An overview of 20 years of Phase One aerial surveying sensor integration by GGS Phase One

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okay hello good morning good afternoon  good evening welcome everyone to the   may 2021 monthly webinar series from phase one   um our today's webinar is made together with  our integration partner dgs from germany   and we will get a tour of 20 years of  history ggs integrating phase one technology   let me introduce you today's presenter my name is  carson visa i'm part of the phase one sales team   since more than 12 years and since quite some time  acting as integrator sales manager i'm based in   cologne in germany from ggs i welcome dr gerhard  kemper who is founder and ceo of the company   gts was founded in 1998 and today a team of  around 12 people is specialized in integrating   aerial service server equipment welcome gerhart  hello carson thank you for the introduction so yeah before we um before i hand over  the presentation to gerhard to give   let him give a short overview um i will give  you a short overview about our corporate   and products phase one is a world leading  provider of digital medium format imaging   solutions founded in 1993 in denmark we provide  ultra high resolution cameras in highly productive   software solutions we operate several sales and  support centers for phase one across the globe   in denver colorado it is for the americas region  in cologne in germany for emea region in australia   and in hong kong we operate an office for  asia and south pacific regions our company   headquarters is based in copenhagen in denmark  together with our main r d center and further r d   and production centers we operate in israel  and in japan in addition we have more than 50   distribution partners which offers a global  network of sales and support centers which   makes us a fully customer-centric organization  offering 24 7 customer support yeah we really   serve the world leading brands with top image  quality and productivity in various applications let me give you a short overview  about our phase one aerial products   so phase one has been supplying specialized  cameras for a while and and a wide range of   aerial photography applications starting in 2012.  those cameras are always made on the edge of   technology by using the most modern cmos or most  modern sensors available on the market delivering   the best possible image quality over the years we  have continuously developed these products to meet   their market requirements the journey started with  the xa camera an 18-megapixel medium format camera   based on ccd sensor technology it continued with  special specialized designed lenses as well as the   first cmos based medium format camera in 2014.  from that moment the ixu camera family with its   smaller size and weight together with many new  features grew our customer in store base further   in the ixu a series was then completed by the  reliable industry the unique rs shutter system   and the 4-band kits in 2017 we introduced the  phase one area systems a fully integrated turnkey   solution it contains also our first large format  camera with 190 megapixel in 2018 then a full new   camera series was released the ix-m series uh it  delivered a complete new camera architecture with   high even higher capture rates and additional new  features furthermore the cameras are equipped with   the latest cmos esi sensors phase one is the  first company in the market introduced these   new 150 megapixel sensors two years ahead of all  other competitors the xm camera also brought a new   possibility for uav applications and the ax mrs is  the new king of aerial digital medium format last   year we announced the ps280 a large format area  system is 280 megapixel and more than 20 20 000   pixel crosstrack resolution a further addition to  the ps system is the release of our new flagship   model the ps80 which was just announced end of  2020. it is the first phase one large format and  

oblique camera system with 280 megapixel nadia  view and four times 150 megapixels of big view   the cameras of the ixm series can be easily  ma integrated and used with in a wide variety   of aircraft due to the its size and weight  the ixm is ideal for all unmanned drones   or anywhere where size and weight matters the  cameras of the ix mrs series with their even   higher resolution are part of the of our phase  one area system but also are built into a wide   a varied variety of aerial imaging systems and  made by many other integrators around the world   these cameras are also often a part of urban  lidar systems and helicopter based systems   for optical inspections the xm series cameras are  often used in drones and inspection applications   such as inspection of bridges and roads pipelines  railway wind turbines power lines in agriculture   and phenotyping applications as well as in  mapping applications that require highest level   of accuracy the xmrs models are mostly used on the  larger areas in manned aircrafts also for mappings   application in agriculture and forestry as  well as environmental monitoring for these 3d   city models and next to airborne lighting systems  and also for inspection yeah but now it's time to   hand over the presentation to gerhart kemper  from ggs let's see various examples how ggs   uses phase one technology in the last 20 years and  today so thank you gerrard for joining and yeah so   please continue thank you carson and also welcome  everybody around the world visiting us so just   checking the okay it's moving forward okay that's  my short agenda for today a short introduction to   our company so we are this year already 32 years  on the market and uh yeah we what we deliver is a   all-in-one solutions we have meanwhile 50  employees so and we do a lot of things in   integrating cameras different sensors stabilizers  flight management system and we provide   ready to use complete systems just today we  had our second following audit from the suit   and we are iso 9001 certificated company so  we have a quality management system in-house   and that allows us to deal also with  big partners like seaman's and others   our location our headquarter is in  schweier in the western part of germany   we will move over our r d and headquarter in q3 to  reson book in france so we have better place more   environmental possibilities to enlarge our  workshop and everything uh we have opened our   branch in turkey in the fall card towers in izmir  and we are going to do also something a little bit   like a developing strategy as a us competence  center in namibia and we are looking there with   partners to get some training and give the people  there something on hands to do their own business   we have partners all around the world who are  our resellers and we have many partners who deal   with us with their senders and the integration  partners components for the turnkey solutions   i will jump a bit in the history how we came to  this job so we started in 1988 with meteorological   centers and equipment for soil geology and  others and we did already that time with typical   theodolites the first digital terrain models it  was the time when just the first ideas of gis   came up and photogrammetry was still on  let's say more manual digital plotters   and some years later in 1997 we started with  the first differential gps systems and reached   already two meter accuracy and used that for  gis data combination and of course everything   was correct at that time because normal gps was  about 100 meter unaccurate we followed up with   the first combination of gps and different sensors  for example echo sounder ph value measurement and   conductivity and we measured for example lakes for  the water quality and created already the first 3d   sub sea level terrain models we jumped already  2001 with our handheld gps and already the first   maps with that have been gis and gps supported  for power line monitoring it was still manual so   it was let's say yeah looking for isolators for  damages visually and put that into the geodatabase   2002 we used already gps but still with analog  cameras we used for example here the rolex matrix   camera with resole plates for measuring in  photochromic methods and we use already color   infrared rgb uh systems and everything was already  controlled by gps that time so it was the first   attempt of flight management system we already did  something on uav technology because we wanted to   create high resolution digital data that time we  used balloons as a photogrammetric carrier and   we had here already a stabilized digital camera  with 4 megapixels remote control and that's the   terrain model with the modern software which was  created out of this model that was the theater in   patara in turkey we did something similar already  with a phase one digital back on a roller matrix   camera in 2003 it was also a balloon mission over  the acropolis in athens that time there were no   drones what we know up to today and here we used  already genus s and bluetooth communication but it   was still let's say fixed balloon with two ropes  and we reached gsd of five millimeter that's time   and in 2004 we f5 we started with the first  stabilizer still let's say a bit handcraft   workshop with a roller matrix phase one camera  with 22 megapixel it was really the best that time   what was available and we used that in a zeppelin  a remote controlled in china and we got the first   let's say aerial mid-format results in these days  it lead it up in 2005 to improve the stabilizer   the communication and use also tri-row senders  for the stabilization and direct referencing   and it leaded that we've flown with the  first ultralight aircraft in china that time   and 2008 we used already the first combination  of mid-format camera with a p25 digital back   and modified nikons for red edge  detection it was a five band solution and   it resulted of course in some deep wiring of the  near infrared canals and results in a red edge   detection mapping of a test site in switzerland  to generate let's say the right fertilizers and   some sickness of plants and these things our  integration so the first turnkey solution we   sold was again to china used in a trike it was  already our first or second model of stabilizers   with a roller matrix with the p20 45 39 megapixel  digital back and was mounted in the trike   and we've flown the first missions successfully  and the system increased and was a long time   operational also for measuring or detecting  the damages of the seizure on earthquake   that time uh 2009 we used the first dual camera  setup for wide aria mapping with two roller matric   p45 cameras mounted under a certain angle with  a certain overlap and stitching software and it   was mounted in the surveying aircraft  of the ign of panama and we performed   a calibration flight very close to the panama  canal 2012 we are already in the phase one history   of the young phase one development it was the  first digital complete photogrammetry camera   the ixa 180 and we already combined their three  cameras of that for a wide area mapping in sudan   with the three cameras and we already had the  synthetic frame of 26800 pixels cross and it   was mounted on our stabilizer aerostat twin with  the nova tail span uh genus as ins and our flight   management system and we created 30 centimeter  gsd through orthophotos of the nile area   2014 we had the installation for the  daisy a seabird monitoring system uh   the request was a high resolution to detect the  types and numbers of seabirds and the system   operated well with many images also detecting  other animals and we had 1.5 centimeters gsd   already in this times and the  system already is now upgraded   to the latest phase one technology  with longer focal lenses 215 we installed our first oblique   system with 4i xu50 and the ixu 1000 as  a nadia camera for link fast in taiwan and 2016 we used the four band system installed  at the aircraft of the aerial surveys limited   company and we did the first missions with  this system and in 2018 we installed our   oblique imaging system l with a four band  system and did a calibration in spire that   results in two flight altitudes cross flight tie  point matching adjustment in bingo and getting   for each camera the calibration parameters  and reduce the distortion with additional   parameters so that is something what we typically  do when we deliver a system ready directly to   start with missions that is ready calibrated using  bingo for let's say the best possible results 2019 we installed eight camera system for open  skies in romania and it's designed to fly at three   different altitudes to get a maximum resolution  of 30 centimeters and for each flight level we   have a four band solution that's the nice aircraft  and i would be happy to have more such aircrafts   to install the technology because we have a  lot of space and more comfortable to fly but   in many cases it's relatively small aircrafts  just enough to get the system nicely mounted   yeah the system of course in romania is a  quite complex one with many monitors for the   observers and the controllers and the  different camera setups to get them   uh set up differently so you see the  systems get quite complex that time   what components do we use today and  which components do we integrate   of course there are the different phase one  cameras the 280 150 and 100 megapixel camera with   the different lenses that we are integrating we  are using different thermal cameras some of them   with industrial standards some of them  steering cooled for very high resolution   and fast capture rates we use ultraviolet cameras  from different brands meantime more from proxy   vision with amplified detection and daylight  filters and they are typically used for corona   discharges on power lines and we combine them for  example with rgb cameras and other thermal cameras   we integrate the different regal scanners we  did a lot in the last two years on that basis   and of course the integration is done also with  hyper spectral senders for different applications   five band and multi-band solutions we have  our stabilizing platforms our small one   for a single camera solution the aerostat  m that can carry for example a 280 plus new infrared sensor or the aerostat xl that  is the biggest let's say on the market with   42 centimeters that is able to carry also  big oblique systems and of course we have   all the range of gnss and ins systems to  integrate them uh our aerodynas our direct integration uh and registration system  we are using components from novatel   and aplenix and we have them from let's say low  grade to ultra hybrid depending on the request   our mission planning software develops more and  more we do a lot of things on the power line   monitoring and have developed also specific tools  for this one and we have also the navigation part   as a flight management system that's guiding the  pilot through all the missions with a moving map   and also instruments and collecting the data  from each snapshot we do things of course with   the phase one four band solution and we integrate  also five band solution for detecting within the   infrared you can see in the sample the rgb  then the infrared and the ndvi resolution we do missions in with emissions in  different altitudes to check the systems   to detect if we get the right speed if we  capture everything in a certain quality zooming into some parts we also can if  there is clear water to look also deeper   into the environment and detecting also the breed  places of of mosquitoes close to the rhine here the combination of rgb and thermal infrared seems  to be a bit unlogic but it makes a lot of sense   when you see also in daylight conditions  the thermal radiation because it indicates   where you have good areas for solar energy it also  indicates where you have certain environmental   issues and we combine it of course with our flight  management system because the thermal camera needs   some special dealing with recalibration and so on  we have integrated interface for that and that's   a combined result for example the thermal image  overlaid over also photo and you can see the urban   green it's very very extreme as a cooling effect  and you can see uh the south uh explanated roofs   in the aspect that shows you also the different  uh let's say thermal radiation and effects of   urban climate public imaging system it's also  one of our big components we have a certain range   of small medium large and four band systems  and i thought it would present our latest baby   which contains a 280 megapixel nadia camera from  phase one 450 megapixel camera as oblique plus uh   thermal cameras uh for the  for the urban heat detection that's like how the system is looking like so  you can see here the 280 megapixel camera the   near infrared nadia camera the oblique cameras  and the thermal cameras that capture of course   in the far less accuracy and resolution but  detects of course the urban heat effects   these are the footprints of the different  sensors calculated now for five centimeter gsd and that's the range of gsd that's  affected by the oblique view   but i don't want to go too far into the details  and what you are able to capture are data of 3   centimeter gsd depending on the on the speed  of the cameras uh yeah you can reach also two   centimeters but with one centimeter of course  depending on the flight speed there are limits   on the capture rate some examples of  photos what we have in two centimeter gsd and that's definitely impressing what you can  detect here and that's also one effect where you   can see very good finally on the thermal images  if these solar panels are operating in the health   stages or if their repair should be done this is a  3d model on the left hand side i'm just going back   so it's not the image it's really a 3d city model  of the city of spire which we use typically for   calibrating the system we have over 100 control  points in this area and for 3d cd models it's   a very nice test site that's  a nice test site i will show   later a short presentation of this aria of  wissombor in france also a 3d model which we   captured with our oblique imaging system  and we did also with our drone on this part   multicenter integration it can be also a deeper  integration that's what we typically do on the   power line monitoring system what we did with  siemens we've integrated their 500 megapixel   cameras to capture with the two millimeter  gsd the power line and the infrastructure   we have lidar that collects 250 points per square  meter three thermal cameras a corona camera   direct referencing and in that example we  have also exacto electromagnetic detector   that's a digital twin calculated out  of the data glider and aerial images   and what you see is a very detailed  resolution that enables also ai technology to   detect automatically some failures some  issues some findings on the power line   now look such a system of course  you have a flight management system   that especially has tools for snake line flights  to follow the line without entering separately you   have the genus as ins as the central heart of  it we have the camera setup in the daisy chain   we have the thermal cameras that are synchronized  they have our own let's say controller unit   we have a corona camera that captures images with  a 50 hertz frame rate combined with the rgb camera   we have of course a lidar system and of course  a central storage and control monitor for the   operator that's the sensor heads that we have  developed for siemens which is actually today   in policy coldstream in operation we also did  integrations payload integrations for swiss   drones for example here with three rgb and thermal  cameras to capture data in a very high resolution on on a test site here in switzerland we also have since two years  our own uav development   we have two uavs the aerospector and the aerospect  s for different payloads the aerospector is our   bigger baby actually it's designed mainly to  carry let's say several senders for example a   regal boxes and a high resolution camera or gimbal  for stabilizing or as a smart gimbal solution and   of course for the wide aria mapping inspection  monitoring and surveillance applications   that's one test mission we did with the system two  years ago you can see the drone even it's a quite   big baby over a power line in hundred meters it  looks relatively small that's why it's marked here   and we capture here a power line pole and  you see here on the image already marked   some findings on the isolators and that's  the laser model generated with the boxes   smart gimbal solution that's also a new  development where we are still working   on it so we have at the moment two gimbals  under construction a small one for a single   camera you see on the left side down here that's  our small gimbal and that's our bigger gimbal   three axis and what is a smart gimbal i would  like to shortly explain it here so it's a system   that not only balances the sensors in a for  roll pitch and heading movement it's also   active it means it's checking for points of  interest you can see when you are flying by   that the system rotates to the point of interest  and focus the next one that's important for flat   terrain but more even on the hilly terrain where  it can follow the terrain while for example a   helicopter uv is climbing and descending and still  has the object into the focus and into the view   we already have made some integration of different  images captured by aerial systems for example our   oblique imaging system and the combination  with the uav data and i want to show shortly   something on this picture you can see here  the uav images captured and here an example   that's the result of the oblique imaging system  with five centimeter resolution and here five   millimeter uav data and we can combine them into  one model i think i should share my screen now so here our presenter yep so is it possible to see my screen yes okay  see it okay so that's a three 3d city model   of wissom and i want to show you here this that  the palace stanislas it's under reconstruction and   you see here it's already a very nice let's say 3d  model of the roof but when you zoom in the quality   gets bad and when i switch to the uav captured  data which is now a model inside the wider model   you can zoom in and you see here a lot of small  details and especially for such kind of objects   when you want to have more resolution for cultural  heritage it's a very nice let's say combination   of this kind of data you don't need that  of course for a whole city that would be a   data volume which is not possible to handle but i  think for this specific objects you see far more   details and it can be used of course for all  this archaeological and conservation purposes   okay carson you can take over again okay okay so we're back to the presentation yep okay i'm into forward it's not moving okay try once more yep okay yeah  i'm already at the outlook and new developments   uh we are working on newer faster  and more integrated mapping senders   for example also on the oblique imaging system  we are already in the process to optimize   optimize the workflow it means from planning  data capturing to the processing so that the   things are more smooth more integrated and yeah  the idea is to have everything let's say in one   environment that you don't have to deal with  different data sources and just let's say   plan fly and have every data together for the  processing for example in skyline software   we develop new tools for mission planning  and navigation especially for power lines   we already did a lot of that in the  past we are using new ptp sensors   it's precise time protocol to integrate and  synchronize sensors to genus s time so we have   a lot of experience meanwhile uh in this data  combination and to get the camera synchronized   and that was always in the past because the many  of these industrial cameras work like a video   stream and it's hard to synchronize them and we  found out that this tp ptp we get everything on   the same genus as time as the other senders like  lidar and the phase one cameras as well we have   also reached a good value in real-time overlaying  and error detection in the ua in the uv band   and we develop a wider range of smart  gimbals also for other uavs and helicopters   we also thinking on tools to use autonomous ua  missions uh to combine them with 5g technology   we are entering a project for firebird that  drone itself can try to detect a fire nest and   automatically try to find and fly close to this  area and give the informations with a video stream   to a central let's say a disaster server and we  do also implementations to control uav swamps   with different sensors with coalition sensors and  we are working on that field in the future as well   that's everything from my side at the moment four questions yeah so as always after a webinar  we have some time free for questions from the   audience so i will now welcome gina my colleague  she will hopefully have some questions collected and yes thanks carson we do have um several  questions um in the audience and i think   we're just going to start with our first one  which is um looking at the open sky system um   question is whether it's a commercially available  system that can be purchased as a campaign system   so i thought you could hear the question because i  don't understand but it's a very strange sound you   should switch off your robot um yes  the system from romania is actually   commercially available there are no  components which are let's say stripped is quite bad sadly yeah is um maybe keep it muted for the moment i  will answer so the system from open skies it's   more or less a commercial system  of course it's customized for this   specific purpose but there is nothing let's say hidden or forbidden or very secret parts which   can't be shared to others so it's definitely  an open and commercially available system okay thank you um tina can you  try once more hopefully you can   yeah yes the next question um i think i  actually have two questions going into   the same direction so we can just have  a look at the rules at the same time   but nice nice pictures and resolutions with great  precision but um it's also creating a lot of   data so it's my big data project so the question  is like how to handle these amounts of data and now i don't i'm not sure if i  understood right so uh a question   about high resolution in combination  with let's say more core resolution data um yeah i think that's definitely what i tried  to show on this small 3d model of wisconsin that   they you can capture something in the core  resolution and then focus on a specific object   why you definitely need this high resolution  and i think that's definitely something for   the future because we will not be able to handle  such amount of data and it also makes no sense to   have everything let's say an ultra high resolution okay yeah i'm very sorry for this noise a  bit there's some technical problem we need to   investigate so i hope the answer was   found well from from gerhart and and yeah we try  it once more tina do we have one further question yeah try to change some settings here's only  that's what i'm better known um the next question   is like combining close-range uav with um remote  sensing narrow data is that something that's   coming up in the future uh i'm sure that it will  come in because we have learned that there are   let's say to combine this data it was there  are many uav data which are let's say isolated   in the environment so it's just a single  object and you can't see them let's say in   in the wider context besides that especially  this high resolution uav data they help for many   applications uh in 3d city models for example also  for tourist guidance where they want to see on   beforehand let's say these objects in details and  it also helps in the example of the palestinians   also in the conservation and documentation process  so i think that's something which comes up more   and more especially because the uav technology has  improved so fast and to deal with the data uh it's   far more easy than let's say five six years ago so  i think that's definitely something that pops up okay thank you gerhart so i just opened  the question chatbox myself so i take over   and we'll ask the questions now so i have one  question received here um the drone do you have   used to fly over urban areas which was it yeah  it was in that case the aerospect s our smaller   one with a single camera okay then i have one  for another questions the the um solution you   delivered 2006 to china if it's still in operation  somebody asks uh yeah they just have let's say   changed the camera from 39 megapixels uh some  years ago to the 100 megapixel camera but the   flight management system the stabilizer without  any repairs or inspection it's still operational   it's still there okay and then i have a  more specific question this is related to uh   the corona camera yeah when the camera is  collecting images with 50 frames per second   you mentioned how you get handle this huge  amount of data uh yeah that's definitely a   challenge so we have and we have two of them so  we have the ultraviolet camera and the rgb camera   roughly about 1.2 megapixels each and that's  of course a data stream which is just enough   to to handle it to to get it dealed and what  we are doing is we on the fly we overlay them   because the ultraviolet camera just collects  let's say black and white it just collects single   corona and photon blobs and so we superimpose them  on one image and um at the moment we are working   on the step that we analyze the data if there is  um let's say some finding if there is something on   the ultraviolet band if not we will delete let's  say yeah more than uh 60 80 percent of the images   just to store some images with some findings and  if we have findings we of course collect the full   frame rate as long as we have findings on the  ultraviolet band so that reduces of course the   data which we finally have to process and we get  on the fly indicator that there is a finding and   operator can view okay this isolator creates  some corona effect that's that's a nice thing   that's a big step we did this year okay and i have  another question as you showed the example of the   oblique data set which is uh was collected with  five centimeter gsd and you showed the example   for combined uav data which you put into  these data sets do you see this as a common   new application for the future and can you name  further applications where this is from use yeah i see especially for 3d city models i think  i mentioned it already a big demand on that   because some objects you want to have in this  ultra high resolution also for let's say touristic   applications for checking for let's say repairs  that have to be done we did it also in visual work   for some other facade which is other roof which is  actually under reconstruction and it also helps to   let's say document or reconstruction steps and you  want to see all this data in a wider environment   that can be done also with let's say wind turbines  when you have this data or you can use this data   also as a sample for modeling let's say new  wind farms how they influence the landscape   i think this combination is a very interesting  one because the advantage of a uav is that you   can collect data in a very high resolution and  the disadvantage of uav is that you cannot cover   let's say bigger aria that's definitely let's  say the combination of both ariel survey and   this type of data is is i think the future  okay thank you um i think these were all   questions so far but if they are coming  further question in your mind later on   so you see the email addresses for myself and from  dr garrett camper here on the on the screen so   feel free to to drop an email if you have further  questions um let me see if this further arrives no   so yeah then uh thanks very much for for all  your informations gerhard you shared with us   and and yeah hope to see you sometime again and  so for today i would now uh close uh the webinar   um so yeah thank you uh all to all viewers uh and  also especially for gerhart for sharing all his uh   informations uh thank you for joining this webinar  and looking forward to see you again at the next   webinar uh like always the webinar is recorded  and will be provided here within the next two or   three days on our website so you can go back  and view it again or reference it to someone   you know that also would like to see that yeah so  thanks again okay thank you very much carsten and   and thanks for the audience  and and the questions and   i'm happy to answer other questions popping up by  email thank you very much good thank you thanks   all and have yourself a wonderful and  great day thanks a lot okay bye bye bye you

2021-05-21

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