Research & Education
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Solutions for Research & Education |
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Leica Geosystems undertakes its own research in our Corporate Technology and Innovation Management Center (CTI) and has many collaborative projects underway with other research institutions.
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Unlike ordinary glaciers, rock glaciers are not extensive bodies of ice but mixtures of rock debris and ice that flow down valleys at speeds of 0.1 to 1 m (0.3 – 3.3 ft) per year. They are typical in alpine or high mountain permafrost regions and direct conclusions about climate change can be drawn from their movement. Investigating the movement dynamics of rock glaciers presents a great challenge to all the various earth science disciplines involved. Students at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) have taken on this challenge with the help of a Leica HDS4400 long-range scanner. more
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Soil is not only the basis for the production of food, it also plays an important role in climate protection. Carbon reservoir in soil is discussed in the report on greenhouse gas sources and sinks in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At the moment, Germany has no extensive, up-to-date data on carbon reservoirs in agriculture soils. To plug this gap in the country's knowledge, the Institute of Agricultural Climate Research at the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute (vTI) in Braunschweig is undertaking a research project to develop a German agricultural soil inventory over the coming years. A systematic and representative determination of the current carbon reservoirs in soils used for agricultural purposes is intended to provide consistent base data for the German National Emission Inventory Report. more
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When the Internet seems to have all the answers and the earth is revealed in ever more detail, it is refreshing to find a part of the planet that is still being discovered, even after thirty years of exploratory expeditions. In Mulu, Sarawak, Malaysia, what was created over millennia by water pushing through the limestone bedding and faults to find the quickest route to the sea is now a crystal underground world inhabited by bats and swifts. Surveying has been essential to the continuing discovery, providing maps to guide the explorers back to their starting point; showing potential new entrances as they approach the surface; and hinting at new discoveries as cave passages follow major faults, bedding planes, and drainage horizons. But what surveying technology and methods have survived this harsh environment to map this 3D maze? more
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Several hundred kilometers to the south of Madeira lie the Savage Islands (Ilhas Selvagens), home to some rare species of seabirds. This untouched ecosystem is a sanctuary for the marine birds that come here to breed. But the peaceful appearance can be deceiving, as climate change appears to be having an effect on the birds’ behavior.
A Leica Geosystems GNSS reference station with several connected meteorological sensors is supporting ornithologists’ research on this remote island. more
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The Cambridge doctoral students Till Wagner and Nick Toberg spent a month last summer surveying the dimensions and properties of the thin floating ice floes in the wilds of the Arctic between Svalbard and Greenland aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.
The aim of the expedition was to collect data that would provide firsthand insights into local ice conditions in September, the period of most rapid melt. The gathered data will also be helpful to remote sensing scientists to validate satellite measurements and to global climate modelers to provide more accurate input for their simulations. To ensure success, they needed just the right total station to tie in snowdepth readings, aerial imagery, and drilling sites with their 3D laser scanner data, and to produce low resolution surveys of the ice topography. more
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Robots, robots, robots – you find them everywhere. Often unbeknownst to us, they have considerable impact on our lives: we buy products made by robots, we use them in science, and they explore unknown environments. Robots aren’t “stupid” machines, but solve many complicated tasks without human help. They “live” in our world and can observe it with their sensors. To be able to move, robots need to know where they are, where they want to get to, and how to get there. These basic robotics tasks are called localization and navigation. They cover a large spectrum of different technologies and applications, drawing on some very ancient techniques, but also some of the most advanced space science and engineering. Amongst them Leica Geosystems’ technology, as tests with a Leica GPS1200 at the Institute of Control and Information Technology at Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava recently showed. more
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Ten years ago, RTK surveys typically involved two GPS receivers (a base and a rover), a lot of batteries and cables, two radios, a tripod, a pole, and a backpack to carry it all. Today users can choose between a GPS or a GNSS receiver, and a radio or a mobile phone, and it all fits on the pole. With the establishment of RTK networks, they can also choose to work with an RTK rover within these networks instead of setting up their own base-station. Leica Geosystems SmartNet gives users easy access to precise Network RTK data, where they experience the best availability, reliability, and traceability using internationally recognized standards, combined with flexible and affordable subscription options that meet the needs of the local market. more
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On three closely linked interdisciplinary projects, two of which are within the remit of the Competence Center Environment and Sustainability of the ETH Domain (CCES), the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry (IGP) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) opted for the Leica GRX1200 reference station receiver. The scope of the projects extends from research into tectonics, the movements of block glaciers right up to the determination of atmospheric water vapour content. The common denominators are sustainable studies in the fields of energy and environmental catastrophes as well as the Leica ATHENA Program for Higher-Education and Non-profit Organizations. more
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150 physicists, 36 institutions in 13 countries and a budget of 120 million euros: Opera is an international project carried out in collaboration with CERN and with the participation of the CNRS(National Centre for Scientific Research) aimed at reproducing on Earth, in known conditions, the natural phenomenon of the transformation of muon neutrinos into tau neutrinos. The final objective is to validate a theoretical model which would support the Grand Unification Theory of physics. more
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The treasures that lie beyond the doors of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, are sure to capture the heart of any history buff. The museum is filled to the crow’s nest with prized artifacts that celebrate the spirit of seafaring adventure. Visitors from around the world experience over 60,000 square feet of gallery space filled Civil War ironclad USS Monitor artifacts and archives, paintings, small craft with rare figureheads, handcrafted ship models and much more. Perched on a 550-acre woodland park, the museum was recently the center of a major data acquisition effort to capture and digitally preserve a key artifact retrieved from the shipwrecked USS Monitor. more
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The cover article for the March issue of the Professional Surveyor Magazine, "Laser Scanning for Cultural Heritage Applications," was written by John Ristevski and covers two case studies that show how 3D laser scanning is helping to preserve cultural heritage sites. The article also profiles a non-profit organization know as CyArk, which is taking advantage of the new technology to put together an archive and corresponding website of digital records of such historic sites. more
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(Reporter 50, Apr 2004) Researchers at New Mexico State University (NMSU)
have employed Leica Geosystems' remote sensing
and GIS applications to evaluate the Chihuahuan
Desert region in Mexico in order to identify habitat
features most likely to sustain a population of the
endangered Aplomado Falcon (Falco femoralis). The
final products, a documented predictive model and a
map depicting habitat suitability across a large
portion of the species' range, are aiding in prioritizing
areas for conservation consideration and making land
use decisions that benefit falcon habitat restoration. more
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(Reporter 50, Apr 2004) The world-famous airplane, Junkers W33, has been measured with extreme 3D precision and modelled
using Leica's Axyz software. Leica Axyz is the world's only integrated, intelligent industrial 3D measuring
system, which measures industrial objects, on an electro-optical non contact basis. Under the supervision
of Professor Günther Stegner, Stefan Brüser undertook this work as part of his Engineering masters thesis,
which involved data acquisition for modelling. Approximately 3000 object points of the areoplane’s
outerskin were recorded, evaluated, and then realistically copied in a CAD system. The resulting model is
an 'extremely realistic' copy of the airplane. Originally built in Dresden, 198 planes still exist worldwide. more
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Thermal Stability of Laser Tracker Interferometer Calibration. more
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Dynamic Weighting of Laser Tracker Measurements for Bundle Adjustment. more
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Two different objects were measured. The “Low Aspect Ratio Test” measured a medium sized object that was approximately equal in extent in all three directions. more
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Many companies today employ industrial robots to do manufacturing tasks. However, the ability to position these robots accurately has been limited, and therefore their use has been restricted to doing only repetitive tasks. more
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The Influence Of The Tooling Ball Reflector On The Accuracy Of Laser
Tracker Measurements: Theory And Practical Tests. more
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Improvements and new developments for Leica's laser tracker make it suitable for measuring the relative position of two parts or components during the manufacturing process. more
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The research engineering team at Caterpillar came up with a set of requirements for the system that would capture a D9 bulldozer's track-in-motion data as well as other relevant 3D coordinate data derived from the bulldozer's surface and movement. This technology played a crucial role in measuring simultaneous forces exerted on the bulldozer track shoe, and, at the same time, measuring simultaneous displacement (position and angle) of the track shoe to the ground. more
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The European organisation for nuclear research, CERN, is the world’s largest particle physics centre. Based near Geneva, the laboratory was founded in 1954 as one of Europe’s first joint ventures, and has grown over the years into a foremost example of international scientific collaboration, now bringing together 20 member countries. European particle physics laboratory CERN uses Leica Geosystems’ state-of-the-art laser tracker system to measure key components of the world’s largest-ever particle accelerator. more
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The Advanced Photon Source (APS) sounds like something right out of a Star Trek episode. But in fact, the APS is a third-generation synchrotron-radiation light source research facility, and plays a significant role
in the world of groundbreaking research. There are only three such light sources in the world, and this one is located at Argonne National Laboratory, which is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). more
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