ROCK R360
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      ROCK Mobile Mount Best Practices

      How to mount and process your data using the ROCK mobile mount.

      Mounting

      Always clean surfaces prior to using suction cups.  Surfaces should be cleared of all oils and dust.  We recommend windex and paper towels to clean the windows of your vehicle.

      Additionally - Always use a tether for emergency securing of unit.  (Harrison has used climbing rope and carabiners to tie the vehicle mount to the roof rack of his car.)

      • The mobile mount comes with 3 high power suction cups and a tether as well as a 4th suction cup for GPS mast.
      • The R360 and R2A should be mounted with the LiDAR sensor on top aka "LiDAR up"
      • Make sure to mount the unit in a way where it will not constantly scan the vehicle in its field of view — this will take testing through trial and error before using on actual projects!
      • This image displays the axes of the R360 as yaw, pitch, and roll. 

      Mobile Data Acquisition

      ALERT: Before data acquisition be sure to check your orientation and adjust it as indicated.

      How to Acquire Mobile Data:

      After you have securely installed the Mobile mount with LiDAR and GPS, you are ready to capture mobile data by following these steps:

      1. Set up your Base Station and begin logging data
      2. Power on LiDAR unit and set LiDAR Unit Orientation
        1. Use the bench power adapter to a DC to AC inverter plugged into the lighter assuming the lighter provides enough power. Alternatively, use the AC adapter plugged into a power outlet in the vehicle if one is present.
      3. Start data acquisition with the vehicle in a location where the GNSS antenna has an unobstructed view of the sky
      4. Remain parked and motionless for 30 seconds of static data acquisition (until the status in the GUI reports "waiting for high speed")
      5. Accelerate in a straight line for 5 seconds maintaining a speed over 15 mph (24 kmh)
      6. After the straight line you will need to drive in 2 figure 8 patterns (keep in mind all of these maneuvers need to be with a clear unobstructed view of the sky and done with caution for driving in a safe environment and manner)
      7. If you have done these steps correctly you will now be capturing good LiDAR data and the status on the web GUI will report: NAVIGATION "NAV"
      8. Drive slowly and consistently while maintaining a clear view of the sky (AVOID TREES AND TALL BUILDINGS) ; recommended speed depends on the density of data you need (25 mph is our MAX speed for good collection)
      9. When you are finished collecting data drive in a straight line again for 5 seconds at a speed of over 15 mph (24 kmh) and immediately come to a complete stop and wait for 30 seconds before stopping data acquisition on the webGUI
      10. Power down the unit and go stop the base station from logging;  process data as per usual methods to create your Point Cloud

      LiDAR Unit Orientation for Mobile Data:

       

      You will need to update the LiDAR Unit Orientation prior to mobile data acquisition and REMEMBER to set it back to 0, 0, 0 before going back to drone configuration!!!  Failure to do this will result in BAD data acquisition.

      Before acquiring data - you will need to update the LiDAR unit orientation in the web gui of your ROCK unit by following these steps:

      1. First, power on the unit and go to the Web GUI on your preferred device

      2. Find the section called Vehicle to IMU rotation. It looks like this:

      3. Update the Yaw, Pitch and Roll numbers to reflect the orientation of the LiDAR with respect to the vehicle you have it mounted on.  For example, if you mount the system as displayed in the picture below then the unit will have rotated by 180 degree about the yaw (The LiDAR was pointed forward and now it is pointed backwards), the unit is pitched up by 45 degrees (the LiDAR is above the camera on an incline) and the roll will remain 0 (the roll hasn't changed from the drone to the vehicle).

      Drone-to-Vehicle-LiDAR-Orientation

       

      • Using this example, you would set your value under ROCK Orientation in the Web GUI to:
        • Yaw: 180
        • Pitch: 45
        • Roll: 0
      After opening the file in PCMaster you will want to fine-tune the Yaw/Pitch/Roll to make sure the data is aligned properly. 
      • After aligning the data you can save and Produce LAS as normal. 

      It is possible to colorize your data, but keep in mind the camera is generally pointed at the ground in these scenarios so you will not see much successful colorization of the full scan.