Dual GSM 4000 Application

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Customer Success Story

Simultaneous Lidar Data and Aerial Imagery Collection with GSM 4000

95West Aerial Mapping revolutionizes simultaneous large-format imagery and high-density lidar collection with a dual GSM 4000 gimbal setup. The US-based company has been performing simultaneous collections for many years. When they decided to upgrade their current equipment, they opted for two SOMAG GSM 4000s as their preferred Gyro Stabilization Mounts for their state-of-the-art sensors. Simultaneous data collection allows the company to serve customers with maximum quality and efficiency.

The Gyro Stabilization Mount 4000 provides industry leading pitch, roll, and yaw stabilization for airborne cameras, scanners, LiDARs and other imaging sensors up to 120 kg during flight missions. Since September 2021, 95West has been operating the dual GSM 4000 Mounts in a Cessna Caravan to stabilize a Vexcel UltraCam Eagle M3 and a Riegl VQ-1560 II-S scanner. The Gyro Mount ensures high quality aerial images taken with the large format camera and a regular distribution of measurement points on the ground for the Lidar scanner, as well as a significant increase in efficiency when flying over large areas by reducing the required overlap of neighboring scan strips.

Two SOMAG GSM 400 Gyro Mounts - left in SOMAG signature yellow, right in UltraMount design stabilizing a Riegl lidar scanner and an UltraCam aerial camera
Two GSM 400 Gyro Mounts – left in SOMAG signature yellow, right in UltraMount design
GSM 4000

Advantages for Lidar and Imagery Products

  • High data quality

    enables customers to provide their clients with the highest quality lidar and imagery products
  • Precise motion compensation

    compensation of high winds or turbulence and prevention of excessive crab angles and image blur
  • Productivity

    allows to maximize flight opportunities while minimizing reflights
Why Customers

Trust Somag

„We chose to go with dual SOMAG mounts for our sensors because of the reputation for high performance stabilization, ease of use, and flexibility of integration. Having one mount that is compatible with both sensors, communicates flawlessly with the Applanix IMU and our TopoFlight FMS made integration very smooth. It also gives us flexibility to rearrange systems without having to refabricate aircraft adapter plates. When planning our equipment upgrade there were no alternatives, the SOMAG GSM4000 was a must for both our Riegl VQ-1560 II-S and UltraCam Eagle.”

Andrew Werle, Pilot at 95West Aerial Mapping
Maximum efficiency at minimum costs

Advantages Simultaneous Data Acquisition

Top view on two SOMAG gimbals with a Riegl lidar scanner and a Vexcel Imaging aerial camera system

With small time windows for data acquisition due to weather, sun angle limitations, and seasonal changes, the number of flight hours per season is limited. By acquiring lidar and imagery data in the same flight, weather windows are maximized and mobilization and acquisition costs are halved.

All advantages at a glance:

  • Coincident datasets reflect same features and water levels eliminating discrepancies
  • Single mobilization expense
  • More efficient acquisition 
  • Maximum utilization of weather windows
  • Larger image footprints and swath widths 
  • Increased detail and precision 
  • Data versatility 
  • Current terrain data for orthorectification 

“We find that many of our clients prefer simultaneous collection. Even customers who would not normally use both lidar and imagery have chosen to acquire both systems because of the greater versatility and benefits.”
– Andrew Werle, 95West Aerial Mapping

Customers from diverse sectors benefit from the dual solution. Engineering and utility customers use the highly accurate terrain models for design while using the high-resolution imagery as a background raster for their drawings. Customers in the mining and commodities industries are able to monitor properties and calculate volumes in a single flight. For orthophotography customers, a much better product can be delivered because the most current surface data can be used for rectification.

 

95West operating the dual GSM 4000 Gyro gimbals in a Cessna Caravan
GSM 4000

Self test

The video shows the self test of the GSM 4000. It consists of a mechanical and an electronic test phase. The self test executes a routine, which checks all sensors, mechanics and electronics and saves the results in a text file. SOMAG can decrypt this text file and utilize it for trouble-shooting purposes. The test can be performed in the SOMAG Mount Control App. which is delivered together with each Gyro Mount on a USB stick.

About SOMAG AG Jena:

SOMAG AG Jena is a global specialist for high-precision gimbal systems. The company, consisting of hand-picked experts in the fields of electronics, mechanics and software, focuses since 2004 on the development and manufacture of Gyro Stabilization Mounts for data acquisition and surveillance applications in the air, on land and at sea.

About 95West Aerial Mapping:

95West Aerial Mapping is a wholly owned subsidiary of Widseth that provides aerial acquisition and geospatial services throughout the United States and Canada. 95West specializes in unique solutions utilizing cutting edge equipment to deliver services that are tailored to their clients’ needs with the latest technology in the aerial industry.

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NSM 400

Successfully Completes Stabilization Performance Test

SOMAG AG AG Jena has successfully tested the stabilization performance of its Nautical Stabilization Mount 400 at the Institute of Ship Technology and Transport Systems of the University of Duisburg-Essen.

The NSM 400 was designed to stabilize sensor systems on medium to large maritime vessels even in very rough sea conditions, ensuring a stabilized field of view and high-resolution images by compensating the swell up to sea state 6 and beyond.

Extensive research on ship motion in different sea states show rotary motion given by roll, pitch and yaw and a strong presence of linear accelerations along all 3 axes.

Placing the Stabilization Mount in an elevated position on a mast high above the ship’s pivot represents a typical but also challenging case of application. This pivot offset causes the angular movements to result in tangential accelerations, to which additional sway, heave and surge accelerations add up.

„We used comprehensive data from US Navy ship motion studies and picked out the worst-ever recorded cases to calculate the maximum angles, max. angular velocities, max. angular accelerations and max. tangential accelerations occurring for our application at sea state 6,” says Jens Korneli, Application Engineer at SOMAG AG Jena.

Previous performance tests using the SOMAG test bed could already successfully demonstrate the NSM 400 stabilization performance. However, these tests were limited to roll and pitch motion only. To reproduce tangential acceleration, a hexapod test bed was chosen to simulate real-life ship motions.

A total of 13 different hexapod tests were performed simulating movements up to 20° in roll and pitch and lateral accelerations up to 0.5 g.

The residual angular deviation from perpendicular was measured with a reference sensor system to verify the stabilization performance of the Mount. The NSM 400 has successfully completed all 13 tests, delivering on the promise of an unmatched stabilization accuracy of ≤0.4° rms without external IMU data.

“The NSM 400 performance went above and beyond our own specifications and proved an average residual angular deviation of 0.17° rms,” Sebastian Schreiber, CTO at SOMAG AG Jena, summarizes the results.

“However, we do not simply stop at this point” he continues. “In order to resemble the real-life challenges of seafaring more closely, we used motion data actually recorded from an LNG tanker fighting its way through waves of 9 m (30 ft.) and higher, which corresponds to sea state 7.”

Heavy swell like this pushes man and machine to their limits, but the NSM400 is not impressed at all, perfectly stabilizing the 41 kg (90,38 lbs.) payload. The measured residual angular deviation of no more than 0.12° rms once again proves that the gimbal is more than capable of getting its job done, just relying on its build in sensors.

Performance Test Video

The results of the hexapod-test using real-life ship data is shown in the video. The IMU on top of the Mount measures the residual angular deviation in roll (blue line) and pitch (green line) to prove the stabilization performance. The rms values in the diagram change according to the residual angular deviation in the respective moment.

For more information about SOMAG AG Jena’s NSM 400, click here.

You have questions? Please contact us!

Newsletter

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We will send you regular information about:

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  • latest application examples, projects and partnerships

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