Here is a little bit of inspiration for surveyors, techies, and pleasure cavers alike.

http://riser.xyz/

RISER is a smart quadcopter with some serious computing power strapped to it. Not only does it take a 3D LiDAR map of its surroundings (rather like tens of thousands of Disto readings in all directions), but it uses this map to navigate and avoid collisions.

I've had the pleasure to work with the guys at Createc for the previous two summers (although not directly on RISER, I must add) where this project has moved through varying stages of development, it is currently being trialled by Easyjet for automated and adaptive fleet inspection.

There was a related project in a fairly recent CREG journal that involved sweeping (more like wobbling) a LiDAR unit around on a handheld stick - a more space-friendly, though manually operated option. Does anyone have any information about that project? My copy has disappeared in a recent house move.

Can anyone think of any uses in the domain of the caver? 

Cute.

If you are a CREG subscriber you can read them online at http://www.bcra.org.uk/pub/cregj/covers.html

If not you can subscribe for a small fee.

Prometheus......

Tommy said:

There was .... that involved sweeping (more like wobbling) a LiDAR unit around on a handheld stick - a more space-friendly, though manually operated option. Does anyone have any information about that project? My copy has disappeared in a recent house move.

Click to expand...

http://www.3dlasermapping.com/zeb1-indoor-mapping/

On a somewhat similar tack, spotted a link to this while browsing the Register  - http://www.eora3d.com/

Currently rattling the can on Kickstarter, and I'm not sure how large an area/object it could scan (or how water/mud-proof it would be for that matter...) but the basic principle of a laser scanner driven by a smartphone makes me wonder what we could have to play with in a few years time?

Range is 1 meter. It uses laser reflections so things that bend light (such as water) and things that are mirror-like won't be measured well. Black (not dark) things may not show up.

I bet in 5 years this tech will be awesome for caving.

AR said:

Currently rattling the can on Kickstarter, and I'm not sure how large an area/object it could scan (or how water/mud-proof it would be for that matter...) but the basic principle of a laser scanner driven by a smartphone makes me wonder what we could have to play with in a few years time?

Click to expand...

That eora 3d turntable scanner looks interesting, though I'd like to see some output - they seem a bit coy about displaying the results. The RISER drone also looks promising, although cave environments could prove to be a hell of a challenge for its navigation circuits, unless the chambers are very large and fairly 'regular'. I can still see undercuts, overhangs and folding being an issue without a lot of fly-time, but it's still definitely a step in the right direction. I guess you just chuck a few of them in there, especially if they won't crash into each other!