Introduction

The importance of precise and high-quality data collection cannot be overstated, and Detekt has proven to be an essential tool for transforming mobile mapping data into actionable insights for municipalities, road authorities, and contractors.

Leica Geosystems' Mobile Mapping systems are among the highest quality available on the market, allowing us to make full use of Detekt for road signs, road markings, and road damage extraction.

Leica Geosystems: The Measurement Professionals

Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, has supported professionals for almost 200 years in measuring the world. Known for premium products and innovative solution development, professionals in a diverse mix of industries, such as surveying, safety and security, construction, and manufacturing, trust Leica Geosystems for all their geospatial needs.

With close to 200 years of pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems solutions are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze and present spatial information. Hexagon has approximately 24,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 5.2bn EUR.

Leica Geosystems offers a diverse product lineup that includes advanced total stations, GNSS systems, airborne and mobile mapping solutions, and laser scanners. Their mobile mapping products allow for quick and precise collection and analysis of spatial data:

Leica Pegasus TRK Neo & TRK Evo

Suitable for a wide range of applications, including road asset inventory, pavement analysis, urban planning, and emergency response planning. Its portability and flexibility make it an ideal solution for mapping projects that require quick and accurate data collection, analysis, and visualization

• Integrated LiDAR scanner with 1-3mm precision
• 360° Panorama Camera
• Self-calibrating Butterfly Side, Pavement and Front Cameras
• 120MP maximum system resolution

Leica Pegasus TRK100

An autonomous and simple mobile mapping system to map, know and see what is where. The system delivers complete location intelligence in the digital format needed to make the decisions that will improve asset management, build and maintain better infrastructure and transform how critical services operate.

• Integrated LiDAR scanner with <10mm precision
• 360° Panorama Camera
• Self-calibrating Butterfly Side, Pavement and Front Cameras
• 120MP maximum system resolution

Leica Pegasus: Two Ultimate

An advanced mobile mapping system that represents a significant enhancement over its predecessor, the Pegasus:Two.

• 360-degree 24 MP camera system
• Side cameras with 8.0 FPS at 12 MP
• Maximum pixel size at 10 m is 3 mm
• Adjustable pavement camera with 12 mm lenses, enables targeted image capture along a road or in a tunnel

Leica Pegasus: Two

A highly capable mobile mapping system that combines ease of use with advanced technology to deliver detailed geospatial data.

Why Combine Leica Pegasus with Detekt?

Leica Pegasus systems are renowned among professionals for their comprehensive 360° panoramic imaging and LiDAR point cloud data collection abilities, offering detailed views of urban and rural landscapes. Detekt harnesses this rich data to automatically identify, categorize, and evaluate various road assets, including road damages, road signs, and road markings, utilizing Artificial Intelligence to provide actionable insights for assessing road conditions and safety. 

While other providers of feature extraction from mobile mapping data often rely solely on point cloud data, Detekt sets itself apart with its fusion detection. This innovative approach optimally combines the strengths of both image and point cloud data, unlocking the full potential of the Leica Pegasus systems. 

High point cloud accuracy is vital for precise measurement and map reprojection and is especially useful while the mobile mapping vehicle drives through a tunnel. However, relying solely on point cloud data may limit the system's capabilities, especially for assets like road signs and road markings. 

Detekt's fusion detection ensures the highest degree of accuracy across diverse scenarios, effectively utilizing the entire sensor stack of Leica Pegasus systems, which includes panoramic cameras, pavement cameras, and LiDAR. For instance, the integrated pavement cameras in Leica Pegasus systems are particularly effective for road damage detection and for assessing road conditions. These cameras are specifically designed to capture detailed images of the road surface, enabling precise identification of cracks, raveling, and other forms of wear that impact road safety and longevity. 

This comprehensive approach maximizes the value of your investment, delivering unparalleled accuracy and insights for road asset management.

Integrating Leica Geosystems Data into Detekt

Detekt fully supports image data captured with any Leica Pegasus system to facilitate comprehensive geospatial analysis. Below is a step-by-step description on how to integrate it into Detekt:

1. Data Capture

Start by using a Leica Pegasus system to capture your area of interest. Ensure that your settings optimize the capture of high-resolution images and accurate GNSS data for full coverage.

Detekt can directly process the Leica Pegasus folder structure along with exported LAS files. We use captured point cloud data to measure and accurately locate the image detections. Images from the pavement cameras are recommended for enhanced results to precisely detect road damages in image data.

The Detekt team is happy to assist you with these recommended capturing modalities, feel free to reach out to us at any time.

2. Data Upload

Once you have reached out to us, we will provide access to a secure storage where you can upload data. Detekt is designed to handle large datasets efficiently, ensuring quick data processing.

3. Processing and analysis

Detekt automatically processes the uploaded data, utilizing its computer vision models to detect and assess various elements like road signs, road damages and road markings within 72 hours.

4. Provision of the results

Post-analysis, we will provide you immediate access to your results. You can choose to have all detections exported as georeferenced data in any GIS format (i.e. as shapefiles or geojson files) or examine and verify the results directly in the Detekt Viewer.

Benefits of Integration

Integrating Leica Geosystem’s detailed capture with Detekt provides several benefits that improves geospatial data handling and analysis:

Enhanced Accuracy

The high-resolution imagery data captured by Leica Pegasus systems ensure that every detail of the road environment is recorded with precision. When this data is analyzed by Detekt’s robust computer vision models, it results in highly accurate assessments of road signs, road markings, and road defects.

Time Efficiency

Automating the analysis processes significantly reduces the time required from data collection to actionable insights. Traditional methods that require manual surveys and assessments can take weeks or even months, depending on the project scale. With Leica Geosystems and Detekt, the same processes can be completed in a fraction of the time, allowing for quicker responses to road maintenance needs and planning.

Cost-Effectiveness

By reducing the need for extensive manual labor and automating the data analysis process, the integrated solution of Leica Geosystems and Detekt cuts down operational costs. Municipalities and engineering firms can manage their budgets more effectively, allocating resources to other critical areas of infrastructure improvement and maintenance.

Scalability

Detekt is designed to handle large-scale data efficiently, making it suitable for extensive urban and rural mapping projects. Whether it's a small town or a large metropolitan area, the Leica Pegasus and Detekt combination can scale to meet the needs of the project without a loss in performance or accuracy.

Improved Decision Making

With more accurate and timely data, city planners and maintenance teams can make better-informed decisions. This leads to more effective prioritization of repairs and upgrades, improved traffic management plans, and enhanced public safety measures.