Posted by Shevelev Ilya on September 3, 2019 at 3:36am
We are pleased to announce a free version of Sputnik GIS software. Sputnik GIS is a professional drone surveying software for engineers, surveyors and urban planners: https://www.geoscan.aero/en/software/sputnik/
In free version users can view and perform 3D analysis of point clouds, orthomosaics, DEMs, 3D models, raster and vector maps. In case of need for advanced analysis tools, users can easily upgrade to the paid version.
Do not hesitate to send any feedback via sputnik@geoscan.aero or support@geoscan.aero or using Geoscan forum.
P.S. Now we are working on some improvements of our products and looking for feedback from UAV mapping community. It would be great if you could complete a quick survey — it will take you 15 minutes. We will use your feedback to improve our products and make them more useful for you. Survey is available via:https://docs.google.com/forms/...
P.P.S. We also released open source QGIS plugin - Geoscan forest. Plugin allows to search for tree tops and perform tree crowns segmentation on orthomosaic.
A new version of Sputnik GIS presents new tools, optimized performance, usability, and new integration capabilities.
Sputnik GIS is a professional drone surveying software for engineers, surveyors, and urban planners. Visualize and analyze multidimensional spatial data with no limits on data size, create surveys and get insights from your drone data in height performance GIS solution.
Optimization and integration capabilities:
Sputnik GIS 1.4 has a new paradigm of working with geodata inside a project, in new version user may set up coordinate reference system for the whole project using EPSG base or import proper *.prj file. All geodata inside project will be transformed into a project coordinate reference system on the fly. Sputnik now supports LIDAR point clouds, with this feature LIDAR point clouds may be used in combination with orthomosaic and 3D models reconstructed from an aerial survey. A new user interface makes easier to work with basic tools and geometries during vectorization process.
Surveying and mapping:
For surveying purposes, we have implemented new tool for working with surfaces – «Relief editor». With this tool user may delete features from the surface, to create DTM from DEM for example, or model new features with 3D geometries, in addition, «Kriging-interpolation» tool is optimized. For operative and field mapping purposes «Image projection» tool is implemented, with this tool user may create mosaic with raw spatial reference from aerial survey photos.
Urban planning:
For the analysis of the urban environment, the tools daylight modeling, visibility area, and observation point are implemented. With the help of daylight modeling tool specialist may estimate the insolation conditions of territory in a given date and time. Visibility area tool along with observation point tool allows to model viewpoints and blind spots. Sputnik GIS helps to present city development projects in an intuitive environment (three-dimensional model of the city), which facilitate the process of discussion and decision-making. For creating the presentation, materials of the design solutions implemented a set of special tools: Video tour and animated track. With presentation tools, a three-dimensional model of the city easily turns into an animated scene with the ability to record video.
Posted by Shevelev Ilya on November 2, 2018 at 5:00am
Pretty much everyone these days knows that some companies can launch thousands of drones in the air and perform a breathtaking show with light and moving animation. This is an incredible piece of engineering, but in attempt to do something similar one should consider technological, personnel and logistical capabilities of a worldwide corporation.
At Geoscan ltd, we decided to create our own droneshow on a budget using our already developed platform called Pioneer. Originally this quadcopter kit was designed for educational purposes. It is distributed to schools and technical communities to get students familiar with this kind of robots. The platform itself is modular, programmable and easy to assemble and use. 1300 mAh battery gives it solid 8 minutes of flight time. Equipped with GPS and LED modules, it turns into a perfect unit to run any kind of airshow imaginable.
Firstly, the animation is designed in any 3D editor. After that it is converted into multiple Lua script, which are uploaded to each Pioneer before takeoff. Despite we don’t use some expensive tech like RTK, there’s never been any serious issues during the flight. In the air each drone acts independently according to its pre-loaded trajectory, using GPS coordinates for orientation and barometer for altitude control. There’s also a safety mode, which allows switching the whole swarm in manual control mode and landing it in case something goes wrong.
The first test flights took place in august involving 5, later 10 drones. Two months later, ten dozens of buzzing lights performed a breathtaking show on the Black sea coast. Having main troubles sorted out, we are currently improving animation capabilities and hope to launch 200 drones simultaneously by the end of 2018. You can learn more on our webpage https://www.geoscan.aero/en/pioneer/. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding Pioneer drone.
Hi everyone! We’d like to present new features of Sputnik Web (https://sputnik.geoscan.aero) - 3D Reconstruction.
This function allows user to create 3D models from aerial photos which captured by drone (UAV).
Here, we will use an isolated object as an example. This is the old tower which located at Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
Requirements for camera:
Matrix 5-25 MPx
ISO should be set to minimum values for avoiding noise
Focal length 20-80 mm
EXIF required or GPS geotags in smartphones.
Requirements for flying:
Choose a point of interest and record it
Fly up to a radius of 20-30 meters (depending on the model)
Place the model so that it can cover most of the image
Start to fly around and capture photos with 60-80% overlapping
For the best results, we recommend that user should fly on different levels like what has shown the picture. If your drone located in the top level, we recommend that you point the camera lens down. Textures are hidden in scene view if you point the camera lens up. We flew on two levels, so there was not enough textures.
Here are some photos from our database:
Highest level:
Top level:
Middle level:
Lower level:
After that, please visit the Sputnik Web (https://sputnik.geoscan.aero), and click on the “ 3D Reconstruction” button.
Create new reconstruction, input name, choose photos and go back to the main interface of 3D Reconstruction.
By and large, users can find our chosen photos on the List (left side of the page) and the photos are displayed in real captured place. Selected photos with the red color that which do not participate in the Reconstruction. If users click on the picture in the left list, users can see the actual photo.
The processing result control block is located at the top. Users can choose the processing results and speed of reconstruction, as well as, finding the detailed information by clicking the “GPIX RATES INFO. “
If you select Speed and Orthophoto and Elevation map cell the number of GPix will match 0.73.
In case Quality and Orthophoto, Elevation map and 3D model are selected, GPix will be equal to 2.9.
Please select the most efficient option for you!
Almost done, now click on START RECONSTRUCTION and waiting results.
When it has finished, you will receive an email.
If you want a test, please register in the service, visit this page https://sputnik.geoscan.aero and click support button (on the right) for request a 3D Reconstruction demo.
Posted by Shevelev Ilya on January 21, 2018 at 11:35pm
Solving urban problems requires timely information about every aspect of the city functioning. Today using UAV's is a great way for local governments to get precise data as 3D models, orthophotos and digital elevation models. However, collecting data is just a first step of decision making process, what is important is to have a set of special tools to work with this data and take all it advantages for urban design, land use and emergency management.
In "Geoscan" we work in close collaboration with local governments on creating efficient tools for urban development. The base solution we work on is Sputnik GIS and its web version – Sputnik Web. The core feature of Sputnik products family is ability to view 3D tiled models of city with no limits on data size. For example, we have created model of Tomsk city featuring total area of 320 square kilometers, and specialist from Tomsk urban department use it in daily tasks.
The great thing about using digital copy of city is an ability to embed design solutions to existing landscape and analyze all advantages and disadvantages of it. This approach helps to make project presentation process faster and cheaper and speed up decision-making process.
Along with 3D model embedding tool in Sputnik, there is an export tool. Once you have a model of whole city you can export single building or whole district to *.dae, *.3ds or *.obj format to share it with colleges, customers or for further usage in third party 3D software.
Sputnik GIS allows specialist to create city-design, zoning and other projects and share it with locals via web based local government 3D GIS portal based on Sputnik Web(use Google translate to translate web site from Russian), so people can evaluate solutions, leave comments, ask questions and participate in the future of city.
The number of built-in functionalities allows using Sputnik for solving wide range of problems without need of using other software solutions. For example, there are set of measurements of tools like area calculation, volume calculation, change detection, section generation, slope map calculation and more. Along with design and planning tasks local governments use this set of tools to monitor and inspect municipal construction sites, infrastructure and for waste management.
Posted by Shevelev Ilya on November 15, 2017 at 5:00am
Spuntik GIS is widely used in condition surveying. Hi-definition 3D-models of buildings and constructions allows specialist to detect defects and deformations, more than, it is available to vectorize and save such areas using *.kml editor. Therefore, the result of inspection is 3D-map of defects and deformations.
One of the leading project in this area for Geoscan is – condition survey of smokestacks. In this project, we use not only regular 3D-models of pipes with photorealistic textures but also 3D-models with thermal imagery textures. This approach allows solving problems of pipe inspection very accuracy.
To make the process of inspection of high altitude objects easy, in Sputnik 1.3 we developed special navigation mode. Now the user can move along the wall of the structure along the vertical axis using first person camera mode or using combination of CTRL key and mouse wheel. To simplify the process of using aerial photos in object inspection, we released the feature of photo selection. Now you can select photos of point of your interest with just two clicks.
As additional option for this project, we released the feature of viewing DXF with raster underlay. Therefore, viewing of drawing of tube synchronized with its TLS model.
Try Sputnik GIS for your condition survey projects.
Posted by Shevelev Ilya on November 3, 2017 at 12:30am
Hello everyone!
In Geoscan we develop multidimensional spatial data visualization system – Sputnik GIS. It is a great tool for viewing and analyzing wide range of UAV survey results.
Today we are glad to present you a new version of Sputnik 1.3. In this version, we improved TLS rendering algorithm and released new features. Please check out the list of improvements and innovations below.
TLS rendering – the speed of rendering along with detail level increased, high FPS is maintained. The chance of coarse objects (LOD) appearing during model rotation is reduced.
Close to wall navigation is improved – we added first person camera mode and keys combination to move along vertical axis of object
Export part of TLS model – we added tool to export interested part of TLS model to OBJ, 3DS and DAE. For DAE and 3DS formats, backward compatibility with Sputnik is implemented
WMTS support - along with support of WMS services, Sputnik 1.3 supports WMTS services. Thanks to this innovation, you can use the maps you created on the Mapbox service. Also you can use GetFeatureInfo function.
OC3 and LAS support – now it is available to view OC3 (Photoscan point cloud format) and LAS ( Lidar)
Color palettes – from new version it is available to style raster maps in *.geotiff format
Photo selection – new feature of photo selection for specified point makes Sputnik a great tool for analyzing condition survey results.
