Capture Building Features With Leica Pegasus:Backpack

Leica Geosystems has introduced its Leica Pegasus:Backpack, a wearable sensor platform that combines five high-dynamic cameras (which work in variety of light conditions), and a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) profiler. This mobile mapping tool creates a 3D view indoors or outdoors for real estate project documentation. Weighing approximately 28 pounds (13 kg), the backpack features an ergonomic carbon fiber chassis,

For Building Information Modeling (BIM), or simply for capturing 2D square foot updates to a large building, the Leica Pegasus:Backpack creates a realistic view by capturing synchronized imagery and point cloud data. Accurate positioning is achieved in GNSS-restricted areas using Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology. Together with a high precision inertial measurement unit, the Leica Pegasus:Backpack is the first position-agnostic solution.Leica_Pegasus

This new technology is designed to enable weekly data capture efficiently and cost-effectively for changing building construction sites. This enables the creation of a full starting document for authoritative 6D management of a building or to provide an authoritative hand-off dataset to a new building owner.

By capturing weekly during a building’s construction, an “x-ray” view of the property is created. As the backpack logs position and time with the advanced measurement of LiDAR, change orders in the construction process offer a new level of authority for quality construction while scheduled milestones are achieved.

With full 360-spherical views and LiDAR together plus a hardware light sensor, all images are usable while other functions are verifiable and adjustable over the operator’s tablet device. The system uses multiple hot-swappable batteries.

“With the Leica Pegasus:Backpack, limited-access outdoor areas or underground infrastructures are no longer limited in professional data collection,” said Stuart Woods, Geospatial Solutions Division vice-president. “Users will never again forget any aspect of any job nor need to return to a project site. They can capture everything by simply arriving on site wearing the technology, capture and leave, rest assured they have everything they need to complete the job on time and on budget.”

Working with images and point clouds together, data is captured into a single platform and workflow – from the operator interface to a single-click post-processing to feature Meta tagging. Leveraging Leica’s Mapfactory extension, features can be extracted and datasets can be exported to CAD or BIM specific software solutions.