. In time, these companies will realize Stephen Lawler
the expected market of the matured crop. the market represented by agriculture. Senior Vice President,
Worldwide Engineering, Cyanogen
In spite of this, crops fail due to
climatic events like floods, droughts and Vanessa Lawrence
insect infestation. Demand dries up due to Inaugural Co-Chair, UN-GGIM

News
PSLV carrying eight

satellites in two
different orbits goes up
from Sriharikota, India
Chinese space station falling
back to Earth in 2017
C
hinese authorities have con-
firmed the 8 tonne ‘Heavenly
Palace’ lab will re-enter the
atmosphere sometime in 2017 with
some parts likely to hit the Earth. The
Tiangong-1 was described as a ‘potent
political symbol’ of China’s growing
power when it was launched in 2011 as
Courtesy: DD News
part of an ambitious scientific push to
turn China into a space superpower.
ISRO LAUNCHES “Based on our calculation and analy-

sis, most parts of the space lab will burn
8 SATS IN TWO DIFFERENT ORBITS up during falling,” the deputy director

of China’s manned space engineering
I
office, Wu Ping, was quoted as saying by
n a major milestone, the Indian Space single mission. The space agency used official news agency Xinhua. Wu stated
Research Organisation’s PSLV C-35 the ‘multiple burn technology’ for this, that if necessary, China would release
rocket has successfully launched wherein the PSLV engines shut down a forecast of its falling and report it
SCATSAT-1 satellite, along with seven for a while and restart again.” internationally.
co-passenger satellites, into two differ- The total weight of all the eight sat- However, scientists have admitted
ent orbits. This is the first time that ISRO ellites carried on-board PSLV-C35 was that they have no way of safely guiding
has launched payload satellites in two 675 kg. With its scatterometer payload, Tiangong-1 back to Earth, and say it is
orbits, a rare feat for any space agency. the data sent by SCATSAT-1 satellite moving too fast accurately predict where
ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar will help provide weather forecasting debris from the module will crash.
said, “This is a challenging two-in-one services to user communities through
mission which puts India in a unique the generation of wind vector prod-
league of nations having the capability ucts, as well as cyclone detection and Russia to mandate
BIM from 2019
T
to achieve two different orbits in a tracking.
he Minister of Construction,
Housing and Utilities of the Rus-
BlackSky Pathfinder 1 to transform EO industry sian Federation has announced
BlackSky Pathfinder 1, which is expected to revolutionize earth imaging, was one of the that Building Information Modeling
eight satellites launched by ISRO. When fully operational, BlackSky aims to achieve revisit (BIM) may be made compulsory in all
times of 10 to 60 minutes for most locations on the planet, with image delivery times construction projects commissioned
better than 20 minutes for the majority of cases. by the Russian government beginning
BlackSky CEO Jason Andrews told Geospatial World, “Ultimately, it is going to be very in 2019.
disruptive on how we look at the planet in a positive way because suddenly we can do The ministry said that the Russian
things with satellites that were never before possible.” government had been influenced by
the ‘interesting’ British experience
in the field of BIM technologies
BlackSky implementation. He pointed out
constellation
that the UK government’s use of BIM
orbits
Courtesy: BlackSky
was directly responsible for a 30%

reduction in construction cost. “Their
experience showed that we, in Russia,
are heading in a 100% right direc-
tion,” he said.

News
Collaboration
is key for
EO industry
growth
T
he earth observation industry
emphasized that collaborations
and partnerships are the key for Airbus to launch 4 very high-res satellites by 2021
a sustainable growth of the sector, at Airbus Defence and Space plans to launch four very high resolution (VHR)
the 8th Summit on Earth Observation satellites by 2021 to deliver earth observation products for commercial and
Business in Paris last month. The two- government use. The launch will also ensure continuity of Pléiades Earth
day summit was part of Euroconsult’s Observation mission which currently operates a pair of satellites launched in
2011 and 2012. The company would finance the program on its own.
week-long World Satellite Business
Event. Bringing together over 200
presidents, CEOs, CFOs and senior
government officials, this conference in most demand. DigitalGlobe, which Earth Observation: Market Prospects to
was a unique opportunity to review was represented by Tony Frazier, Senior 2025. Keith reported that the civil gov-
business models, assess customer Vice President & General Manager, ernment investment in satellites topped
requirements, network, do business and Services, underlined the massive growth $10 billion for the first time in 2015.
refine development strategies. potential from services and operations There was also substantial increase in
Setting the tone for the Summit, in Cloud. investment from emerging markets.
Pacôme Révillo, CEO, Euroconsult, David Belton, General Manager, As many 163 satellites (>50kg) were
opened the inaugural session by asking MDA Geospatial Services, highlighted launched for civil and commercial EO
the big players their views on the that the company was looking for new (excluding meteorology) over 2006-
priorities in maintaining their business markets for its technologies. It was also 2015. These were launched for entities in
growth. In an intense discussion that looking for partners to develop new 35 countries and generated $18.4 billion
followed, companies like DigitalGlobe, platforms and datasets and improve its in manufacturing market revenues.
Airbus Defence and Space and MDA delivery. Most of these satellites were launched
all agreed that gaining new customers E-GEOS CEO Massimo Comparini by government operators to support
while retaining the old ones was the talked about the changes and policy objectives spanning climate
priority. For this, companies needed reorganization in the company in the change, sustainable development and
to develop deeper relationship with last two years, and charted out the new industrial support.
clients, develop newer and more sophis- growth path. He added that a lot of ven- The panel of speakers also
ticated services and continue to curate ture capital funds were coming into the discussed that the space industry
intelligence from imageries. EO sector and partnership was the key. needs to stop using ‘space language’
Airbus Defence and Space said Euroconsult Managing Director and make their talks more user-
while there is a big market in value Adam Keith presented the 9th edition friendly to make the technology
added services, data was still by far of Euroconsult’s report, Satellite-Based approachable to new sectors.

Corner Office
National
bottom-up
approach for data integration
Countries need to integrate their
information systems at a national
level, which would then flow
up into a regional and global
level, believes Greg Scott,
Inter-Regional Advisor of the
UN Committee of Experts on
Global Geospatial Information
Management (UN-GGIM)

H
ow will geospatial data be different countries. The framework on to consider when trying to ensure that,
useful in achieving the UN’s how they use their data to measure the as the 2030 Agenda aspires that ‘no-one
Sustainable Development indicators will largely depend on insti- is left behind’. Similarly, having lots
Goals (SDGs)? tutional and architectural arrangements of data is great, but being able to use
The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable that already exist. In developed coun- and leverage that data and turn it into
Development, which was adopted tries, that is quite easy in terms of how valuable information and knowledge
in September 2015, has provided an they modify national spatial data infra- to support decision-making is really
important opportunity for earth obser- structures or other information systems. where the integration and change needs
vations and geospatial information to But, what is also very important is how to occur.
be better understood within the United that applies to developing nations and
Nations system itself. Leveraging this some of the least developed countries. Agenda 2030 recommends building
opportunity is important for countries, This mandate hopefully would provide capacities by 2020 through training
and we are working very hard to enable these countries with the opportunity and capacity development programs.
them to achieve this visibility, and to start building and harnessing the How does your organization plan to
to provide direction to them. We are same processes. It would allow them achieve this?
making sure that the member countries to learn from other countries and also One of the big challenges for the 2030
realize how geospatial information, from the institutional arrangements or Agenda is around capacity development
earth observations, statistics and other the governance that goes around those and knowledge transfer. We need to
new data can support their development processes and frameworks. figure out how to bring more enabling
agenda, and help them to measure and technologies and capabilities from the
monitor the goals of the sustainable Across the world, we are moving data-rich countries to the data-poor
development process. from a data-poor paradigm to countries. Within the UN-GGIM, we
data-rich paradigm. So, how can are very conscious of this fact, as the
Do you see the need to create a data be best used to monitor SDGs? entire UN system has a central focus on
new framework to streamline the Yes, we are moving toward a data- capacity development. We are working
availability and accessibility of data rich world where there seems more hard toward this end, but, what we
across nations? data available than we can sometimes require are resources. Many of us are
Reinventing the wheel, or even doing use, but the concept of rich and poor aware of that, but we only have finite
something new and revolutionary, is not
what is required. We need to begin with
the basics by integrating our informa-
tion systems at a national level, which
would then flow up into a regional and
global level. So, it is all about how we
take some of our existing information Having lots of data is great, but being able to use and
systems and structures, and potentially
leverage that data and turn it into valuable information
tailor them more for delivering on the
environmental, economic and social
and knowledge to support decision-making is really
aspects of our data construct and needs where the integration and change needs to occur
within and across countries.
countries applies to data as well. While resources. So, using the goodwill and
How would you visualize the struc- many developed countries are data-rich, the trust that has been provided by
ture of such a framework to be? not only in data but also in architectural many of the countries around the world
As a pragmatic solution, the framework technologies, institutional arrange- to support this process is incredibly
would follow a national bottom-up ments, methodologies, standards, etc., important. It was certainly reflected in
approach. For example, the new SDGs many of the developing countries are the outcome of what is known as the
have 17 goals, 169 targets, and 230 very data-poor due to considerable Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which
initial global indicators. Those indica- capacity and capability resource con- governments and civil society looked
tors will be used in different ways by straints. That is a very important factor at financing for development to better

Corner Office
provide support to those countries that

are not so well-off. We need to consider data as a national information
system, so that countries can think about their
How can we facilitate improved
collaboration between statistical
statistical, environmental, geospatial information and
and geospatial communities to earth observation institutes in a more holistic way
achieve the larger goals of SDGs?
This concept of integration of statistical observation institutes in a more holistic number of data gaps. Some of them
and geospatial information has been a way. Then there are new and emerging are considerable, not so much in their
paramount agenda within the UN sys- sources of data, including Big Data, that spatial resolution, but in their tempo-
tem for several years now. UN-GGIM are becoming available, and need to ral resolution. For example, data that
has been working closely with the UN be integrated into national information is two, three or four years old cannot
Statistical Commission, via a dedicated systems to provide greater richness and readily contribute to an annual reporting
Expert Group, looking at these integra- context to the national information base. outcome ― so we need to bring the
tion challenges for three years, which As this starts to progress, we will see time lag down. Additionally, some of
are also now closely aligned to what better outcomes. And in that process, its the data sources and their use pose a
we need for SDGs. This is going ahead treatment and management would be degree of challenge to our professional
very quickly and progressing to the quite critical. community. We need to partner with
point where a global statistical-geospa- agencies, governments, other interna-
tial framework is being considered by What are your views about policy tional organizations as well the private
the countries. It will also be a key ena- recommendations to be adopted by sector and those who often have more
bler for statistics in geospatial organiza- the nations? agility and ability to bring data such as
tions around the world to work together One of the important policies that earth observations into the discussion,
and to collaborate and coordinate their UN-GGIM is trying to consider is not rather than some of the more traditional
abilities to measure and monitor the being so much around the governance means that we have. So, it is very much
implementation of the SDGs. side, but having the arrangements in a case of evolving and leveraging some
place so that information is not only of these capabilities.
What other geospatial partnerships interoperable, standards-based and
and collaborations do you think are transferable, but also open and shared What is your perspective about
required to further the SDG agenda? across different agencies within and open data as an enabler for the
One of the evolving things that either across governments. Adopting such SDGs’ success?
needs to be changed, or in some degree processes will ensure that the informa- Open data in the context of the SDGs
is already changing, is considering data tion is created only once, but is able to is going to be very important. To have
as more of a national be shared and used many times over. good interoperability and information
information system, systems, free, open and timely data that
so that countries How can countries align data in- is maintained and sustained is going
can think about vestments with priority data gaps? to be of prime importance. One thing
their statistical, Due to its breadth and depth, one of the about open data, or the concept of how
environmental, requirements that we are seeing in the information can be made available
geospatial infor- implementation of the 2030 Agenda is over time, is that the SDG process is
mation, the need for new data sources. Obvi- going to continue for 15 years. So,
earth ously, there will be some data that does when we think about provision of data,
not presently exist, but there will also it is not a one-off thing; it has to be
be some data that does exist and is something that is able to continue over
‘potentially available’ if it is restructured that 15-years cycle. So, having these
or repurposed for the needs of the goals, kinds of contexts — whether it is freely
targets and indicators of the SDGs. We available or at a cost, and the terms of
now have the list of 230 indicators. access — is going to be very important,
Within months, we will know the total particularly for developing countries.

Country Focus | Malaysia
MADE IN
The Malaysian geospatial industry is going from strength
to strength, but issues like data sharing and
standardization are yet to be resolved. By Ishveena Singh
R
eturn home, Malaysians. We year. And Prime Minister Datuk put its money in a country where there
will connect you with top Seri Najib Razak — who is also the is a future,” Najib was recently quoted
companies,’ hollers a Web country’s finance minister — has also as saying.
banner advertisement. One been quite vocal about the expansion of
click will tell you that an initiative the Gross National Income by 47.7% The winning formula
by the Prime Minister’s Department between 2009 and 2014, the creation Much of this buoyancy can be
in Malaysia is trying to attract talent of 1.8 million jobs since 2010 and the attributed to the proactive steps the
working abroad by stressing how the tripling in private investments. government took in the 1980s and ’90s
country’s economic progress has given Indisputably, the private sector to diversify Malaysia’s economy. The
rise to new opportunities, and dynamic has been the locomotive of economic winning formula included an acceler-
career pathways are emerging in key growth in Malaysia since 2011. In ated industrialization drive, an attempt
growth sectors. 2015, private businesses contrib- to rapidly develop small and medium
If advertising is a country’s most uted a colossal 69.2% to the GDP, scale industries (SMEs), and concerted
characteristic institution, it would which Najib hailed as one of the efforts to adopt new technology,
appear that despite challenging times, highest growth amongst countries of including geomatics and geospatial
the Malaysian economy is thriving, not similar-sized GDP. “It means technologies.
just surviving. The International Mon- that there is confidence “The Malaysian government has
etary Fund (IMF) has pro- in our economy — been very encouraging on the use
jected a “still robust” growth for the private sector of spatial data and geospatial tech-
of 4.4% for Malaysia this will only invest and nologies to support many business

6.2 % REAL GDP

PER ANNUM 76.1 %
95.1
Home
The economy has enjoyed a
stable real GDP growth of 6.2% ownership %
per annum since 1970
Population
has access to
#19
Malaysia's rating on the IMD World
Competitiveness Scoreboard 2016 potable water
97.6
Have access
%
to electricity
Top 20 25X
INCREASE IN PER CAPITA INCOME
Malaysia ranks among
$15,000 Malaysia rose from the ranks
Inforgraphic: Subhash Kumar
the top investor-friendly of a low-income economy in

destinations of the the 1970s to a high middle-
world in the Economist National per capita income economy in 1992.
Intelligence Unit’s Business income target set by the Malaysia’s national per capita
Environment Rankings for government to achieve an income expanded from
the period between 2014 advanced economy status $402 (1970) to $10,796
and 2018 by 2020 (2014)

functions, including planning, infrastruc- Through its cadastral survey, mapping
ture, inventory, asset management, disaster and geodetic initiatives, JUPEM, which is the
preparedness, crime analysis, etc.,” affirms Dr national survey and mapping organization, plays
Sukanta Kumar Jena, who heads Sales & an important role in providing the key elements
Account Management for Cyient’s Utilities of geospatial data infrastructure for the country.
& CGP division in Southeast Asia. Datuk Ahmad Fauzi bin Nordin, Director
Malaysia’s tryst with spatial data infrastruc- General, JUPEM, explains, “Our complete
ture began in 1997, when its SDI was known baseline dataset, covering the core cadastral, Our baseline and
as National Infrastructure for Land Information and topographical or built environment datasets topographical
System (NaLIS). The government recognized are the fundamental datasets of the national data datasets are
that forming NaLIS was necessary to promote infrastructure and are the ones that are mostly fundamental for
and facilitate the sharing, exchange, dissemina- needed by other governmental agencies in the national data
tion and use of geospatial information among particular. Out of the 10 framework data themes, infrastructure
Land Related Agencies (LRAs). It would also all but two [geology and hydrography] can be DATUK AHMAD
serve the purpose of avoiding duplication of extracted from these two core datasets.” FAUZI BIN NORDIN
effort in collection and management of geospa- Since early 2015, JUPEM has been actively Director General, JUPEM
tial information, and ensure accuracy, timeli- contracting out topographic mapping works to
ness, correctness and consistency of data. private organizations. Nor Azman Baharum,
Following its restructuring in 2002, CEO/Managing Director of Antaragrafik
NaLIS was named Malaysian Geospatial Systems, is quick to divulge that in the first
Data Infrastructure (MyGDI). It is managed year of the Eleventh Malaysian Plan (RMK11)
by the Malaysian Centre for Geospatial Data itself, JUPEM has released 33 tenders, many
Infrastructure (MaCGDI) under the Ministry of which necessitate a thorough know-how
of Natural Resources & Environment Malaysia of geoinformation and the expertise of GIS
(NRE). In 2005, MyGDI came up with a experts. “JUPEM has also been outsourcing
policy on data sharing, which facilitated free a lot of map-making components to private
data exchange between government agen- entities. We are one of the companies helping
cies, but kept mute on the private sector and JUPEM come up with 1:5000 map of the
the academia. country,” he reveals.
JUPEM has been

outsourcing a lot
of map-making
components to
private entities
NOR AZMAN
MaCGDI has developed 1Malaysia Map for the use of the public. Its purpose is to give the general public an BAHARUM
understanding on what GIS can do. Public users can search for places of interest such as shop, petrol station, CEO/Managing Director,
hotel, bank, market and other places, access imagery and vector maps from BING and make interactive search Antaragrafik Systems
through this application

THE NEW
ECONOMIC
The Malaysian
MODEL
government
has been very To achieve the vision of developed nation status by 2020, Malaysia has
encouraging on implemented a New Economic Model (NEM), which is based on four pillars:
the use of spatial 1Malaysia: Based on the principle ‘People First, Performance Now,’ 1Malaysia
data aims to unite all Malaysians irrespective of race or religion
Government Transformation Program: This program focuses on transforming
DR SUKANTA areas of public service that are of greatest concern to the citizens
KUMAR JENA Economic Transformation Program: With a major emphasis on the private sector
Head - Sales & Account
investment, 12 economic areas that are most critical to the nation’s continued
Management, Utilities &
CGP, Cyient growth have been identified
11th Malaysia Plan: Based on the theme ‘anchoring growth on people’, the plan
has six strategic thrusts and six game changers
Fauzi explains, “It has been very evident to In 2002, ANGKASA was established under
me for long and proven over the past dec- the Ministry Of Science Technology, Innova-
ades that JUPEM is not in a position to fulfil tion (MOSTI). The agency developed an earth
the ever-increasing demands for up-to-date observation satellite, RazakSAT, in collab-
geospatial data totally on our own, and thus the oration with South Korea to acquire timely
need to involve the private sector to participate ocean and meteorological data for the world’s
in the mapping works.” equatorial region. RazakSAT, the first remote
sensing satellite on the near equatorial orbit,
The mouse that roared was launched in 2009 by SpaceX, making it the
Meanwhile, with its unusually active space US-based company’s first commercial launch.
program and participation in international With RazakSAT becoming defunct after a year
space forums, Malaysia has proved to be of operations, ANGKASA is currently receiv-
the proverbial “mouse that roared” of the ing remote sensing data from foreign satellites
space economy. The Malaysian government and partner agencies. RazakSAT-2 is awaiting a
has three arms that deal with space tech- 2017 launch.
nology: national space agency ANGKASA, The agency’s policy on data sharing is quite
National remote sensing agency ARSM and a gov- liberal. Data is provided free of charge to edu-
Geospatial Act ernment linked company called Astronautics cation sectors, disaster management agencies,
is necessary to Technology (ATSB). for the infrastructure planning and develop-
advance policies ATSB was entrusted with the design, devel- ment, and for security purposes. If the private
in a well-planned opment, launch and operation of TiungSAT-1 sector needs any data, it has to bear the cost of
manner — the country’s first microsatellite — in 2000. processing the images.
DATUK PROF. SR That year, wildfires in Sumatra and Kalimantan
DR. ABDUL KADIR regions made suffocating whitish haze a regu- National Geospatial Act
BIN TAIB lar feature above many of Malaysia’s territo- Back at the NRE, a national policy on geospa-
Former Director General,
JUPEM ries. Data from TiungSAT-1 helped assess the tial information with the aim to improve gov-
scale of the environmental disaster. ernance of activities related to the application

of geographically-based data is being mulled standards and detailed quality checking, along
since 2011. The then-Director General of with a better understanding of where the data
JUPEM, Datuk Prof. Sr Dr. Abdul Kadir comes from and how it was created, is essential
Bin Taib, was quite vocal about the signifi- for projects to progress smoothly.”
cance of a National Geospatial Act. “This is Standardization tops the wishlist of
necessary to advance policies concerning the Kamarul A Muhamed, Founder and CEO of
geospatial activities in a comprehensive and Aerodyne, a leading provider of drone services
well-planned manner by establishing basic in Malaysia, as well. “Currently geospatial data There is scarcity
principles and clarifying the responsibilities of are collected and managed by many differ- of standards and
federal, state and local governments, as well ent agencies — with different objectives and quality control of
as defining policies on the dissemination of format — resulting in autonomous, heteroge- geospatial data in
geospatial information,” he had said. neous and distributed system and management. Malaysia
While a consensus is yet to be reached on Whilst efforts are already in place towards TRUDY R
the particulars of the Act, it appears that the integration and centralization, the speed should GANENDRA
Managing Director,
government would be able strike it off its to-do be accelerated for the benefit of the commu-
Ground Data Solutions
list within the tenure of the Eleventh Malay- nity,” he elucidates.
sian Plan (2016-2020). This should appease According to Dato’ Ir. Hj. Nor Hisham
Trudy R Ganendra, Managing Director of Bin Mohd Ghazali, Senior Director,
high-tech LiDAR survey provider Ground Department of Irrigation & Drainage,
Data Solutions, who wants the government technology providers should be careful in
to provide more guidance to industries and gauging the technical capacity of their clients
Malaysian geospatial communities for best and provide more flexible and modular sys-
practices and standards to follow. tems. “Meanwhile, policymakers should be
“Due to the scarcity of technical knowledge more sensitive to raw data requirements and
in Malaysia, and the absence of standards and support funding initiatives to procure more
quality control of geospatial data, the commu- geospatial data,” he recommends.
nity often ends up creating datasets which are
not easy to use as the information they portray Flying high
conflicts with other information,” Ganendra Today, as Malaysia steps into its 60th year of
rues. “More rigorous applications of suitable independence, the country is chasing the dream
Integration and
centralization
of geospatial
data should be
accelerated
KAMARUL A
MUHAMED
Founder-CEO, Aerodyne
The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) has released drone usage rules in the Civil Aviation Regulations 2016

of achieving a high-income, developed nation mistakes can turn out to be quite costly. Rather,
status by 2020. With the implementation of a you should let the professionals provide you the
New Economic Model, the government seeks data, and you should find ways to act upon it.”
to expedite technology adoption, entrepre-
neurship, skill-building and development of Let’s talk openly
intellectual capital in science. Of what use is the data if it cannot be used to
Earlier this year, the Department of drive innovation and create economic opportu-
I would love to Civil Aviation (DCA) clarified its stance on nities? With only 10% of its data open, Malay-
see the day when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by releasing sia ranks a dismal 112 in Open Knowledge
I can simply walk a set of drone usage rules in the Civil Aviation Foundation’s Global Open Data 2015 Index.
into a Land Office Regulations 2016 handbook. Muhamed calls SMEs often express that they would like to see
and ask for a this a step in the right direction. “I think we lost government relax restrictions and encourage
dataset a lot of time waiting to see where the US Fed- the sharing of GIS and related data, so that the
AZRIN ZAINAL eral Aviation Administration stood on the sub- most value can be received for the existing
ABIDIN ject. Now that the US has allowed commercial data. After all, the government is collecting the
CEO, Tuxuri
usage of drones, Malaysia also seems to realize data using the taxpayers’ money.
that this industry has the potential of generating Highlighting that collaboration breeds inno-
billions of dollars for the economy.” vation, Ganendra explains, “Other countries
AAM’s Business Development Manager, make LiDAR data freely available to the pub-
Maziana Muhmad, sees notable participation lic, but in Malaysia, even just the application
of UAV imagery and UAV LiDAR for small for capture of aerial survey data can be highly
area mapping. “Airborne LiDAR is being onerous and sharing of data is discouraged.
actively used by government agencies lately Opening data to more users could be an engine
for road design and disaster studies, such as, of growth for the Malaysian economy. I hope
The main landslides and floods,” she tells. the government will move toward this.”
challenge before The construction industry is one of the Agrees Azrin Zainal Abidin, CEO of
the private biggest users of drone technology in Malaysia. Tuxuri, a geo Web company actively working
industry is the Drones are also being actively used for rig for the utilities sector. “I would love to see the
limited budget for inspections and mapping palm oil plantations. day when I can simply walk into a Land Office
full study However, Aerodyne’s Muhamed believes that and ask for a dataset,” he says. “The govern-
the government departments are taking a big ment has amassed so much data in the last two
MAZIANA
risk by operating drones and capturing data on or three decades, they really have to figure out
MUHMAD
Business Development their own. “This technology requires a very how to make that data beneficial for others.”
Manager, AAM specific skill-set. If it is not your core business, And it’s not that the industry faces chal-
you will take longer to capture the data, and lenges only while procuring data for private or
commercial projects. Even when it comes to
public safety, the problem persists. Telekom
Malaysia (TM), which operates the Malaysian
Emergency Response Service (MERS) 999
on behalf of the Ministry of Communications
and Multimedia is no stranger to the issue. The
coordination of information among different
emergency agencies from various ministries is
always an uphill task.
Collaboration is key
Telekom Malaysia, which operates the Malaysian Emergency Response Service
The Malaysian Communications and Multime-
999, often finds its difficult to coordinate among different emergency agencies dia Commission (MCMC), which is the regu-
from various ministries lator for the converging communications and

Malaysia needs to accelerate the While studies by European countries show
that the economic benefits of data reuse exceed
formulation of a national policy on the loss of government revenue in varying
geoinformation and standardize degrees, Malaysia would need to encourage
more users to use the freely available data crea-
datasets and open up its datasets tively for economic purposes. Nonetheless, lack
of standardization and open data are not the
only challenges that the private sector faces. Jurisdiction and
multimedia industry, has a Geospatial Services Even as the government urges the private ‘turf’ issues
Department which sits under the Digital Eco- sector to engage the foreign investor in a mutu- associated with
system Sector. And Dato' Mohd Ali Hanafiah ally beneficial partnership and joint ventures, open data must
Mohd Yunus, Chief Officer, Communication, Cyient’s Dr Jena sees a big roadblock in getting be addressed
Digital Services and Standards Sector, is work outsourced to Malaysia from other coun- up-front
also rallying for basemap (topographical/ter- tries. “The local rules seem to restrict foreign DATO’ IR. HJ. NOR
rain/satellite) and administrative spatial data investment and foreign knowledge workers. HISHAM BIN MOHD
sharing. “Without this data sharing, all agencies Because of this the Malaysian outsourcing GHAZALI
Senior Director,
have to purchase the information from various business doesn’t seem to be reaching its poten- Department of Irrigation
sources resulting in duplication of invest- tial. Countries like India and the Philippines are & Drainage
ment. The establishment of a common spatial able to attract such outsourcing work, which
data sharing among agencies will benefit the is contributing to their economy to a larger
government, agencies and users, apart from extent,” he explains.
boosting development and utilization of local For AAM’s Muhamad, “The main challenge
generated content,” he asserts. the private industry faces in Malaysia is the
Hisham perceives open data as more of a limited budget for the full study. Normally,
policy issue, and believes that collaboration can projects get split into a few components or
be successful only when a personal connection phases in order to meet the budget.”
is achieved between players. “Agencies who
are custodian of certain data programs are not Eyes on the goal
always in a financial position to procure them It cannot be denied that the Malaysian gov-
according to the schedule and requirements of ernment is trying its best to create a propitious
user-agencies. At this point, further communi- business environment for all. It is also playing
cation is needed to allow alternative approaches a leading role in the integration of the ASEAN
to be employed. Jurisdiction and ‘turf’ issues Economic Community (AEC) by pushing for
must be addressed up-front,” he insists. more reforms and liberalization in the region.
However, more efforts are needed to encourage
Revenue rules both local and foreign investment in the country. All agencies
Could it be that the departments do not want Accelerating the formulation of a national have to purchase
to make their data freely and openly available policy on geoinformation, standardizing data- the information
because they see it as a source of revenue? sets, and opening up the already existing data to from various
Fauzi — whose department (JUPEM) makes private businesses are only some of the meas- sources resulting
data freely available for government agencies, ures the state can take to ensure that Malaysia in duplication of
and applies a subsidized fee on all other users continues to be considered as a success story of investment
— wouldn’t say no. “If a national mapping economic growth in Southeast Asia. After all,
DATO' MOHD ALI
agency wants to survive, it needs to show its if the country wants to turn its Vision 2020 into HANAFIAH MOHD
economic relevance to the government. We reality, that’s the least it can do. YUNUS
need to formulate a model wherein we waive- Chief Officer,
Communication, Digital
off the cost to the user, but still record it as rev- Ishveena Singh Services and Standards
enue for the department,” he proposes. “Many Senior Assistant Editor Sector, MCMC
countries in Europe follow a similar process.” ishveena@geospatialmedia.net

Advertorial
ONE-PASS
POWER LINES
INSPECTION SERVICES
Electricity supply industry draws on geospatial
technologies to reduce risk and cost
M
anaging powerlines managers and engineers seek new
has always been methods and technologies to reduce
challenging. There’s asset management costs and improve
a myriad of potenti- reliability.
al sources of disrup- Field-based inspection has been
tion that increase the risk of system enhanced with aerial photography, sa-
interruption, failure or power outages. tellite imagery and vector mapping.
To reduce operational risks, network These solutions continue to provide
Multi-sensor
acquisition systems
deliver integrated,
georeferenced
datasets and
the next step
change to utilities’
network asset
and vegetation
mapping

vital information, but the datasets asset condition, easement
they produce have proven to be in- encroachment and vegetation AAM’s acquisition systems
complete. This is why Light Detection management provide data for a range of
and Ranging (LiDAR), a technology network management services,
that can accurately and rapidly map Data from our one-pass inspection making our inspections:
an asset, is a breakthrough data sour- can be used for multiple applications  Efficient — reducing costs
ce for powerline organizations. From one aerial inspection pass, AAM  Timely — reducing 'detection-
LiDAR, integrated with photogra- captures all the data necessary to map to-action' times
phic, thermal and corona imagery, network routes, report on asset con-  Precise — reducing risk factors
creates and maintains a complete dition and vegetation encroachment. in maintenance planning
record of network assets and condi- This information can be used for:
 Reliable — providing increased
tions, which form the input to a wide Route Planning: terrain shape, exi-
certainty for maintenance
range of uses. sting conductors and vegetation can-
decisions
opy help optimize transmission routes
Data acquisition convergence and tower placement.  Consistent — removing
Network managers are driving data col- Conductor Mapping: LiDAR point subjectivity in maintenance
lection efficiencies, in time and cost, to clouds define the terrain, easement, programs
improve their asset lifecycle decisions vegetation, site access, towers and  Auditable — recording asset
and risk analyses. Accurate, real-time conductors. status for future review
information has become an essential Vegetation Intrusion Reports: line  Remote — reducing the impact
input into utilities’ asset management modelling accurately identifies spe- on landholders and other
and decision-making processes. cific vegetation encroachment under stakeholders
Help in this area comes from new various load scenarios and guides  Complete — providing cost-
sensors that combine video and still optimal tree pruning activities. Au- effective means of meeting
images, infrared (IR) and ultraviolet tomated reports document pruning regulatory requirements
(UV) into one acquisition system. The- requirements to vegetation manage-  State-of-the-art — providing
se data share a common point of refe- ment contractors. ever-increasing efficiencies to
rence and, combined with LiDAR, form Visible Fault Reporting: High defini- inspection programs
integrated, georeferenced datasets. tion imagery records asset condition
 Integrated — deploying data
This technology convergence delivers and identifies visible faults.
and fault reports into the
the next step change to utilities’ net- Corona UV Fault Reporting: UV ima-
organization’s existing systems
work asset and vegetation mapping. gery detects corona discharge from
broken insulators or loose strands to
Cost and time savings reduce leakage and outages.
AAM’s adoption of these new techno- Thermal IR Fault Reporting: IR ima-
logies underpins a range of power line gery detects thermal anomalies at
services that help utilities reduce net- structures or mid-span joints to reduce
work operational costs and mitigate fire potential, leakage and outages.
network risk. Asset Records: Georeferenced video,
Our aerial surveying teams, who high resolution still photography, in-
have flown 100s of thousands of power frared and ultraviolet imagery record
line kilometers, capture data for three all assets for corporate geographic in-
essential aerial inspections in one flight. formation systems (GIS).
1. LiDAR inspection for vegeta- Powerline Modelling: Industry standard
tion management and clear- PLS-CADD models determine maxi-
ance monitoring mum line loading & vegetation clearan-
AAM’s GEOCIRRUS Web mapping tools
2. Thermographic and UV ces under various scenarios and provide combine inspection data, condition reports
inspection for asset condition the basis for future design works. and vector layers — all presented in a
3. Photographic inspection for Condition reports and work orders: simple Web browser

Advertorial
Experience, Innovation & Integration
For over 20 years, AAM has conducted aerial inspection of powerlines across
diverse terrain types and weather conditions, incorporating
50+
Clients in utilities and energy
30+
Countries of aerial
530,000+ 1,000,000+
Kilometres Assets
sectors mapping survey survey experience surveyed inspected
powerlines and pipelines
AAM’s ongoing innovation in powerline solutions will deliver cost efficiencies to utilities by
AAM's ongoing innovation in powerline solutions will deliver cost efficiencies to utilities by:
Adding more Real-time Long range Further Adding

sensors to fault detection UAVs automating functionality
our one-pass from aircraft fault reports into to Cloud-
solution to satellite to utilities’ work based delivery
utility order and asset and analysis of
maintenance fault reports
systems
to produce a risk model for five key

vegetation risk components: bush-
fire, compliance, safety, reliability and
finance. Single-pass inspection for
asset maintenance and vegetation
management reduces network opera-
tions costs and mitigate risk.
Timely and reliable inspections
provide the base data to manage net-
work risk, eliminate bushfire starts,
High-resolution imagery enables desktop inspection of assets reduce network outages, reduce
inspection costs and time, maximi-
Customized condition reports business rules. ze worker and public safety, and
integrate with corporate asset ma- GEOCIRRUS Web mapping: Access optimize maintenance tasks.
nagement and work order systems your inspection data and reports, Modern surveying services are
to optimise maintenance and vege- tools and workflows as-a-service and currently being deployed in Africa,
tation trimming task schedules for integrate with external GIS data. Share India and South East Asia to reduce
work crews. maps, assets and reports from aWeb outages and energy loss.
Network Modelling: Complete 3D browser or mobile device.
models of your electricity network Risk-based Modelling: Manage vege- Want to find out more?
and vegetation management tools tation risk holistically by consuming Visit aamgroup.com/powerlines or
can be tailored to your risk profile and LiDAR and other spatial datasets email info@aamgroup.com

Utilities | Case Study
Simulation of overhead
conductor behavior under
different weather conditions
(high wind, high temperature) to
assess clearances to vegetation
in adverse conditons
Timely asset and vegetation

data, along with predictive
modelling, can significantly
reduce power line monitoring
costs for utilities
PRUNING POWER
types and growth patterns vary across
landscapes, so regular monitoring
is required to capture vegetation
PROBLEMS
encroachment. In remote areas, poor
access makes ground monitoring
excessively slow and expensive.
Simplistic vegetation monitoring
inspects and measures the proximity of
vegetation to the current location of the
conductors. But this method does not
account for worst-case scenarios where
hot weather and high demand bring the
T
he safe operation of an 11,000 because vegetation trimming involves conductors closer to vegetation.
kilometer transmission net- working at height and near live power To overcome the limitations of
work is the highest priority lines. However, costs can be substan- conventional vegetation inspection
for this transmission operator. tially reduced through accurate, timely programs, this transmission net-
With assets located in high fire danger asset and vegetation data and predic- work operator needed to improve
areas, and sections of densely vegetat- tive modelling. detection of vegetation and ease-
ed transmission line corridors at risk of ment encroachment while reducing
starting fires, risk minimisation is an Limitations of conventional programs inspection costs. Conductor-to-vege-
integral part of the company’s network Traditional ground inspection is slow, tation clearances in all environmental
management strategy. expensive and sometimes an inac- conditions and line loadings also
The costs to the electricity sector of curate method of detecting vegeta- needed to be maintained.
vegetation management are stagger- tion and easement encroachment. It was also imperative to develop
ing. For many utilities, vegetation Transmission networks extend across maintenance programs for effective
management is a significant operating thousands of kilometers, and a wide removal of all infringement vegeta-
expenditure in their budget. It also range of landscapes: urban, forested, tion based on measured growth rates.
involves significant worker safety risks agricultural and pastoral. Vegetation In addition, the preparation of work

Utilities | Case Study
deployment and risk minimization.

Other benefits included:
 Prioritization of vegetation mainte-
nance tasks, allowing more efficient
maintenance crew deployment
 Identification of priority infringe-
ments for immediate attention
 Complete set of PLS-CADD trans-
mission line models, ready for use
in future maintenance and manage-
ment tasks
 A detailed, auditable vegetation
Analysis of wire clearances to adjacent infrastructure, such as adjacent powerlines, management program that meets
crossings and buildings
organizational, Board and industry
regulator standards
 Reduced risk of power outages,
infrastructure damage and bush fires.
The network operator lowered its
operational risk and improved resident
and worker safety by identifying
vegetation infringements for worst-case
scenarios (not just at the time of the
inspection). These data form the basis
of a rigorous and auditable vegetation
management program for managers, the
Aerial inspection of power lines is the most efficient method to capture data for modelling company Board and industry regulators.
and asset mapping Automation of vegetation infringe-
ment reports to work orders reduced
orders and allocation to maintenance under ‘typical’, ‘excessive’ and data entry and processing delays.
crews needed to be automated. ‘maximum’ line load and weather AAM’s GEOCIRRUS approach
conditions automatically adds a map (site plan) to
Aerial inspection and vegetation  Vegetation profiling — every work order, explains site access,
modelling identify current and, by incorporat- provides owners’ contact details,
AAM’s aerial inspection team captured ing growth rate data, possible future and clarifies which trees need to be
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) vegetation infringements trimmed. This also facilitates more
data across the utility’s entire trans-  Document infringements — efficient deployment of the network
mission network. LiDAR provided the by graphically identifying the actual operator’s contract maintenance crews
raw data to support: offending branches, along with site as pruning works take into account
 Precision mapping — access details current and predicted growth (saves
acquire high definition vegetation  Maintenance work orders — revisiting remote sites).
and asset data to accurately define streamline maintenance contractor By conducting an aerial LiDAR
the transmission network work orders to meet the organiza- survey of its entire network, this
 Power line modelling — tion’s asset management standards network operator has lowered outage
build power line models with PLS- and fire start risks, improved safety
CADD using actual load levels and Benefits galore for residents and workers, increased
weather conditions at the time of the AAM’s vegetation intrusion reports utilisation of maintenance crews and
survey provided the utility with many reduced maintenance costs.
 Tailored scenario modelling — benefits, including improved veg-
predict vegetation infringements etation management, efficient staff Courtesy: AAM Group

A Spatial Foundation For Smart Cities
AAM provides intelligent, 3D maps

for Smart City development
Building Information Models LiDAR

Urban Modelling Satellite, Aerial and Oblique Imagery
3D Visualisation and Analysis Mobile Laser Scanning
To discuss your Smart City requirements, contact us at:

www.aamgroup.com | info@aamgroup.com
Cover Story | Agriculture
Farms of the
FUTURE
High-accuracy GPS- or GNSS-based fully autonomous or robotic field machines are a hit with
small-scale, high-profit agriculture. By Jyotsana Chuchra
A
griculture is a big business. Today, it is highly driven by technologies
and tools like satellite imageries, aerial imageries, GIS, GNSS/GPS,
automated sensors, high tech machineries. The latest buzzwords for
the sector are drones and robots. High accuracy GPS- or GNSS-
based fully autonomous or robotic field machines have begun to be employed
in small-scale, high profit-margin agriculture.
Agricultural drones are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used for pre-
cision agriculture, which is a modern method of farming that uses Big Data,
aerial imagery and other means to optimize efficiency. They offer powerful
data processing capabilities afforded by Cloud-based computing to deliver
aerial monitoring, inspection, and intelligence-gathering capabilities.
A report published by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems
International (AUVSI) indicates agricultural drones are expected to capture
80% of the commercial UAV market and has the potential to generate more
than 100,000 jobs in the US.

On the same lines, the need for automization in the sector. This helps
electro-mechanical machines that to bring greater level of accuracy,
operate automatically by a com- consistency, safety and reliability.
puter program and contains sensors, “Drones are bringing new insights
control systems, manipulators, power to the farmers by collecting data on
supplies and software all working plant level and generating advice
together to perform a task resulted in on square meter scale instead of on
development of robots. field level,” emphasizes Bert Rijk,
According to Debashis Das, Co-Founder and CEO of Crop-
Founder and CEO, Bharati Robotic Zoomer.farm.
Systems (India), “Robotics in The major advantage is that smart
agriculture is a subset of the pre- machines are capable of sensing each
cision farming set of technologies individual crop, instantly determining
used in every stage of crop yielding its health, structure and needs in real
from soil assessment to ploughing/ time, and apply the precise amount of
seeding to harvesting and packaging.” care — nutrients, insecticide, pes-
The stages include usage of various ticide, water, etc. The advantage of
types of robots (including drones) to using agricultural robots is that they
increase overall productivity, he adds. are capable of collecting crop and soil
samples because they are small in
Varied applications driving growth size, which allows them to be able to
Staring from collecting insightful accumulate data close to the crops with
crop data from fields with automated the equipped cameras and sensors.
sensors to interpretation of the data, They are also capable of mowing,
analyzing and making real-time, more spraying pesticides, finding diseases or
accurate assessments and decisions parasites, and performing mechanical
on the field, these technologies have weeding.
revolutionized farming. The full or The benefits of automization and
partial replacement of human labor on mechanization can be seen spread-
the farms is a clear indication of the ing to crops like tomatoes, peppers,
WHERE ARE ROBOTS

 Automated harvesting systems
DRONES
 Precision agriculture
THEY BEING 

Weed control
Autonomous systems for navigation in the fields


Survey farm land
Remote sensing and mapping fields, crops and land
USED 

Mowing, pruning, seeding, spraying and thinning
Nurseries


Multispectral measurements for site-specific land development
Analysis of soil, health and vigor of crops
 Rowcrop, vineyard, and orchard applications  Agricultural development, irrigation and nutrient management
 Sorting and packing  Fertilizer and pesticides measurement
 Agricultural robot platforms  Environmental impact assessment and flood risk surveys

strawberries, etc, thus making them

more affordable; dramatically reduced
loss of soil to erosion; reduction of
agriculture’s contribution to CO2 pro-
duction and reversal of the loss of soil
carbon, helping to soak up some of the
extra CO2 already in the atmosphere;
increased system resilience for a more
robust response to climate change;
Source: Tractica
and increased respect, and a far more
interesting livelihood, for farmers.
Benefits galore
With the global population expected Agricultural robot revenue and shipments, global markets: 2015-2024
to touch 9 billion by 2050, there is a
greater demand for food resources. Add
to that rising urbanization putting a con-
stant stress on available land resources
for faring. In order to keep with the
challenges, there is need to find ways to
improve our current farming practices
and processes. Developed regions like
the US and Europe are already observ-
ing a strong bend towards automated
Source: Tractica
farming devices and services, which are
helping to increasing productivity rate
and declining expenses by eliminating
the need for human labor.
Rijk believes that there exists a Agricultural robot revenue by application type, global markets: 2015-2024
supporting environment in terms of
policies and conducive plans, and this Robotics Business Review stated Toward systems integration
is growing. “Both agriculture and tech- recently that “the US Department As we have seen elsewhere in the
nology as well as high-tech farming of Agriculture’s (USDA) National geospatial industry, there is a clear
have been on the top priority of the Institute of Food and Agriculture move towards system integration
national agenda in the Netherlands. (NIFA) announced $2.5 million here too. More and more hardware
With the slow and unrealistic regula- in grants to advance the use of companies are partnering with
tion however we see a lot of innova- co-robots that benefit and assist agriculture software and service pro-
tive start-ups moving to countries with stakeholders in America’s production viders with offer complete solutions
less strict regulations,” he adds. agriculture field.” for customers.
WHY USE DRONES AND ROBOTS
Integrated GIS Increase Saves Ease of Return on

Mapping Yields TIme Use Investment

How big will be Global
Industrial drone manufacturer
MMC recently announced a partner-
ship with “agricultural intelligence”
Agri market by 2020?
company Agribotix, to provide a
dedicated agriculture drone solution,
including camera and analytics. Robots: $817 million in 2013 are anticipated
DroneDeploy, a leading provider
to reach $16.3 billion by 2020
of Cloud-based drone software and
mapping solutions, has partnered with (Markets and Markets)
agriculture-focused analytics com-
pany Aglytix and ag-tech company
AgriSens to provide new tools in
time for the growing season. The two Drones: $135 million in 2015 are is
new tools, designed to offer action- anticipated to achieve over $555 million at a
able insights about plant count and CAGR of 21% from 2016 to 2023.
stand establishment, demonstrate the
growing influence that drones are
(GMInsights)
having on precision agriculture.
DJI and PrecisionHawk are team-
ing up in order to make life on the
farm easier. The companies announced
WHAT ARE THE
plans to link DJI’s drone hardware
DRIVING FACTORS?
with PrecisionHawk’s software. The
new DJI/PrecisionHawk solution Need to feed the
will include PrecisionHawk’s new growing world Which region retains
DataMapper Inflight app, access to population
big leads in the global
DataMapper’s library of analysis algo- Short supply of market? Europe
rithms, and a one-year subscription to agriculture labor and
DataMapper. The DataMapper Inflight rising labor costs
app is designed for data collection, Ability of the drones to
allows users to create a flight plan that monitor farm and weather
autonomously collects geospatial data, conditions within the reach
of the average farmer
and is compatible with the entire line
of DJI hardware. Focus on improving
Big geospatial market players like agriculture productivity Future growth belongs
Topcon, Trimble and Hexagon Geospa- through improved efficiency to which region? US
tial have also in recent times geared up and effectiveness of
farming practices
in the precision agriculture field and are
moving toward complete solutions. In
addition to addressing all-season crops, Inforgraphic: Subhash Kumar
terrains and vehicles including tractors,
applicators, and harvesters, agricultural
solutions from Topcon provide complete
crop management and control solutions.
Hexagon Geospatial has released
seven different types of Vegetation
Health Hexagon Smart M.Apps which
make use of remote sensing algorithms
to identify plant and crop health from

Cover Story | Interview
Needed: ich,
Lia Re ident,
Smart regulation Pre s

Vice Hawk talks
ion ce
Precis he importan nd
Smart technology provision

t a
about essing data e
of procerstanding th
und ht quickly
and responsible use

insig
of other technologies like the Cloud, technology provision and responsible

which has tremendous processing use to enable users effectively.
capabilities. The drone is collecting a
large amount of data, so being able to Are the policies and plans
process that quickly and understanding conducive enough to support the
the insight quickly is very important. use of drones in agriculture?
A farmer may fly in the morning PrecisionHawk is a part of several
to understand what is going on and industry coalitions and the message
then take an action in the afternoon. that we made sure was provided to the
Digitizing that insight and making it regulatory experts, whether with the
accessible to the farmer and making it FAA or other governmental agencies,
fit into their workflow, whether that is was around our customer’s needs.
on their phone, iPad or farm manage- Obviously many of our customers
ment system is critical. That integra- work in the agriculture industry, so
tion effort is something we spend a lot it was crucial that regulations hit the
of time focusing on at PrecisionHawk, sweet spot of what those needs are
to make that process as seamless as in agriculture. Those types of needs
possible. included not needing a pilot’s license,
making sure farmers can operate in
How do you see the future of the airspace above their farm fields,
W
hat are the major benefits agriculture with drones? making sure they can survey a whole
of drones in agriculture? There have been many predictions field in flight, and the way Part 107
When PrecisionHawk thinks on what autonomous vehicles will be was written seems to hit all of those
about drones in agriculture, we think able to do across industries. They will things pretty well.
about drones lending a new perspec- increase safety, improve management The new drone rule in the US
tive. They provide a greater level of of assets, increase profitability. We allows for a much broader access to
visibility that improves the way a believe that this trend will continue drone technology that can be used
farmer manages his/her fields. That and there are several things, on a broad by a wider audience of people. Up
extra visibility can create an insight scale, that are helping to improve that. until now, operators needed a special
that helps a farmer be more efficient Battery technology is one; the ability exemption from the FAA, but with
and more productive. In agriculture, it to miniaturize sensors is another abil- this new rule, as long as you meet a
is all about understanding two things ity to add autonomy to vehicles. When few pretty minimal requirements and
— first, the change that is happening you look at all these, what we are see- operate safely, you can legally operate
in your field and second, the identifi- ing is that they are actually converging drones in agriculture. What I think
cation of anything that is different or into industries (whether it is agricul- you are going to see is a movement
an anomaly. With that extra level of ture, insurance or energy). I could see from a few very select companies
visibility a drone provides, the farmer a day where all a farmer needs to do is operating drones previously to a broad
is able to understand what is happen- pick up their smart device, look at the community of farmers having access
ing to his/her assets more precisely. current scenario and start deploying to the technology. We hope this will
Timeliness is very important. This things based on that smart device. also set the stage for progress on a
is where we can leverage the power We need smart regulation, smart global scale.

allows farmers to highlight a field, Europe: The EU-funded CROPS
KEY PLAYERS autonomously fly a UAV, capture precise project envisages intelligent sensing
 Blue River Technology imagery, manage data, produce QuickTi- and manipulation for sustainable
 Agribotix: MMC partners leTM maps, and deliver data to a piece production and harvesting of high
with Agribotix for high-end of equipment, all at the field edge. value crops aims to develop a highly
drone agricultural offerings Smaller drones such as those made configurable, modular and clever
 AGCO Corporation by DJI and 3DR have proven useful in platform comprising a modular
 Vision Robotics Corporation crop and livestock production. They manipulator and 'intelligent tools'
 3D Robotics are ideal for scouting crops and live- (sensors, algorithms, sprayers,
 Precision Hawk stock, and can be used effectively to grippers) that can be easily installed
 DJI capture imagery for precision manage- onto the carrier and that is capable of
ment decisions such as variable-rate adapting to new tasks and conditions.
in-season fertilization, weed identifica- It has a separate robotic platform
a variety of different sensors. The apps tion, livestock inventory and identify- which is capable of intelligent spray-
focuses on the burgeoning precision ing sick animals. ing (targeted spraying only on foliage
agriculture movement and the increas- DJI, the world largest drone and selected targets) and selective
ing ubiquity of UAVs; the Cloud-based manufacturer, recently announced the harvesting of fruit.
map applications make remote sensing release of the Agras MG-1, claimed to Asia-Pacific: China is seen ahead in
techniques accessible to more users. be one of the best agricultural drones. the race of developing nations for inte-
The Trimble UX5 Aerial Imaging The Agras is an octocopter designed grating more self-driven solutions into
Solution is setting the standard for to spray large areas of farmland with its field and agriculture endeavors. The
fast and safe aerial data collection by pesticides or fertilizers. Because it market for plantation unmanned aerial
offering a complete system with pow- can cover an extraordinary amount of services in China is worth 30 billion
erful technologies such as reversed distance quickly — 4,000-6,000 sq yuan ($4.5 billion) per annum with
thrust and automatic fail-safe proce- meter in just 10 minutes — DJI claims the government pushing to increase
dures, a robust design, and radically that it is 40-60 times more efficient than standardization and automation in
simplified workflow. manual spraying. The DJI Agras MG-1 the agricultural sector, according to a
is dustproof, water-resistant and made of report by Guotai Junan Securities.
Advent of new technologies anti-corrosive materials. It can be rinsed South Asia: Among the most stated
Technology providers like Blue River clean and folded up for easy transport in India is the joint effort of Agricul-
Technology are coming up with and storage after use. ture Insurance Company of India along
precision agriculture technologies like A Japanese company called with Skymet, a weather forecasting
High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping SPREAD is to open the world’s first company pilot project in parts of Guja-
(HTPP) which are the integration of 'indoor lettuce robot farm' in 2017, and rat and Rajasthan to see how drones
genetics, sensors and robotics. It is used the fully automated farming process can be used to survey crops and help
to develop new varieties or 'lines' of a would make the lettuce cheaper and map crop diseases along with helping
crop to improve characteristics such as better for the environment. insurance companies settle claims.
nutritive content, drought, pest toler- Other most stated project KISAN-
ance and plant physical characteristics Going by the geography C(K)rop Insurance using Space tech-
like height, leaf number, size, shape, Realizing the potential, countries are nology And geoiNformatics, initiative
angle, color, wilting, stalk thickness, pushing to increase automation in the by Mahalanobis National Crop Fore-
etc. The company raised $17 million in agricultural sector, with government cast Centre (MNCFC). The project
Series B to Build 4th Generation Robot support and initiatives and active envisages use of Space Technology
for Production Ag. participation from the industry. and geoinformatics (GIS, GPS and
Sentera LLC has released an
agriculture app with autonomous flight
planning to its AgVaultTM 2.0 mobile
Cloud-based map applications make remote sensing
app. The company managed to raise techniques accessible to more users
$8.5 million in Capital Round. AgVault

Investment into drones & robotics

start-ups increased 237% on 2014
volumes to $389 million in 2015 with
42 of them raising funds
Smartphone) technology along with is helping Panamanian farmers of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight
high resolution data from UAV/drone- use agricultural drones, data and drone platform and advanced wire-
based imaging for improvement in analytics to boost crop production less technologies to collect, process,
yield estimation and better planning and reduce costs. The agricultural analyze and transmit real-time crop
of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs), intelligence company is working intelligence to farmers and environ-
needed for crop insurance programme. with the Inter-American Institute for mental stakeholders in Brazil.
North America: The region currently Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to
produces the most UAVs in the com- show growers the benefits of using the The way ahead
mercial industry in general and in the technology as a basic tool in precision For the society at a large, where drone
agricultural sector in particular. North agriculture programs. and robotic technology is experiencing
Dakota State University (NDSU) The Drone Technology Develop- an explosive growth, there is need for
launched an agricultural research pro- ment Program for Precision Agri- a participatory approach to educate the
ject incorporating drone technology. culture was launched in Sao Carlos, community about the use and benefits
The project is the most recent effort by Brazil in June this year. It is a collab- of these technologies.
NDSU to determine the role of UAS oration between Qualcomm Wireless The use of these tools can bring
in agricultural production and help Reach, the Brazilian Agricultural about higher production and provide
strengthen the state’s economy. The Research Corporation (Embrapa) and a definite method for systematic farm-
current project flies a Hermes 450 the Institute of Solidarity Socioeco- ing. More research and efforts pertain-
from Elbit, a small roto-copter and nomics (ISES). ing to these technologies to bring them
fixed-wing UAS to capture image data The program aims to demonstrate under the purchasing power of the
of a 4x40-mile corridor in east-central how drone technologies can be applied poor farmer can help to bring a change
North Dakota. The plan calls for to reduce environmental impact and in the farming community.
collecting data every two weeks during increase crop yields. The on-board
the 2016 crop-growing season. systems developed for drones will Jyotsana Chuchra
Latin America: Agribotix LLC’s combine Embrapa’s expertise in agri- Senior Manager - Market Intelligence
Latin American venture, Agribotix culture and image processing algo- and Business Consulting
LatAm (an Eco BCG company), rithms with the strong performance jyotsana@geospatialmedia.net

The first Magnetic Object Finding Olympiad (MOFO)
Monopod >>>
to + Bipod >>>
to + Tripod…
On demand.
Think of it as a rugged
Transformer-Pod,
We call it J-Pod.
www.javad.com
F
Front
And Now...
you are the conductor!
While not in magnetic locator mode, you can use the Smart Tip as a re-
mote control for the TRIUMPH-LS. Shake, move up, move down, single
bang, double bang, etc. can perform different functions (like Start and
Stop survey) as you assign gestures to different function.
Head-on-Shoulder Witch-on-Broom Tango Baby Hold The Cane
FR
Number of points
Center is the Stopped Mag Screen in the grid
point with the
highest Mag
-.4 -.2 FIX 25.5
115 Current Value
value [130]
32 Maximum
Known location Back positive
of the object 8
Progress Setup Tone Steps
to find very
weak peak Current
with RTK location
Save
Polarity
33
Select INT, S1, S2, Mag free
or S1-INT sensor (105) 0 number
and Z, XY or XYZ
directions S1
XYZ -20 Maximum
negative
Coordinates +55°47'12.2846"N +037°31'05.2491"E +215.327m
of the peak
To see Mag screens you must first click the A/V from the Start condition automatically guide
hardware button and pair the TRIUMPH-LS you to any positive or negative polarity object m
with your J-Tip (and to the Bluetooth headset, if of any magnetic value without needing to play tip
you want to.) with any gain button or orienting the sensor in se
any specific direction. You can also view the
In Action screens of Collect or Stake, click the positive and negative values simultaneously on In
icon to get to the Mag screen. the same bar which may give an indication of J-
the shape of the object. (a
J-Tip has three search modes of “Positive”,
“Negative”, and “Auto”. The search for Positive 3D
You can also alternate between Positive and
or Negative objects is fully automatic, for all Negative modes. Yo
levels of magnets, and you can start search on
from anywhere. There is no “Gain” knob to Unlike conventional magnetic detectors which bo
adjust. sense magnetic values only in one direction, Vi
the J-Tip has three dimensional magnetic
In the “Auto” mode, when you don’t know the sensors. You can view magnetic values in XY Sc
polarity of the object, you must Start/Clear (horizontal), Z (vertical), and XYZ (combined) ar
scanning away from magnetic objects. This directions. ra
records the mag free condition of the field. Then
as
again, the search is fully automatic. Variations In addition to the two three-dimensional
we
an
wi
(N
W
ve
wi
ar
hi
ce
Vi
Time view of S1 XYZ, XY, and Z components for the last 100 seconds.
Click on any graph component to see the expanded view. *R
1
3D magnetic view of the scanned field
e
an
the
de
e Yo
t dif
magnetic sensors (S1 and S2) in the smart with the highest mag value. Only points that
y tip, there is also a three-dimensional magnetic fit in the 11x11 grid will be shown. The number
n Th
sensor inside the TRIUMPH-LS (INT). of such points is shown above the progress bar. Sta
e The “Clear” button restarts the process.
n 3D
In addition to the audio notifications, the
f J-Tip shows magnetic values in “Time View” In Mag mode, pole tilts are corrected Tim
(always), and in “Spatial Views” (Mag, 2D, and automatically and RTK is set to extrapolation se
3D views) when you have RTK solutions. mode. du
d
the
You can view the 2D and 3D graphs by clicking When there are enough points in the 11x11 Cli
on the top part of the Mag screen. Click the grid (a bar shows progress), it stops and
h ex
bottom part of the Mag screen to see the Time you can save the point. You can also stop
, View.
c scanning and then click the “Save” button to Th
tip
Y Scan the area until the spread of mag values save point name, the peak magnetic value
to
) are higher than 2* (Start to Beep). Audio beep and the Mag Screenshots. mo
rates of 2, 4, 6, 10 Hz or tones are automatically
The calculated coordinates of the object is
assigned to magnetic values according to the Wh
l shown in the bottom of the Mag screen.
weights assigned in the Dynamic Beep Screen J-T
and based on Min and Max mag values. There When pole is tilted less than 5 degrees, solutions Pa
will be no tone when mag value less than 0.5* will be corrected for pole tilt, otherwise points LE
(No Beep <) will be ignored. Time Plots show mag values at red
all times. se
When you have fixed RTK, hold the monopod fro
vertical (within 5 degrees) to tag mag values J-Tip finds the Minimum and the Maximum
with their coordinates. The Smart Tip scans the automatically. If you disturb the normal field Yo
area 100 times per second and stores the 121 scan by exposing the J-Tip to an external mag tim
highest mag values and shows them in 11x11 object, click the Start button.
cells of 3* cm (Digitizing Size) wide. In Spatial We
Views, the graphs are centered on the cell The hardware Start and Stop buttons start/reset the
sim
*Red numbers are the default values for their respective items (in bold) in Setup screen.
2 3
2D magnetic view of the field Horizontal and vertical magnetic vector
and stop scanning. You can stop scanning, view The Smart Tip advantages:
the results in different screens and settings, and
decide the next step. • J-Tip does not have “null” points around the
peak and will not produce false alarms.
You can assign gestures (like tilt and shake) for
different functions. Tilt-and-back resets. • J-Tip is fully automatic for all levels of
magnets. There is even no “Gain” button to
The known position of the object (entered in the adjust.
Stakeout screen) is shown on the Mag, 2D and
3D screen if this option is selected. • J-Tip senses the mag values in all directions.
You don’t need to orient it differently in different
Time graphs show the magnetic values of the searches.
selected sensors in Z, XY and XYZ directions
during the past 100 seconds. It also shows • J-Tip gives a 2D and 3D view of the field
the Min and Max values since the Start/Rest. condition when you have RTK and will guide
Click on any of the three graph component to you to the object. You can actually see the
expand it. shape of buried object.
The J-Tip is 48 millimeter longer than the metal • J-Tip, In Time View, shows positive and
tip that the monopod is graduated for. Add this negative mag values of the last 100 seconds
to the antenna height offset when in survey and the Min and the Max since Start.
mode.
• J-Tip shows the instantaneous magnetic We
When not “Paired”, the Bluetooth LED of the vector in horizontal and vertical directions. str
J-Tip blinks red. When “Paired” it is red. When Th
• J-Tip works as a remote control for the co
Paired and Connected, it is blue. The power
TRIUMPH-LS An
LED shows charge level with green, yellow, and
red colors. Hold the “On/Off“ button for three ex
• J-Tip weighs 120 grams and replaces the ful
seconds to turn off. Click it 3 times to unpair it standard pole tip. In balance, it weighs almost
from the TRIUMPH-LS. nothing. T
h
You can set the J-Tip to turn itself off after some • The built in camera of the TRIUMPH-LS w
time of inactivity. documents the evidence after digging. th
a
We keep improving the J-Tip. You can update • And... you don’t need to carry another bulky m
the firmware of the J-Tip via TRIUMPH-LS device. fit
similar to updating the TRIUMPH-LS. It
3 4
Sensor and Direction selection screen allows you
to select the type of mag data to be shown in
Time View and in 2D/3D and Mag screens and
for tones.
All values are recorded in parallel. You can stop
the scan and then click to see different sensors
or sensor/direction combinations. You can tune
the J-Tip to your preference or for special tasks.
Default values work just fine. We show flexibility in
examining the internal parameters.
Field View
When you scan a large area, you can save all
possible peak points, view them on the map and
select the point with the highest peak to dig.
e
When you save a point, you can also save all the
raw Mag sensor data for future view and research.
f We also plan to give you the ability to share that
o data with us by transferring it directly to our server
for analysis and improvement.
.
t Work Flow
d
e
e
d
s
c We have not only integrated a sophisticated magnetic in the TRIUMPH-LS, but we have also
streamlined the whole process. First the “Stakeout” screen will guide you toward the target.
Then the “Mag” screen locates your underground target and gives you its estimate of the
e coordinates of the underground target and a button to save it “as staked”.
And finally in the “Collect” screen you can survey the target point which you have dug up and
exposed. This is also the time to use the built in camera of the TRIUMPH-LS to photograph and
e fully document the evidence which you have recovered.
t
The addition of the J-Tip into my daily work has reduced a portion of the bulk and weight that I
have come accustomed to over the years. I actually feel like I have lost a few pounds of body
S weight since the yellow thing isn’t hanging from my side 10 or 12 hours a day (not to mention
the beating my knees took with every step). I remember my first year surveying, I was solo with
a robot and my bosses orders wrote down on a map or plans and No one to carry the load but
y me. I have dreamed about and made it a mission to lighten the load ever since. The J-Tip will
fit in my pocket and weighs less than my phone. Guy Clark has a song called “Stuff that works”.
It’s the J-Tip theme song.
Adam Plumley, PLS
4
J-Tip and the first Magnetic Object
Finding Olympiad (MOFO)
Results:
Adam Plumley, PLS 18/19

Shawn Billings, PLS 17/19*
John Evers, PLS 16/19
Matt Sibole, PLS 16/19
Matt Johnson, PE 15/19
Javad Ashjaee, Ph. D. 11/19
The arena
*Shawn was first disqualified for doping, but
he appealed and got reinstated by bribing
Javad with a bottle of Texas BBQ sauce.
Ahead of the first Mag Objects Finding Olympiad (MOFO), our Michael
Glutting had planted 19 mag nails, close together, from 16d common nails to
2-3/4 inch Mag Spikes from ChrisNik, in an 18 x 12 feet land in front of our San
Jose headquarters. The site had a great deal of ambient noise from a nearby
freeway and construction work. Later we found that the land was also infested
with several old junk nails.
Contestants were challenged to find the nails and identify their type from the
signal strength.
In the huddle At work
3D view of the field 3D view of the field

FL
Monopod, 8 and 40 sec Connect legs on demand + Bipod.
level vials, compass, to make bipod or tripod.
Accessory hooks.
Monopod >>> to + Bipod >>>

to + Tripod…
On demand.
Rugged, Light, Compact,
Easy to level.
* Detachable landing
and resting pads.
* Mace leg grips
(grabs concrete,
asphalt, bricks
+Tripod. and soil firmly)
The most stable tripod.

It will never collapse,
even on wet glass.
Think of it as a rugged
Transformer-Pod,
We call it J-Pod.
Travel mode. Inside bag.
Back www.javad.com F
Agriculture | Interview
NOBODY BUYS
TECHNOLOGY
FOR TECHNOLOGY’S SAKE
H
ow would you rate the uptake of precision agriculture in
the APAC region?
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is still in the early stage of
adoption of precision agriculture technologies. So, compared to the
Americas or Europe, the uptake is relatively low. There are some Asian
Lack of awareness countries, like China and Japan, that have readily embraced this tech-
nology and are adopting strongly. However, significant opportunities
and recognition about are yet to be tapped in the majority of markets.
the value proposition I believe the single biggest impediment to the adoption of this
technology is that smaller versions of the equipment are not available.
associated with precision Precision agriculture in the western world is all about big equipment;
agriculture is holding it is not yet nimble. The technology started with a price point that was
quite high. Now, it is coming down. This would allow the technology
the APAC region back, to be integrated into smaller and more agile equipment.
explains Michael
Do you sense a lack of awareness among small-holder farmers
Gomes, VP - Business when it comes to the benefits of precision agriculture?
Development at Topcon Not just a lack of awareness, there is also a lack of understanding.
Farmers will adopt a technology when they become convinced of its
Precision Agriculture value proposition. Nobody buys technology just for the technology’s
sake. The evolution of precision agriculture in the West began with
agronomics. Then it quickly transitioned into equipment efficiency and
ideas like manual guidance, auto-steering, etc. Now, it has come back
to agronomics. In the APAC region, because the farm size is signifi-
cantly smaller, the challenges associated with the payback of the tech-
nology are different. Farmers need to be shown the payback on a small
scale in order to help drive both awareness and technology adoption.

be applied pre-emergent (before the

seeds emerge), some can be applied
in-season, and some can be applied
With more and more sensors getting embedded into
just in time using weather monitoring
the farm equipment, the equipment is increasingly to manage the risks.
becoming smart and connected. There is a huge
potential for autonomous machines in APAC Tell us about the recently formed
Topcon Agriculture Group?
Topcon got into the agriculture business
How can Topcon help South- is increasingly becoming smart and in October 2006 with the acquisition
east Asia achieve sustainable connected. You can transfer the data of Adelaide, Australia-based KEE
agriculture? up and down. You can utilize the work Technologies. And then we acquired
The concepts of sustainability and pre- of that particular piece of equipment various pieces of the puzzle along the
cision agriculture go hand in glove. It is to understand different aspects of the way — SGIS Software, Wachendorff
all about using only what you need and production cycle, and its affect on the Elektronik, Digi-Star and NORAC.
when you need — getting the most pro- value chain. There is a huge potential This collection of companies within our
ductivity from a particular area by vari- for autonomous machines in the APAC agricultural market segment needed to
able rich seeding or applying a specific region. We are seeing it in the dairy be brought together under a common
quantity of fertilizers. For example, market already. In the dairy market, product platform. That led to the birth of
our sensor-based CropSpec technology the smallest farms are the first ones Topcon Agriculture Group.
can distribute fertilizers where they are to become mainstream adopters of We have divided our focus on three
needed the most by the plant. autonomous feeding systems. regions: Americas; Europe, Middle-East
and Africa; and APAC. We have one
Asia is expected to increase its What kind of R&D goes into your facility in each of these regions which
agriculture output by 20% in the next precision agriculture solutions? allows us to put both the core compe-
decade. What kind of opportunities We invest fairly heavily in research tency of the technology and the engi-
does Topcon see in the region? and development. In order to get neering resources all in one common
We see a world of opportunities. At agriculture going where it needs to go place. Each of these facilities is home to
Topcon, our core technologies are — to meet the demands of the future a large test site where the equipment can
sensors. And sensors enable produc- — we cannot bank on a single technol- be tested. This group will have a global
tivity. When a machine travels through ogy. Multiple technologies need to be diversified management, with increased
the field collecting data, it can tell the brought together. These could include focus specific to Europe. This is because
stakeholders exactly what was done, very advanced seeds which need to we have a high number of customers,
where it was done, when it was done be planted with variable rate of plant as well as over 200 employees and four
and how it was done. This provides population and the ability to change facilities in the European region. We
accountability and control. With more seeds between two different potential also see a significant market opportunity
and more sensors getting embedded varieties. And when you are apply- there with many customers and a huge
into the farm equipment, the equipment ing fertilizers, some fertilizers can market growth potential as the industry
continues to adopt the technology.
Over the last decade, we developed
a platform of sensors and core compe-
tencies in electronics that got us where
we want to go. Now, we are working
to bring together all the technologies
to develop end-to-end solutions for
our customers, as well as world class
components for original equipment
manufacturers to be integrated into
efficient and smart machines.

You
Tube
© kolett – Fotolia.com
UNIGIS International
Educating GIS Professionals Worldwide
A GLOBAL NETWORK OF UNIVERSITIES

University of Salzburg, Austria
Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
Óbuda University, Alba Regia Faculty, Hungary
UNIGIS India - Centre for Geoinformatics Delhi, India
Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Geomatika College International Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kathmandu Forestry College, Nepal
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
King Abdulaziz University Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
UNIGIS Sub Saharan Africa, South Africa
Universitat de Girona, Spain
Manchester Metropolitan University & the University of Salford, UK
University of Southern California, USA
Agriculture | Tracking System
Hunting Halal
From Farm-to-Table
M
d. Karim is a businessman Prof. Dato’ Dr. Shattri Mansor,
It says it is halal-certified. who runs a meat joint Geospatial Information Research
But is it really? Geofencing can in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Center (GISRC), Faculty of Engi-
Lumpur. Every morning neering, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
help remove the ambiguity. Karim gets fresh halal supplies from a believes not. “Right now, we just go
By Manoj Joshi local meat supplier, who gets the meat for the label and the barcode. There
delivered from a meat farm. Karim is no understanding of how the meat
does brisk business everyday because actually comes to the supermarket.
most of his customers are Muslims, There are no records.” This is impor-
and they prefer him over others. They tant because halal products are not
think that Karim being a Muslim guaranteed halal if the halals supply
himself would buy only genuine halal chain did not apply. Several factors can
meat. But how can Karim ensure that lead to the risk of cross-contamination,
the meat he is serving his customers is such as, sharing containers, poor
really halal? Is a label enough? visibility of the container inventory,
MS1500:
1022-11/ 2009
2011

GETTING THE STAMP
The halal method
of slaughter,
dhabihah,
requires that an
animal has its
throat slit with a well-sharp-
ened knife; that the butcher
the transit place of the container, As Malaysia moves toward be Muslim; and that the blood
the history of immediate supplier becoming a world halal hub, GISRC is drained from the animal. To
and maintenance, and segregation has come up with a traceability system get one’s products deemed
allocation places. for halal logistic transportation — the halal — permissible for Muslim
Earlier this year, a US business- HalalTracer. It combines the GPS consumption — the certifica-
man was jailed for two years over tracking system technology with tion is handled by an Islamic
fraud in the export of beef products to geofence algorithm to allow the logis- authority. In Malaysia, it is the
Malaysia and Indonesia that did not tics service provider and authorities to government’s Islamic Develop-
meet halal standards. The offending monitor the activity that occurs during ment Department, or Jakim.
products came from a slaughterhouse the delivery of halal products.
in America that was not approved A geofence is a virtual barrier. The
for importation by these countries — tracking software program uses the Once the goods get transferred to
highlighting the fact that logistics play global positioning system (GPS) or another place, chances of adulteration
a very important role in protecting the radio frequency identification (RFID) become much higher. HalalTracer can
halal status of the product. to define geographical boundaries. help check the route which the truck is
HalalTracer provides route infor- following, or where it is stopping and
mation, and with little improvement for how long.
in existing geofence technique, the “Based on that data, analysis can
vehicle stopping area can be checked be done whether the truck is stopping
and an alert be issued if the vehicle for rest or for food, or is it stopping
stopped at unknown area. at another warehouse to take other
The system uses GPS tracker and consignments,” Mansor explains.
offers real-time monitoring of the During the auditing process, authorities
vehicle on a Web-based platform to can easily check if there are any events
present the results of tracking and occurring during the transportation pro-
alerts. Apart from giving the location cess that lead to the possibility of a halal
information, this system also gives product becoming a non-halal product.
product information, so that the con- In the future, other sensors, such
signee and consignor both can trace as weighing scale and door sensor,
where their product comes and go. would be integrated into this system
Mansor adds, “To guarantee authentic- to avoid any confusion related to the
ity, we can simply install a GPS device stoppage location. The researchers are
on a supply truck and track it in the also mulling implementing this system
real-time on Google Maps. The GPS in mobile version for Android- and
will give the location information in iOS-based tablets to make it more
every 5-minutes interval.” user-friendly and flexible.
Maintaining the halal status is also
a challenge because the manufacturers Manoj Joshi
can guarantee the halal status only Sub Editor
while the goods are in their custody. joshimanoj@geospatialmedia.net

NEWTOOLS
FOROLD CROPS
Jagresh Rana, Asia-Africa Lead, Monsanto, stresses on
the need for smart agriculture as he explains that the real
battle of climate change will be fought in Asia and Africa
W
hy does the world need are resistant to diseases and pests, seeds
sustainable agriculture? that are resistant to herbicide applica-
The world has almost over tions. These high-yielding, good-qual-
7 billion people today and in the ity seeds can do better even in stress,
next 20-25 years, that number would like very dry conditions, and can help
increase to 9.5 billion. Naturally, farmers to produce more from the same
the demand for food will increase. unit of land.
As the economic condition of the We also provide data solutions
people improves, especially in Asia to the farmers. Farmers use our data
and Africa, the consumption of better and analytics to take better decisions
quality food is also on the rise. We in terms of their farming practices.
have no choice, but to increase the Through our inputs, they can either
food production. One way of doing reduce their cost or they can improve
that would be by bringing more land productivity.
into agriculture. But, the land which Our work also revolves around the
is already under agriculture is also microbial solutions. We have collab-
shrinking because of industrialization, orated with one of the world’s
urbanization and soil quality erosion. largest microbial company,
Given these challenges, the only way Novozyme. And we
to sustain is by producing more food have been invest-
from per unit land available. ing in develop-
ing a number of
Monsanto spent over $1.5 billion in microbial-based
R&D last year. What kind of innova- products and
tive solutions are you working on? solutions,
Our major focus is on developing bio- which farmers
tech solutions for seeds — seeds that can use to
44 • Geospatial World • September 2016

The mobile applications have probably opened up for
control certain diseases and improve
the first time. With just a click, you can speak to millions
the soil fertility.
of farmers in one go. And this is just the beginning; we
Do different regions of the world have not even scratched the surface
require different solutions based
on the geography? Is the Climate Corporation platform has increased significantly in the
Absolutely! Agriculture is a diversified same for the US and India? farming community, not only in India,
business. Asia and Africa mainly have There are some differences. In the US, but across Asia and Africa. Countries
small-holder based agriculture. So, the a farmer can go online and register. like Kenya are far ahead of many of
solutions should be such which can The GPS location of the farm is given the developing countries and some of
help farmers with one or two hectare to the farmer. There is a free version the developed countries as well, where
farms. Whereas, agriculture in other and a paid version of the platform. large amount of cash transactions
parts of the world, especially in parts In the free version, he gets the daily happen over the mobile phone. The
of Europe, North America and South rainfall data, favorable conditions for mobile applications have probably
America is more commercial ― there carrying out certain operations, etc. opened up for the first time. With just
are large-holder farmers and their The paid version has more customized a click, you can speak to millions of
access to machinery is very diverse. information, like, how much nitrogen farmers in one go. And this is just the
They require different solutions. a farmer can apply. beginning; we have not even scratched
Another aspect is a farmer’s access In India, the farmers can call on the surface.
to technology, especially on the data a toll-free number or send a text
science solutions part. In the US, we message and get advice from an expert Right now, you are providing free
work with farmers having approxi- in his local language. If the issue is not services in India. But, what kind of
mately 92 million acres of land; they resolved over the phone, in 24 hours business model are you looking at
have access to or are enrolled on one of our experts visits the farmer and in the future?
online services from our Climate Cor- helps out with an economic advice. The real battle of climate change will
poration platform. Similarly, in India, Right now, this service is available in be fought in Asia and Africa. They
we have a network where 4 million five states of India. will bear the brunt when a farmer
farmers are connected to our digital Farmers also have an access to with half a hectare land will lose his
platform called Farm Rise. Here, the commodity price analysis on a crop because of drought or of other
farmers can get access to agronomic daily basis. By simply sending a text environmental challenges. We are
services through their mobile phones. message, farmers can get comparative connected with 4 million farmers in
They can also get access to the daily price analysis from nearby markets. In India who buy our corn, cotton and
prices in the market. addition, farmers also get around 28 vegetable seeds. We provide them free
automated alert messages throughout services and they are getting bene-
the season which are based on the fitted. But yes, we are at the strategy
operations to be carried out in that formulation phase for a new business
particular weather situation. model which can really help in terms
of making information accessible to
How do you create aware- the farmers and improve their produc-
ness about smart agriculture tivity as well. Right now we are focus-
in a developing economy ing on getting as many as farmers on
where farmers are not very the platform and making sure that they
well-educated? have access to unique agronomic ser-
Asia and Africa are home to vices. The option of partnership with
almost 500 million farmers. the government and other agencies is
And the mobile penetration also open.

THE FUTURE LIES IN

MACHINE
LEARNING
Rogerio Bonifacio, Head, Geospatial
Analysis Unit, UN World Food Programme,
explains how the agency is utilizing geospatial
data and information
C
ould you elaborate on the mission of the World
Food Programme and how it is utilizing geospatial
technologies?
The World Food Programme is involved in humanitarian systems.
We have wide presence in more than 75 countries across the
world. And we assist around 75-85 million beneficiaries
across the world. Our operations range from very small
to very large in scale, like in South Sudan and
Ethiopia. The usage of earth observation data
has grown manifold in recent years, with
more focus on medium- and low-res-
olution data streams. This is mainly
because these are able to provide
wide spatial coverage, and their
high temporal frequency allow us
to keep track of hazards, such as,
droughts that tend to have large
impact on our operations — both
in terms of new beneficiaries that
may arise from such events and
keeping up with the expected rise
in beneficiaries at the end of the
season.
What is the UN mandate for

use of spatial technologies,
especially in agriculture and
food?
We work in close collaboration
with the Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO), the International
Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD) and other agencies. Each
agency has a separate, but coordi-
nated, usage of earth observation
data. So, despite having related man- Each agency has a separate, but coordinated usage
dates, we have different requirements of earth observation data. So, despite having related
and operational aspects. As a result, mandates, we have different requirements and
we tend to make complementary, but operational aspects.
slightly different use of the informa-
tion. The World Food Programme
is an operational agency. It is not in pattern of information in a timely mation, so we need to work together
the business of providing guaranteed manner. No other data would allow both on the economic access, and
quality global datasets. We provide us to monitor an entire continent in on the storage and processing of
information that is operationally a near-real-time basis. Occasionally, the information, and ultimately, the
relevant and useful. And we make ground station data can be used. But, digestion of all the raw data into usa-
it available on a ‘best effort’ basis. then you face accessibility issues and ble end-user products. That’s going
We share the data we generate if it experience difficulty of organizing to be the challenge and it is not a
serves the purposes of other users such data in consistent datasets. simple one.
downstream, but we don’t have a
mandate to produce specific types of How is the UN collaborating with Are the available datasets
information. Our information is freely private sector companies for data enough or are we lacking on the
available on our websites in terms of collection? analysis part?
reports that summarize the develop- The private sector has an important If you talk about the amount and
ment of growing seasonal crops. But contribution to make to the UN, variety of data, it is something
we also provide agri information from which is not limited only to earth that we need to resolve. We have
our data resolution platforms. observation data. But, if we talk to review our use cases; we have
specifically about EO, we have now to review different constellations
How is earth observation data stepped into a stage where we are because they do differ, even if so
being used in agriculture and trying to prove the usefulness of slightly. This is a considerable
land use activities by the UN? the information we have. So, a lot amount of work involved. First, we
One of the major things we do is in of new activity is going on in this need to identify which constellation
terms of early warnings to have some regard. However, since the sector is and services are more suitable to
before time estimates of the likely in a state of flux, it is a bit difficult each of the use cases. Because we
impact on agricultural production. to identify which types of systems have very diverse use cases — from
We also use long-term data to support would be more relevant three years very small geographically restricted
our climate services related activities. from now. Nonetheless, once we applications to very wide geograph-
And for the planning of our interven- have a more established industry, we ical scope requirements — it is not
tions, we also have to factor in hazard will have to make the case for the even clear which of the services will
frequencies, land degradation status use of earth observation data. be best suited.
and a variety of other information Cost is a crucial factor and hope- I believe that the future is in the
streams that are generated from earth fully it can be cut down. But there machine learning side of the analysis
observation data. are also unresolved questions that because of the sheer volume of data.
deal with the extraction of informa- We need automated system that can
What are the benefits of EO data tion from huge datasets. We, as an translate vast quantities of data into
compared to other information institution, do not have the capacity easily digestible information. The
sources? to deal with these large volumes of ground is quite fertile, both on the
There are times when anything else data. We don’t have the modern ana- research and on the operational front.
would not allow us to obtain the same lytics to extract the relevant infor- I foresee exciting times ahead.

Indoor Mapping
NE V E R G E T
LOS T AGA I N
s, supermarkets
Large office campuse re sector are
and the healthca
!
asing interest
showing an ever-incre or maps.
for indo
By Mathieu Gerard
T
oday, we are al
In the car, walki
modern smartp
so easy
more dependen
t
to
on
us e
th
l using maps to
m
ng in a city, biki
hones in our ha
em
ap
.
s
St
find our way.
ng... With the
nds, it is getting
that we are getti
ill, while we ha
y building, we
ng more and
ve an efficient
still end up
tra nc e of an
way to find the
en . How many
e se ar ch in g our way inside
often loosing tim permarket
st in a ho sp ital or left the su
of us never felt
lo know where
a pr od uc t be cause we didn’t
without buying dered where th
at new
fin d it? W ho has never won de sk is located?
to a colleague’s
w he re
meeting room
is or s’, they still
or an d ou td oo r maps are ‘map
Even if indo ost buildings
nt di ffe re nc es . First of all, m
have significa a tight
s want to keep
e pr iv at e an d venue manager bu ild ings and
ar
da ta . In th e case of office
control on thei
r enter, com-
re cl ea ra nc e is required to e
warehouses, w
he be visible to th
ac ce pt th e de tailed maps to or
panies never rports
y reasons, in ai
ne ra l pu bl ic . Also, for securit ea s ar e only to be
ge m e sensitive ar
pl e, so
hospitals for ex am e, the level of
iz ed pe rs onnel. Therefor
disclosed to au
th or tegory of users:
on th e m ap is adapted per ca
detail visible s, security
oy ee s, m ai nt enance engineer
visitors, empl
agents, etc.

for the meeting room, being able to
efficiently locate the desk of anyone is
considered very valuable by employ-
ees. With a French real estate services
company, Mapwize built an app for
employees around workspace man-
agement. By merging the agenda of
the meeting rooms with the presence
sensors piloting the lights, the map
shows in real-time if a room is free,
booked but not used, used but not
booked, or busy.
Setting a time, and room options
like size or desired equipment, one can
immediately visualize what room close
by is available. Clicking on a room
allows immediate booking. Printers,
free desks in flex office areas, quiet
rooms, noise level, everything can be
seen on the map to help employees
take advantage of the workspace.
Evolving buildings use of indoor mapping is healthcare. Computing optimal path

Secondly, buildings evolve all the Many hospitals have been through In supermarkets, the introduction
time, requiring constant updates. successive transformations of their of electronic price tags makes it
The only thing more frustrating than historical building, with units moving possible to position the thousands
having no map is to have an outdated as they needed to expand. of references. It is great for clients
map. Ideally, maps are linked to the As a result, buildings became every who can search for any reference and
facility's central database so that time a bit more complex and difficult find the one or many locations of the
changes are automatically propagated. to figure out for patients who do not go product. Moreover, it also signifi-
In most buildings, multiple changes there often. Also, patients are usually cantly improves the efficiency of the
occur every week. Communication already stressed enough with the exam staff. When a list of products need to
managers want the map of their they need to take, they do not want to be picked, the optimal path can be
buildings to match with the physical worry about how to get there. computed.
signage and brand identity. The map is It is curious that when we speak to
an important component of the overall Aiding medical staff most people about indoor maps, their
visitor experience, and another way to Surveys show that medical staff is main concern is how to compute the
differentiate from competition. very often asked for directions. The user position to show the blue dot.
Finally, routing rules inside a availability of indoor maps reduces the Are they forgetting that the history of
building are not always straightfor- number of solicitations and enables mapping is probably 7,000 years old
ward. The ‘best’ way from point A to the staff to answer more efficiently. while the GPS was open to the public
point B is not always the shortest, or Moreover, staff often uses the map only 20 years ago? Many companies
the fastest. Some doors might only be to quickly position material. Asset are going great research on indoor
accessible to authorized personnel. tracking devices can be attached to positioning. On our side, we focus on
And, of course, would it not be more important pieces of equipment so their the map.
interesting to guide visitors through position can be seen on the map.
the commercial gallery or the gift shop Large office campuses are also Mathieu Gerard
instead of through the little shortcut? showing a large interest for indoor Co-Founder & CTO, Mapwize
A sector making more and more maps. Besides the traditional search mathieu@mapwize.io

Mapping the
Unmapped
AS TRADITIONAL SURVEYING METHODS FALL SHORT IN
URBAN USES LIKE MAPPING THE HUTMENT, WEARABLE
REALITY CAPTURE SOLUTIONS COME TO THE RESCUE
W
ith an approximate bring transparency in the system of the task of mapping becomes more
population of 12.4 rehabilitation, the government initi- tedious. The conditions for GPS fix
million, Mumbai ated a project to map hutments and are highly unfavorable in the given
is one of the most its dwellers spread across multiple environment. The signals drop to
populous cities of India, and amongst patches of Mumbai in 3D digital the lowest negative value. These
the top 10 most populous cities in the space. congested lanes not only make
world. Mumbai is also home to one Genesys International, a geospa- movement difficult, extremely poor
of the world’s largest hutments. More tial survey and mapping solutions lighting ensures that the imageries
than 50% of Mumbai’s population — provider, was enlisted to map the taken in such conditions would
close to 6.5 million people (Census hutments. The data mapped would collapse the project.
2011) — resides in hutments. For the be archived as digital visual records It was also observed that the
non-dwellers, these urban pockets of in the form of as-built information of uncertain elevations and terrain
concentrated poverty, poor sanitation, hutments before they are demolished undulations were not conducive for
and lack of basic amnesties are an and the population rehabilitated. the classical mapping techniques.
embarrassing eyesore in the middle of The data will enable authorities and The traditional mapping process
India’s financial capital. decision-makers to measure, locate and equipments were found to raise
As the Indian government and check the association of the concerns of the residents living in the
chases its vision of smart cities, it owners of each household mapped overcrowded urban environments.
has realized that a city can become in 3D digital space at any given time
smart only when it is hutment-free. from anywhere in the world. A POWER-PACKED SOLUTION
However, deciphering how many To overcome the hurdles of poor
urban poor are living in hutments, NO MEAN FEAT light and signal conditions and
and how much of the city’s land has Hutments by nature are unplanned, constricted spaces, Genesys Inter-
been taken up by informal housing primordial spaces — the opposite of national looked for a safe, quick
units remains a challenge. So, to well-ordered city grids. With the nar- and accurate solution to collect
accelerate the process of mak- rowing and nearly diminishing lanes the point clouds and 360-degree
ing Mumbai hutment-free and to (1.5 to 2 feet width) of the hutments, pictures needed for this project.

Advertorial
The survey needed data to be

collected quickly to reduce cost and WHY CHOOSE PEGASUS:BACKPACK
lead time. Genesys International Reduce Errors veying methodologies could not
had been using Leica Geosystems Ruled out inefficiencies and cope with such a prerequisite
solutions for their surveying and inaccuracies of conventional sur- Reusability
mapping needs in the past. And veying and human errors by cap- Rehabilitation being a multi step
for this project, they turned to the turing in 3D LiDAR and images. process required data which can
Leica Pegasus:Backpack, a wearable Versatility be used multiple times negating
and mobile reality capture solution. One equipment catering needs the need for repeated surveys
The Pegasus:Backpack provides of multiple conventional equip- Flexibility
professional documentation indoor, ment and methods of surveying The plethora of challenges faced
outdoor and underground - mar- Accuracy in lanes within a hutment needed a
rying images and lidar together. Mapping thousands of house- flexible solution which was not pos-
It provides GraphSLAM (Graph- holds with very high accuracy, sible by traditional methodologies
Based Simultaneous Localization majority of which were in Reliability
extremely congested conditions It has a minimal downtime
The Pegasus:Backpack Transparency making it high on reliability
eased our project task of Data acquired by traditional sur- Cost Effectiveness
capturing the hutment in veys fails to replicate the ‘Ground Traditional surveys result in
digital space by providing
Reality’ which is paramount for escalation of
visual reference with
measurement capabilities at a transparency in redevelopment of costs due to
click of a button without field dense clusters like hutments increased
re-visits. Speed labor, site
The time bound nature of this revisits and
Nozer Turel
Manager Technology, Geospatial Survey & Mapping, project required speed to a sub-par qual-
Genesys International prominent priority, traditional sur- ity control

Advertorial
Expert View – Expanding To New Platforms

From closed-in spaces, like tight alleys or underbridges, to tall buildings blocking GNSS
signals, traditional surveying methods can face many challenges in urban applications
WHAT IS THE LEICA PEGASUS:BACKPACK? WHAT MAKES IT ESPECIALLY SUITED FOR 3D models. These models can
The Leica Pegasus:Backpack URBAN APPLICATIONS, LIKE THE MUMBAI be compared to plans to ensure
is the industry’s first wearable PROJECT? construction is on schedule and
reality capture platform. The In an urban environment, there are going according to plan.
Backpack combines five high many obstacles. From closed-in
WHERE IS THE BACKPACK TAKING THE
dynamic cameras, which work in spaces, such as tight alleys or
INDUSTRY IN THE FUTURE?
a variety of light conditions, and under bridges, to tall buildings
The Pegasus:Backpack is
two LiDAR profilers within an blocking GNSS signals, traditional
opening opportunities for all
ultra-light carbon fiber chas- surveying methods can face many
measurement professionals to
sis. This position-independent challenges in urban applications.
explore new applications they’ve
solution captures and combines With the mobility you receive
never been able to break into
imagery and point cloud data from the Pegasus:Backpack, these
before. Now with the Backpack,
even in GNSS-denied areas. challenges become much easier
a traditional surveyor can offer
This advanced technology has to tackle. The Backpack also touts
services to emergency response
been awarded the prestigious a new technology, Simultaneous
situations. On the other hand,
Wichmann Innovation Award for Localisation and Mapping or SLAM,
safety and security personnel
and an Inertial Measuring Unit, ena-
its new concept and far-reaching can quickly and easily capture
bling it to position without GNSS.
applications, as well as a Red Dot data, making response even
For any urban environment, the
Award for its supreme design. faster and safer. There is a tre-
Backpack can be comfortably worn
mendous amount of opportunity
WHAT APPLICATIONS CAN THE for the entire reality capture session.
with the Pegasus:Backpack, and
PEGASUS:BACKPACK BE USED IN?
HOW DO YOU SEE THE PEGASUS:BACKPACK as our world continues to change
Due to its versatility, the
ENABLING REGULAR REALITY CAPTURE faster than ever,
Pegasus:Backpack can be used
IN APPLICATIONS LIKE BUILDING we will be
in a variety of applications. From
INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM)? there to
tight urban environments where
In BIM documentation, you support
there isn’t much space for more
have to monitor milestones and those
traditional surveying means to provide visual validation for shap-
disaster-stricken areas that are payment approval. The Backpack ing that
best approached on foot, the is designed to enable this type of change.
Pegasus:Backpack can be used periodic data capture efficiently
almost anywhere. The Backpack and cost effectively. With its ability
is a powerful alternative pro- to easily and quickly document
fessional documentation tool, and monitor construction, you
especially in training applications. can deliver a complete as-built
Imagine power station or factory 3D and image-based dataset to
environments where technicians the new owner throughout the
need to be trained for an emer- construction process and after
gency on a realistic simulator. The building construction is complete.
Pegasus:Backpack can be used to The technician simply needs to
capture areas of such an environ- walk the construction site captur-
ment that are difficult to access, ing the chaotic scenes with the Stuart Woods
and the imagery can be used high-dynamic cameras and LiDAR Division Vice-President
to create Game Based Learning profiler to create detailed point Leica Geosystems
(GBL) training. clouds, which are then turned into

and Mapping) technology and per the plan.
IMU for accurate mapping even in Meanwhile, the reference station
GNSS-denied area, making it apt for team established a station point at
the signal-deprived hutments. a place where the sky was clear and
Pegasus:Backpack’s ergonomic signal strength was good; the sta-
design of a trekking backpack tion point was near to the area that
facilitated easy mapping even in was to be mapped. GNSS observa-
narrow lanes. It combines five 4 MP tions were collected.
cameras offering fully calibrated Once the reference station team
panoramic view and two LiDAR confirmed, the Pegasus:Backpack
profilers within an ultra-light carbon team initialized the equipment and
fibre chassis for synchronised imag- started the data collection as per
ing and point cloud data collection. the route defined. Route navigation
Its various easily accessible exten- and support team cleared the route
sion ports enable the integration of for the Pegasus:Backpack operator
peripheral sensors like an external to facilitate smooth mapping.
light module or a thermal camera. Once all the routes were cov-
The lighting option for clear images ered, the Backpack team indicated
in dark areas was a bonus to the the reference station team to stop
project in terms of the imageries. the collection of GNSS observa-
Providing automated state of tions. The data was then submitted
the art post-processing software, to the production team for data
Leica MapFactory software natively processing. The data was processed
leverages powerful extraction fea- and deliverables were generated for
tures for ESRI ArcGIS and Autodesk the Web and desktop-based appli-
AutoCAD providing dedicated auto- cation in the form of 3D vectors, 2D inexperienced users have trouble
mated and semi-automated feature vectors, point cloud, panoramas, reading 2D mapping data that
extraction capabilities. etc., as per the requirement defined typically depict landscape features
in the scope of work. and height points on a flat surface.
MODUS OPERANDI “The Pegasus:Backpack eased To help such users, which comprise
Enabled by the Leica Pegasus:Back- our project task of capturing the a large segment of the general
pack, Genesys International hutment in digital space by pro- population, surveyors and mapping
deployed a team of map editors to viding visual reference with meas- experts have increasingly turned to-
visit the site along with the sketch urement capabilities at a click of a ward 3D mapping that allows users
map and satellite imagery. Based button without field re-visits”, said to easily visualize three-dimensional
on the inputs, the in-house team Nozer Turel, Manager Technology, landscapes including heights.
drafted a detailed plan of the route Geospatial Survey & Mapping. Nozer Turel added, "With
to be followed by the Pegasus:Back- the Leica Pegasus:Backpack, we
pack team during data acquisition. LOOKING FORWARD received the latest 3D digital tech-
The ground survey team started With change in time, it is impor- nology which allows us to document
collecting survey points through the tant to have technology evolution what defines the changing over-
route defined at certain intervals as beyond 2D limitations. Many crowded urban environment."

Indoor Mapping | Case Study
m data
ith 1-c
d is play w e data
da ta ies s
e a
TIMMS Lower densit g required
.
density while providin recision
e m e nt and p
manag f detail
levels o
B IL E
t cloud
M O
cm poin
DOOR ES
:1
IN PPING TAK
Credit
MA
F AT L AX
OF e
div
a p p r o ach t o i n
A u n i q u e n d s fo r a i r p o r
i d
t e
y comp
are ke
r
t
i o
o p
onen
e r
t
a
s
t
l l
ors. B
e c
for airp
aging th
rtation
t
r data co y John Stenma
i o n
ort ope
ec om
rato
pli
rs ta
rts use
s
cated o
n
and ma rk, LS
a g e
ked wit
m
peratio
geosp
irpo
ati
e
ns.
al
Many a s part of the p

nt pa y s
h man-
ss to roce
irports ranspo ts.
A
o b a l t ie s a ort asse
of the
gl
h e y are c h nolog n a ge airp
ructure
. T te and m a llec ntio
infrast siv e invest- u nd erstand - sit e data co ata
x, exp e n
ining o
n cated d
comple ht manageme
nt.
B y comb an d sophisti ons pro-
D ti
ire tig ations IS, CA ed solu
en ts th at requ e ffi c ie nt oper it
with G
en t, specializ hig h-quali
ty
m c hie ve tm en t, n a g em cu rate,
r to a s ma ac
In orde on inve te deliver . At Lo
s
tim iz ed return rate, up-to-da v id ers can a ir po rt assets A X ),
and op accu ssets on o n ort (L
e n tia l to have ad ra n ge of a in formati n a tio n al Airp
is ess n the b
ro
e and s Inter
ation o r volum Angele
inform Th e sh ee
llen g e s
ilities. ces cha
and fac s se ts introdu
of a
variety

integrated solutions for indoor mobile of 20 by 25-foot concrete tiles for
mapping are providing significant runways and taxiways. We also look at
savings in time and cost to capture and the terminals, number of square feet in
process detailed geospatial information. a terminal, what kind of assets, what are
the rooms, what kind of equipment is in
Big Data at a big airport those rooms and then linking the equip-
Operated by Los Angeles World ment with the airport’s maintenance
Airports (LAWA), LAX is the sixth management system.”
busiest airport in the world. Its nine Maghboul explained that spatial
terminals and four runways will serve data provides information in three
an estimated 74 million passengers in primary areas. First, it is used to locate
2016. The airport is a hub for interna- and identify physical assets. The data
tional passenger traffic and its massive can be used for as-built and asset
cargo facilities handle roughly 2 million management including underground Aerial view of LAX. The airport
tons of freight and mail annually. utilities, architectural planning, space handled nearly 615,000 takeoffs and
As part of their management pro- optimization and security. For many landings in 2013
cesses, LAWA periodically surveys the buildings, spatial data may exist only
terminals at LAX to check for changes as construction plans that don’t include
and ensure as-built data is up to date. data on years of change and remod-
Two terminals — the Tom Bradley eling. The incomplete or inaccurate
International (TBIT) and Terminal 3 — information can result in expensive
have undergone numerous renovations. surprises when airports need to modify
As a result, the buildings required more or expand existing facilities.
in-depth and rigorous surveys. LAWA A second application comes from
identified a total of 1.75 million sq ft management of space leased by freight
(16.2 ha) of interior space that needed companies, airlines and concessionaires.
new surveys. In addition to providing tools for man-
The work at LAX encompassed aging tenant agreements and payments,
field surveying and data processing to x-Spatial uses spatial data to define and
produce georeferenced GIS data, 2D map leased spaces in rental agreements.
floor plans and 3D models for all of In a third application, first respond-
High-density data captured by
Terminal 3 and three floors in TBIT. ers and emergency managers can use TIMMS at LAX. Points and images
LAWA turned to x-Spatial, LLC, a Los accurate spatial data to plan and execute were automatically connected to the
Angeles-based company that provides emergency procedures. Maghboul points geographic control network
software solutions for airport infrastruc- to a 2016 incident at Terminal 3 in which
ture management. In addition to manag- dozens of people were inadvertently
ing the data collection work, x-Spatial evacuated from the terminal onto the
provides tools for management and tarmac. Security procedures then required
integration of spatial and enterprise the entire concourse area to be shut down
information. and emptied. Roughly 2,000 people
needed to be rescreened resulting in
Multi-purpose spatial data delays to dozens of outgoing flights.
According to x-Spatial president “Some of the planning could have
Ed Maghboul, collecting and managing been better,” Maghboul said. “That is
spatial data at airports is especially where we come in — enabling geospatial
challenging. “Just about everything in data to be shared in a common, stand-
the airport needs to be tracked,” he said. ardized environment and then providing
“We look at pavement and pavement Web interfaces that enable the enterprise
structure down to a very granular level to leverage their information.”

Indoor Mapping | Case Study
Credit: Project Area at LAX

Finding the right answer Planning the surveys required
In addition to the scope of the work coordination with multiple teams to
at LAX, x-Spatial was under a tight ensure efficient and comprehensive
time frame to complete the survey and coverage. To provide access and secu-
deliverables. To meet the schedule, they rity, LAWA personnel accompanied the Terminal 3 and the Tom Bradley
needed to complete the work quickly. TIMMS crew during the work. Certain International Terminal at LAX.
Conventional scanning surveys of the
Normally, they would use static 3D scan- locations, including Federal Inspection
buildings would require several weeks of
ning with conventional tripod-mounted Services (FIS) areas controlled by US field work
scanners. But Maghboul estimated that Customs and Immigration, required
the static approach would require up to special permission and could be scanned scanning directly to data from the
six weeks of field work and a similar only when no passengers were present. IMU, points and images could be
time for processing and modeling. In Other parts of the terminals came georeferenced as they were captured.
addition, the scanning would need to be with more interesting constraints, When compared to static scanning
done at night when activity was light. Maghboul recalled. “In some pas- and the need to register hundreds of
But LAX, and especially the interna- senger lounges, the managers were separate scans, the TIMMS approach
tional terminal, is busy all the time. concerned about noise and disturbing significantly reduced post processing
Static scanning was not the answer. their customers,” he said. “We showed for the raw data. The finished output
To gather field data with the needed that the carts were quiet and wouldn’t included high-density point clouds as
speed and accuracy, x-Spatial turned scratch the floors.” well as clouds at 1- and 5-cm density.
to the Trimble Indoor Mobile Map- The positioning accuracy for the work
ping System (TIMMS). Based on the On-time arrival was 1 to 2 cm.
concepts of vehicle-mounted mobile With the planning and control in place, After the initial processing, the
mapping (but without the need for the scanning team moved in. For each Applanix technicians moved the
GPS), TIMMS integrates a 3D scanner, scanning run they initialized the TIMMS TIMMS data (in LAS format) into
360-degree camera and inertial meas- cart using the indoor control points and Autodesk software, where they created
urement unit (IMU), user display and then pushed the cart along preplanned deliverables including 3D models and
control electronics; the components are routes through the terminals. A display 2D floor plans. x-Spatial then pushed
mounted on a small cart. The system is on the TIMMS cart provided informa- the information into the geospatial data-
powered using hot-swappable batter- tion on the status and performance of base used by LAX and made it available
ies. As an operator pushes the cart at the system. At the end of each run, the to airport management teams.
walking speed, the system captures 3D operator checked into a control point to Maghboul said the TIMMS pro-
points and images. Data from the IMU provide a check for the IMU data. vided a flexible, unobtrusive method
supplies positioning information. To The work progressed smoothly. In to capture a massive amount of data
provide a georeferenced framework, just 32 hours of operation, mostly dur- on a congested, complicated site. He
x-Spatial contracted outside surveyors ing normal working hours, the TIMMS suggested that airports establish a
using a Trimble 5601 total station to cart captured comprehensive 3D scans network of permanent control marks to
establish a network of 3D control points and spherical imagery on the two termi- facilitate scanning and rescanning over
inside the terminals. The points were nals. The time savings continued when several years. The approach makes it
tied to high-accuracy WGS84 survey the field data moved to the office. easier to manage and updates part of
marks outside the terminals established Technicians used the TIMMS Post the spatial database as renovations and
by Trimble R8 GNSS receivers. A team Processing Suite to create 3D point upgrades occur. “It’s certainly a worth-
of specialists from Applanix operated clouds and panoramic images from the while endeavor,” Maghboul said. “But
the TIMMS equipment. raw data. Because TIMMS connects you need to do careful planning and
coordinate with a lot of people.”
Based on the concepts of vehicle-mounted mobile mapping,
John Stenmark, LS
TIMMS integrates a 3D scanner, 360-degree camera and inertial Writer-consultant working in the AEC
measurement unit, user display and control electronics and technical industries
john@stenmark.us

Location
Indoor Mapping
Intelligence
| Case Study
CAMPUS unfamiliar buildings and find rooms
COMPASS
with nondescript names. To build the
app, Deakin turned to Metroview Sys-
tems, an Australian software company
specializing in custom mapping and
navigation solutions, along with HERE.
FOR
STRESSED STUDENTS OUT
E
A wayfinding app by ach term, 40,000 students “The basic challenge Deakin
set foot on the four Deakin wanted to address was helping people
Deakin University in Victoria, campuses in Australia. There find a room with a random name like
Australia, ensures that are also numerous visitors, BC3.016. Which campus? Which build-
guest lecturers, visiting faculty and ing? Which floor? Where to go on the
students searching for the others that need help finding their way floor?” says Mike Dell, CEO of Metro-
location of a lecture or an around and between Deakin’s expan- view. “Our job was to build an app that
sive campus network. Navigating an not only displays the exact location of
exam don’t miss a thing unfamiliar campus can be intimidating, that room, but also gives the user turn-
not to mention stress-inducing when by-turn directions right to the classroom
you lose your way and risk showing up door, whether they are starting out from
late for a lecture or an exam. home or from another point on campus.”
Recognizing this struggle, Deakin
University decided to launch a way- Creating the app
finding app that would help anyone in To pull it off, Deakin first needed to
its academic community navigate to make a highly-detailed map of their

entire campus, from the inside to the Even Deakin’s tricky elevated the user easily to the classroom”. The
outside. Deakin turned to HERE to walkways and multiple outdoor reaction has been positive, with 4,000
create a precise venue map of over 250 stairways were included to ensure that downloads of the app in the first two
floor plans representing the buildings, accessible navigation can be identi- weeks. Future plans for the app hope to
facilities and the numerous walkways fied. Then, all the classroom data and build on this success and make it even
between them. This required HERE academic calendar provided by Deakin easier to connect with other campus
mapping experts to first convert the dig- were encoded and combined with the services. Features could leverage indoor
ital floor plans into 3D venue maps. The venue map data to enable search and positioning technologies and access
engineers captured any missing data navigation. Now, to get from home to real-time information like parking
from the floor plans and recorded open to room BC3.016 became as simple availability, emergency warning sys-
spaces and walking paths by walking as opening the app and typing in the tems and the student’s calendar.
through the campus with a special room name in the search bar. The app With these features, Campus
smartphone app. displays the user’s current position, the Compass could be used for more than
destination location and with driving, finding the way from the student café
walking or public transit directions to the next lecture. It could streamline
available, students can plan their jour- the campus experience, leaving time
ney door-to-door. for the more important things — from
studying, to those all-important social
What’s next interactions.
Mike says that the first version of the
app, which launched earlier this year, Courtesy: 360.here.com,
has met its initial goal, to “navigate the official HERE blog
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Web GIS | Interview
ACCESSING GIS
INFORMATION MADE EASY
C
an you tell us about the new process of discussions with competent
Kalyan Netti of National project you are working on? authorities on finalizing the same.
Geophysical Research The project is a Web-based
spatial data dissemination platform What kind of functions and
Institute reveals how called GeoPortal. The institute wants capabilities do you envision in the
Hexagon Geospatial is helping to disseminate spatial information over GeoPortal?
Web for public and internal purposes. The GeoPortal should have two sets
them to disseminate spatial The project is at initial stage right now of data — one for the internal NGRI
information over the Web and we are working on discovering the purposes and accessible only to
actual capabilities of this portal. We authorized individuals, and the second
know what information needs to be for general users. At present, we are
updated on the portal, but we are in the expecting this to be only a mode of
Use of portal to monitor yearly earthquake activity

Web GIS | Interview
feeding it into the Web map. Also, the How is NGRI making the use of
cataloguing feature is quite handy. these technologies easy for users?
Moreover, there are certain features At NGRI, geologists and scientists are
— like downloading data by feeding quite aware about geospatial technol-
your credentials — which are really ogies. They know that the GeoPortal
good for a Web-based data dissemi- needs to be user-friendly in terms of
nation portal. These features are quite accessibility of data and Hexagon
impressive as collecting data is one Geospatial’s GeoMedia definitely
aspect, but putting it on the Web might gives us that advantage. Another plus
be a challenge. point is the capability of interoperabil-
Geo RSS Feed creation ity with other GIS and image pro-
What would you say about the cessing software, which would enable
data dissemination. However, when awareness level of geospatial second stage analysis directly using
the portal gets developed further, other technologies in India? the data from the portal.
capabilities like query search, buffer- Dissemination of spatial data, espe-
ing, etc., may be explored. cially over the Web, is gaining impor- Have you faced any challenges
tance across the world. But, there are while implementing these
How are geospatial technologies few companies in India who provide technologies?
helping you in this project? efficient technologies. Those who are At NGRI, the awareness level about
Web is an important media to dis- aware of the Web GIS, know what the capabilities and advantages of
seminate information faster. It also technologies are available. However, these technologies is very high. Once
has a very wider reach. Generally, for end users, data matters the most. the features of the GeoPortal were
dissemination of GIS information over People who are looking at spatial highlighted, it received full support
the Web is a tedious job. However, information are mostly novices and and there were hardly any organiza-
Hexagon Geospatial’s GeoMedia Web do not really understand the technol- tional challenges. Also, there were few
GIS Server has given us a wide range ogies as such. So, we need to do is technical challenges because features
of facilities to disseminate spatial disseminate data in a very simple and like GeoRSS are more or less able
information. primitive way. It has to reach every to complement our requirements at
For example, the GeoRSS feature section of the society, and not only to this stage by giving dynamic updates,
helps in taking dynamic data and scientists and geologists. etc. Overall, Hexagon Geospatial’s
GeoMedia has supported all our
requirements at this moment.
Which are the other areas in which

NGRI is planning to use geospatial
technologies?
The GeoPortal itself is going to be
used in various departments, such as,
seismology and ground water explo-
ration, etc. As of now, we are at a very
initial stage and there is a lot of scope
for geospatial technologies; we need to
identify the right one.
Connect the GeoRSS feed to portal

Executive Corner
A 5D APPROACH TO
DATA VISUALIZATION
Kenyon Waugh, Executive Technical Director, Smart M.App Solutions at
Hexagon Geospatial explains how these nifty tools make geospatial technology
more accessible and easier to use
H
ow did Hexagon envision Smart M.Apps? How can we make it possible to view information in 5D,
If you travel a lot like I do, it means working in in that state of change? Can we combine tools, Cloud
airports and on planes. More and more frequently, computing and new business models to accomplish this?
I see people working on tablets, and that requires an
assortment of small, lightweight ‘apps’. These apps are
very specialized for the work they do, their lifestyle, and
questions they ask many times a day.
At the same time, we see an explosion in the use of
location data. Businesses and industries that never tried
to incorporate geospatial data and technology into their
workflows now see the value in the information and want
to use it to expand their understanding of their business.
While we have a strong understanding of the geospatial
technology world, the workflows and needs of these
industries are completely new to us.
So on the one hand, we have users who rely on apps to
accomplish their tasks and on the other hand we have new
businesses with their own unique set of requirements they
need to fulfill with geospatial information. As a software
company, we wanted to push ourselves to think differently
about software. What if we could break down traditional
client/server or bulky desktop applications and give
customers just-in-time capability? What if, better yet, we
could give them a tool kit to build these ‘apps’ for them-
selves and their colleagues? The Hexagon Smart M.App
answers both of these questions.
Why did Hexagon create the Hexagon Smart M.App?

Customers inspired us to create Hexagon Smart M.Apps.
We listened to the pain points of people who are using
geospatial technology day-to-day and tried to find a way
to make geospatial technology more accessible and easier
to use. We think of events and information in 3D space, as
well as at a particular moment in time — the fourth dimen-
sion. But everything is also in a continuing state of change
and this led us to our 5D approach to data visualization.

Location Intelligence
Executive Corner
At Hexagon Geospatial, we provide As the line between ‘apps’ and ‘maps’ blur, users
just the right software to the user to
expect more functionality, but they will also expect
accomplish the task, while still giving
industry experts the hooks and expand-
that functionality to be more intuitive and easy to use.
ability options they need to build solu- We need to open our expertise to new markets
tions to solve their unique requirements
and needs.
Hexagon Smart M.Apps change that. We changed our
What kinds of business problems does a Smart focus from building products based on our expertise to
M.App solve? helping partners build their own businesses around our
For a long time, the geospatial industry has had a prob- platform and technology. But this innovation changes the
lem. Maps are great tools for communication, but they game at the GIS or IT department-level, too. By empow-
take time, effort and money to create. Because they are ering them to build dynamic, specialized Smart M.Apps,
expensive and time-consuming, we tried to create maps we give them the ability to quickly create self-sustaining
that could multi-task. We wanted them to communicate as products that provide more focused answers to their users.
much information as possible so we could use them for as
long as possible before having to go through all the steps Can you tell us about the other innovations you are
to create them again. working on?
Smart M.Apps are the evolution in how we think about We have been working with our IGNITE Challenge
maps. They are still about communicating information, Finalists. These finalists are really serving as inspiration
but they are about communicating a specific answer to for our entire company. Many of these finalists are from
a specific question. If that question changes, or if a new outside the traditional GIS and remote sensing industry,
question arises from your analysis, you can rapidly proto- which mirrors what we are seeing with our industry. They
type and new Smart M.App to address the new question. have ideas for games that teach students about conserva-
Smart M.Apps tend to be very specialized in the prob- tion to Noise Monitoring Applications to Crowd Souring
lems they solve. Some of the most exciting Smart M.Apps Applications to count wildlife. These innovations connect
are helping leaders in government make better, more our technology with content and allow our partners to
informed decisions based on new business intelligence build businesses around their ideas, and that’s what Smart
tools and analysis engines. M.Apps are all about.
We also have M.App Tools. These are smaller, more We are also working on innovations around pricing and
focused Smart M.Apps. They provide the building blocks selling capabilities of Software-as-a-Service. The technol-
that solve a specific repeatable and known function. ogy is the easy part. The harder part is to innovate on the
M.App Tools can be linked together and incorporated into business model and allow more users to get answers to
more workflow related Smart M.Apps. For example, our questions they may not know how to ask.
Index Applications provide easy-to-use access to known,
proven tools common in remote sensing image analysis What trends do you foresee in the GIS and remote
workflows. sensing industry?
Everyone is talking about Big Data and Cloud computing,
How do you balance innovation with sustainability? but these are technologies and not solutions. Everyone is
This is the age-old challenge of the geospatial industry. looking at the new technology drivers, while the business
From a developer’s point of view, it places the onus for climate is changing quickly in all markets. GIS and remote
innovation on the software developer’s plate. But it also sensing are natural places to leverage the power of the
applies to the GIS or IT department in the business. They Cloud, but we need to simplify the processes to open our
have to update their software, construct analyses, and cre- expertise to new markets and potential end users. As the
ate new maps when the old ones are outdated. It’s why we line between ‘apps’ and ‘maps’ blur, users expect more
tried to make multi-tasking maps that do a lot of different functionality, but they will also expect that functionality to
things pretty well. be more intuitive and easy to use.

Ministry of Municipal and
Rural Affairs, Saudi Arabia
Pathbreaking technologies
Pathbreaking Progress
Mission
MOMRA has effectively leveraged most modern technologies to create an updated land records
management system in the Kingdom. This, and the applications we provide, are foundation to the massive
infrastructure development and future cities that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is unleashing.
services
Maintaining land Supporting town Executing services Supporting

properties planning activities for projects of government projects
ownership urban and rural areas municipalities with data and maps
www.momra.gov.sa
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Geospatial Water Energy Building Data Acquisition Software

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ISRO LAUNCHES “Based on our calculation and analy-

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Head-on-Shoulder Witch-on-Broom Tango Baby Hold The Cane

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