Applanix was formed in 1991 with the core technical staff of Honeywell Canada's Advanced Technology Centre. Building upon its aerospace and defense background, Applanix has leveraged its expertise in integrated inertial navigation into successful products for surveying and mapping. The conversion of this defense technology has established the company as a leader in integrated inertial/GPS for commercial applications.

Robust Position and Attitude with High Dynamic Accuracy

Applanix Position and Orientation Systems (POS^TM) were developed specifically for surveying, mapping and robust positioning in dynamic environments. POS^TM integrates precision GPS with advanced inertial technology to provide uninterrupted measurements of the position, roll, pitch and true heading of moving vehicles. By combining GPS and inertial technologies, POS^TM offers a fully integrated, turnkey solution for high-productivity surveying and mapping.

Redefining Surveying and Mapping

POS^TM has enabled the introduction of new surveying and mapping methods, dramatically increasing productivity for applications in air, marine and land markets worldwide. In 1994, in collaboration with the Canadian Hydrographic Service, Applanix developed the world's first commercially available integrated inertial/GPS system for use with multibeam sonar, providing an extremely accurate tool for high-productivity seafloor mapping. In 1995, Applanix was the first to demonstrate the aerial photography could be directly georeferenced without the costly and labour-intensive process of aerial triangulation. This was a breakthrough in photogrammetry, allowing users to produce digital orthophotos and maps more quickly and at much lower cost than was ever before possible.

Real-World Solutions

In close collaboration with customers and other technology leaders, Applanix has gained in-depth understanding of industry-specific challenges and designed field-tested solutions to meet these demands. Our turnkey systems are easy to operate and are fully supported.

Applanix is committed to delivering exceptional service and support to its customers. Our team of highly skilled field specialists provides all the training you need to be operational as quickly as possible. From development through to delivery and after-sales support, Applanix provides solutions for the challenges you face.

Products :

A World of Robust Precise Position & Orientation Solutions

POS/AV^TM

POS^TM for Airborne Vehicles - Enables the geometric correction and geocoding of airborne sensor data. The DG (Direct Georeferencing) option allows the determination of exterior orientation parameters for aerial cameras, without aerial triangulation and with little or no ground control.

POS/MV^TM

POS^TM for Machine Vessels - Designed specifically for use with multibeam sonar, this system provides measurement accuracy that allows IHO (International Hydrographic Organization) survey standards to be met on wide sonar swaths under all dynamic conditions. Worldwide sales, marketing and support are carried out exclusively by TSS (UK) Ltd.,

POS/TG^TM

POS^TM for Track Geometry - Real-time distance-based data output of all track geometry measurements, at speeds from 0.1 km/h up to 300 km/h. POS/TGTM can also be used for railroad surveying to provide sub-metre accuracy for geographic position.

POS/LV^TM

POS^TM for Land Vehicles - Provides decimetre-level position and orientation measurements for use in road vehicle-based applications. The optimal integration of sensors provides strong immunity to GPS outages.

POS/AV-DG^TM

POS/AV-DG^TM is a position and orientation system designed specifically for direct georeferencing of aerial photography. Integrating state-of-the-art inertial sensors, GPS technology and post-processing software, the system measure the absolute position (X, Y, Z) and rotation elements (omega, phi, kappa) of each photograph. POS/AV-DG^TM is a fast and cost-effective alternative to conventional aerial triangulation.

High Accuracy Position and Exterior Orientation

POS/AV-DG^TM measures the position of the camera perspective centre and orientation angles of each photograph at the exact time of exposure to an accuracy of 5-10 cm and 20-30 arcsec respectively (all values RMS). This performance allows direct georeferencing of aerial photographs to produce maps meeting or exceeding national standards for most scales, without aerial triangulation and with little or no ground control.

Unique Alternative to Aerial Triangulation

Elimination of the aerial triangulation process significantly reduces production costs, product turnaround times and the need for costly tie-lines. Digital orthophotos and maps, which previously took weeks or even months to produce, can now be created in a fraction of the time.

For very large scale mapping (i.e. 1:500 map scale), the POS solution can be used as an input to automatic aerial triangulation software. By having photocenter positions and orientation angles, POS data makes automatic aerial triangulation truly automatic by helping the correlation process to converge more quickly and reliably.

New Possibilities in Aerial Mapping

POS/AV-DG^TM has enabled a host of new applications that were previously impractical, or cost-prohibitive, including :

• Mapping of inaccessible areas (jungles, deserts, icebergs, polar regions, glaciers, coastlines, earthquake/disaster areas, landslides, minefields, oilrigs)
• Corridor surveying : powerlines, highways, rivers, roads, railways, pipelines, fiberoptic lines.
• Sample surveying for agriculture, forestry, geophysics.

Key Features

State-of-the-art post-processing

POSPac

• Maximizes accuracy by optimally blending GPS and inertial data.
• Incorporates data extraction, data integrity checking, carrier phase DGPS processing, unique Kalman filtering/smoothing of DGPS and inertial data.