“Joost, we also need to know where the gantries are in the connecting area where we are working. Can you map this? " It often occurs that clients have other questions after the environment has been surveyed and this was also the case when mapping the environment where the new A16 will be realised. In just a few days, Iv-Infra had collected a tremendous amount of data and processed it into a clean point cloud and 360-degree photos. This allowed the contractor to easily extract all the information needed to optimally adapt the design to the surroundings.

The initial question was to map all roads and viaducts in the area, but because the scan car also measures the vicinity to within 5 millimetres, you can obtain much more information from the measurements. From the canting, tyre tracks, state and type of road surface to the location of gantries, trees, crash barriers and lampposts. So, suppose that during the design process you need to know which objects are currently obstructing the newly to be designed civil engineering works, there will be no need to perform a new measurement as you can simply refer to the point cloud or the 360-degree photos because all the relevant information is already there. You can even use the photos to calculate how large objects or the size of surfaces are without having to install separate software to do so.

The 3D scan car is the result of professional nerds + passion + focus on continuous improvement + the desire to again serve customers better. Similar ready-made devices exist, but these didn’t interest us. We wanted higher accuracy and a unique, superior system that can deliver even more relevant and reliable data. We have assembled all the sensors and components on the scan car ourselves. And now that the car has proven its added value, we want to take it a step further. If the techniques of processing the data can become more automated, clients will be able to obtain relevant information even faster. This is what we are now busy with. For example, we have written software that recognises road markings, lampposts, trees and crash barriers, and we are working on automating other data to give customers even quicker access to the desired information. This is how we are working towards ensuring contractors can achieve an optimal design faster, and that road authorities can more quickly obtain access to up-to-date information of their assets.