Archive for category: Article

In honor of World MS Day and the Texas MS 150, Jeff Armbruster, VP of Sales & Marketing at Landpoint, has bravely chosen to share his story of life with multiple sclerosis. Jeff will be riding the Texas MS 150 virtually this year due to COVID, raising funds to help the MS Society find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. If you would like to follow Jeff’s MS150 journey and help him reach his fundraising goal, follow this link.

I Connect, We Connect; Jeff Armbruster’s Story

“October 14th, 2009 at 1:30pm, my family’s life changed forever when I heard the words, ‘You have MS.’ In January of 2009, I shoveled snow at 5am before a trip to Houston and felt a pop in my lower back. I went on my trip and then to a doctor who diagnosed a ruptured disc. Through therapy, I was able to walk the stage at graduation in late April. On Friday before Memorial Day, I picked up a cooler while loading my truck to take the family to our campsite at Atwood Lake when I felt a bigger pop in the same spot. We had our holiday, but the pain was terrible. Tuesday following the weekend, I had to leave for a business trip to Houston again. My flight through Atlanta was delayed, so I had to run through the airport to avoid missing my connection. Wednesday morning, I woke up to discover my right foot was numb. Each day, the numbness moved up my leg until it got to my waist. My flight back from Houston was late by 2 hours, thanks to an accident at Atlanta’s airport. I was forced to run through the airport again to avoid missing the last flight back home. Saturday morning, I woke up completely numb in both legs from the waist down. Back surgery to repair the disc was scheduled for the earliest possible date, July 5th.

The surgery was successful, but my legs barely improved. On July 15th, I was allowed to take my first shower, so I turned the water as hot as I could stand it and enjoyed the water hitting my back. I got dressed and tried to walk to the mailbox and made it about 10 feet from the front porch when I felt a tuning fork sensation run down from my lower back to my toes, and my legs quit working. I had to grab my knees to stop them from collapsing, and I yelled for help. After that day, every time I took a shower or got overheated, my legs would stop working. New symptoms started whenever I took a hot shower or got overheated. My entire body would vibrate furiously, and I would have to lay down. I would sleep for hours, even after sleeping through the night. I walked incredibly slow and could only take a few dozen steps. I drug my left leg. I would have to sit and rest before going further. I begged my doctor to do something, telling him that something else must be wrong. He continued to blame it on the potential damage to the nerves as they spilled down my legs as they exited the spinal cord. He kept saying that I would have to learn to live with it. But, the symptoms worsened, and I began to feel excruciating pain in my legs. I now had insomnia and incontinence. I was begging all of my doctors to do something.
I finally convinced my primary care physician that something was seriously wrong, and he scheduled another MRI for me. Since I had an MRI prior to my back surgery, they moved up my spine one level from the lumbar area to the thoracic region. The MRI showed a lesion at the T-10 vertebrae area. He sent me to a neurologist who ordered three more tests; an MRI of my entire spine and brain, an evoked potential test, and a spinal tap. The MRI showed twenty lesions in my brain and two in my spine. The evoked potential test was normal, so my Optic Nerve was okay, but my spinal tap showed anti-body markers for MS. On October 14th, I learned that I had Multiple Sclerosis.

On October 15th, 2009, every day after that started with a shot. I was giving myself a drug to stop the progression of MS. While I didn’t get new lesions, the injections didn’t work. My symptoms increased, and new ones started. I began to get debilitating cramps in my feet, toes, and calves, so I started a new drug to relax the muscles. In 2012, I started a new disease-modifying therapy that required an infusion every 28 days. I was so relieved to not start my day with a self-administered shot. After encouragement from my wife, I started another drug that was a twice-daily pill that was supposed to speed up how fast I walked. Eight days later, I could walk at regular speed. These two new medications had an amazing effect on my MS. In 2014, I was finally able to walk the track at a WalkMS Event. I stopped using a wheelchair for good in November 2014. Then in 2015, I rode 25 miles in my first MS150 bike ride. By 2017, I was riding the entire route from Houston to Austin. In 2012, I was invited to join the MS150 steering committee as its scribe. I was also a committee member for WalkMS and a top fundraiser.

• 

While I was able to get better, many of my friends living with MS got worse. It’s the slow disability that builds with a chronic disease like MS. Several chose to end their lives because of the severe depression caused by MS and the pain that many suffer. With some, their MS turned from Relapsing and Remitting MS (RRMS) to Primary Progressive MS. Two-thirds of those diagnosed are women. In addition, there is a higher percentage of veterans returning from Vietnam and Gulf War I than are diagnosed in the general population.

Researchers still do not know the cause of multiple sclerosis. In honor of those battling MS, I will continue to work for a cure as long as I am able to.”

In honor of Jeff Armbruster, your contribution will support groundbreaking research and life-changing services for people living with MS. With your help, we’re one step closer to a world free of MS.

Your generosity makes a big difference. Together we’re changing lives.

Which utilities need underground mapping? All of them, really. Whenever a construction project, addition, renovation, or modification begins, one of the first steps should be an underground utility survey.

Utility lines are everywhere, but they aren’t always visible. Using utility location services, you can identify where they are and hopefully avoid them.

Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the most common types of underground utilities and why it’s critically important to map them properly before a big project.

Why is Underground Utility Mapping Important?

Mapping underground utilities is important for a few reasons: safety, accuracy, and efficiency.

• Safety. If you’re digging and hit an unknown utility line, you could be in for an interesting surprise. Not only could you cause serious damage to the line, but you could also endanger yourself and those around you.
• Accuracy. When you’re planning a construction or renovation project, you need to know exactly where all of your utilities are. Otherwise, you could find a line too late and have to disrupt the entire project.
• Efficiency. By mapping out your utilities ahead of time, you can save yourself a lot of time and hassle. You’ll know exactly where to dig, and you won’t have to worry about damaging any lines while you’re working.
• Cost. No construction company wants to tell the city that they just hit a gas main. Not only is that expensive, but it’s also going to lead to an expensive work disruption.

Utility lines are out there. Sometimes, they’re nowhere near where you think they should be. Underground utility mapping is what prevents you from experiencing a disaster every time you build on a previous site.

What Are Utility Location Services?

What do you do if you don’t have the technology to find utility lines yourself and you don’t have maps to determine where the lines might be?

Utility location services are exactly what they sound like—services that help you locate underground utilities. There are a few different types of utility location services, but the most common is ground penetrating radar (GPR). Drones can be used to get information over large sites fast.

GPR works by sending out a signal and measuring the time it takes for the signal to bounce back. This information can be used to create a map of the underground utilities in the area. Other methods, such as electromagnetic induction (EMI) and direct current resistivity (DCR), can also be used to detect utilities.

Either way, utility location services are absolutely essential to the process of underground mapping. Without utility location services, you won’t know where to dig. You should virtually never rely on pre-existing maps for your utility lines. Utility lines get adjusted over time, they shift, and they may not be where you think they should be.

Underground Mapping for Water Utilities

Water utilities are some of the most important lines to map properly. They’re also one of the most challenging types of utilities to work with, since they can be located in a variety of different places.

Most waterlines are, of course, underground, where they can be susceptible to damage from excavation and construction projects. But the positive side of water lines is that they don’t usually cause injury when accidentally hit, unlike gas lines or electrical lines.

The negative is that they can cause an extraordinary amount of damage to the actual work site. When a water line bursts, it can cause damage within just a few minutes—and it can take that long to get the water shut off.

• 

• 

• 

Underground Mapping for Gas Utilities and Pipelines

Gas pipelines are another important type of utility. While there are some pretty strict regulations as to where they can be, they can also be just about anywhere. Since they run underground, they frequently run through both public and private places.

Mapping gas pipelines is critical for safety reasons. If you hit a gas pipeline while you’re digging, you could cause a serious explosion. That’s why it’s so important to know where these pipelines are before you start any excavation or construction project.

One lucky thing is that gas pipelines are generally located by the city, which means you can usually call the city and have them mark out where the gas is, even if you’re going through serious commercial construction. It’s the responsibility of the city and the gas company to know where their gas lines are.

Underground Mapping for Electrical Utilities

Mapping electrical utilities is another important task. Like gas pipelines, they can be located in a variety of places, but they’re most commonly found underground. Of course, it’s getting to be more common that electrical utilities are run through the air. Largely, it depends on the size of your city, the extensiveness of its infrastructure, and whether it gets damaging weather.

One of the biggest dangers with electrical utilities is contact. If you touch an electric line while you’re working on your project, you could be seriously injured or even killed. Since a worker might not notice a live electrical line while they’re working, it’s essential that they know where those lines might be.

Underground Mapping for Telecommunications Lines

Mapping telecommunications lines is another important task. Like electrical utilities, they can be located in a variety of places, but they’re most commonly found underground.

Telecommunications lines are unique because there are many companies that run them. As a whole, most telecommunications lines aren’t dangerous, but you won’t typically find a single, consolidated map of where all the lines are, because they may have been placed by multiple service providers.

The biggest problem with telecommunications lines is that cutting a telecom line means that you could bring the entire neighborhood’s internet down. It’s certainly not a way to endear them to what is already a construction project in their backyard. And if you’re developing a business, it’s very possible that you could accidentally cut your own underground telecom lines.

Mapping Utilities: The Bottom Line

Mapping utilities is an important task, and it’s one that should be done carefully and accurately. By mapping out your underground utilities ahead of time, you can save yourself a lot of time, as well as a call to your insurance company. For most city-wide utilities, you can give them a call and have them mapped. Otherwise, you may want to commit to more involved surveying services.

Are you interested in how to survey and map your worksite? Do you need your utilities mapped now? Contact the experts at Landpoint for more information about utility surveying and underground utility mapping.

Pipelines always begin with surveys. And it’s easy to see how a UAV can help with an initial pipeline survey. But pipeline management, maintenance, and repair go well beyond the initial surveys. Today, we’re going to take a look at the role of surveys and UAVs in pipeline pig tracking (as well as general operations).

What is Pipeline Pig Tracking?

Pipeline pig tracking refers to the process of monitoring the general health of the pipeline. A pipeline pig is put through the pipeline and then its progress is monitored, indicating any issues as it goes. There are various origin stories for this phrase. 

The clearest origin is that the “pig” devices make a squealing sound as they move through the pipes. In later days, “pig” started to refer to Pipeline Inspection Gauge or Pipeline Intervention Gauge. But this is likely what’s known as a “backronym,” someone inventing a reason to use an acronym rather than the other way around.

Either way, pipeline pig tracking is a form of in-line inspection that makes it possible to manage and monitor a pipeline without having to open it up or potentially disrupt it. As pipelines are often buried, difficult to access, and usually need to stay in continuous operation, it can be otherwise very difficult to determine whether a pipeline is experiencing issues.

In-Line Inspections (ILI) for Pipeline Integrity

An in-line inspection (ILI) refers to the same thing as pipeline pig tracking. It’s a non-destructive method of ensuring that a pipeline isn’t leaking and that its structural integrity is still holding.

Pipeline maintenance involves some challenges. The pipeline has to remain up and continue flowing, which can make it difficult to determine whether something’s wrong with the pipeline itself.

Consequently, many methods have arisen to make it easier to identify cracks and damage in the pipeline.

Even if a pipeline has some measure of exterior integrity, there comes a concern that it could be damaged by things like adjacent tree growth, earthquakes, and other disruptive and destructive events.

Surveying with Pig Tracking

Pig tracking can be performed through a survey, with the surveying UAV looking for a sensor that would be connected to the pig. By completing surveying in this fashion, pig tracking can be faster, easier, and more accurate.

UAVs are increasingly being used not only for new constructions, but also for the management and monitoring of already constructed projects. When it comes to surveying pipelines, a UAV survey can identify potential areas of intrusion (such as large trees growing by a pipeline) as well as potentially damaged pipelines (using sensors).

As time goes on, sensors will only become more advanced and more able to identify issues. Consistent in-line inspections can reduce the chances that a major incident might occur and can overall improve operations. By improving the management and maintenance of the operation, surveys can also reduce the overall costs of the pipeline site.

• 

• 

• 

Initial Drone Surveys

At the beginning of a pipeline project, UAVs and surveying can also be used to ensure that the project is completed as it should be. Surveys can be used to isolate the best areas for the pipeline to go in. Simulations based on these surveys can identify any potential environmental risks.

A drone survey is a very accurate way to map out the area that’s being developed. The drone survey data can then be assessed and used in simulations until the best possible pipeline has been constructed.

Once that pipeline has been constructed, that’s when the organization will need to look at pig tracking, in-line inspections, and general pipeline integrity. 

Initial drone surveys can be used to ensure that the present-day pipeline still looks the same as it did before; these comparisons can be used via drone technology to identify areas of damage after a large event, such as an earthquake or severe hailstorm. Initial drone surveys can also be kept and simulated, if in the future the pipeline needs to undergo expansion.

Monitoring through UAV Technology

UAVs can be used to deliver information about tell-tale signs that a pipeline may have lost its integrity. For instance, a UAV might be able to notice from above that the ground appears to be saturated in a given area, that trees and plants are not faring well, or even that a sensor such as a Pipeline Inspection Gauge has gone off. 

The more monitoring provided to the pipeline, the safer and more valuable it becomes. By heading off issues before they become major problems, the pipeline won’t just save money but will also be able to preserve the environment and its surroundings. All this can happen through more regular monitoring with unmanned aerial vehicles.

UAVs and the Pipeline Industry

Ultimately, there are many ways in which unmanned aerial vehicles can help with pipeline operations. From dig staking to determining pipeline integrity, a UAV can assist by putting eyes on potential issues, by interfacing with sensors, by producing initial surveys, and by helping determine where problem spots may be.

And the more often regular assessments are completed over the territory, the less likely there are to be significant incidents.

Want to learn more about UAVs and the pipeline industry? Contact Landpoint to find out.

If you’re thinking of conducting a survey, you might be wondering if you should use a UAV. UAVs are a swiftly growing branch of the surveying industry — so quickly, in fact, that it’s becoming a standard.

Today, we’re going to discuss some of the types of LiDAR mapping drone, how you perform a LiDAR survey, and what you do with the GIS data that emerges.

The Types of LiDAR Mapping Drone

There are two major types of LiDAR mapping drone: fixed-wing and quadcopter. A fixed-wing drone is much like a plane. It’s easy to fly straight but it can take a little more work to maneuver. Because it glides, it cannot hover. A quadcopter is more like a helicopter. It can be more challenging to fly, but it can also hover. Frequently, it’s more maneuverable than a fixed-wing drone.

The type of drone you select is going to depend on the type of survey you need. If you need a survey that goes under something like a bridge, or inside of something like a cavern, a quadcopter drone is probably better. If you need something that can cover a large volume of territory very quickly, a fixed-wing drone is likely an ideal solution.

And, of course, it isn’t always about drones. LiDAR can also be used with planes and helicopters. Because these are manned vehicles, they are more dangerous and need additional permitting. Planes may go too fast and too high to get a good, high-resolution image, whereas helicopters may not be stable if they’re asked to do too much maneuvering and can’t safely approach places a drone can.

Performing a LiDAR Drone Survey

Performing a LiDAR drone survey is easy. First, permits may be needed; it depends on the area. It’s still faster and more affordable than trying to use a manned aerial vehicle, such as a manned plane or helicopter. The drone will already be fitted with LiDAR technology. One drone or multiple drones, depending on the size of the property, will fly over the area and capture images. The LiDAR images will be exceptionally clear and high quality; they will even cut through brush. 

All of this is handled by the experts. A drone survey professional is able to setup a survey very quickly. Multiple drones may be used depending on the amount of power they can store in their batteries. The drone will already have built-in LiDAR technology which can then be exported directly to a GIS system.

• 

• 

• 

Corridor Mapping for a LiDAR Drone Survey

Corridor mapping is one of the strategies that can be used for directing survey drones.

Today, a lot of drones can be programmed to do some complicated maneuvers. For instance, most drones have a “hover” mode that sets a point in space that the drone is supposed to circle or hover by. Because a lot of this is automated, it’s easy to perform these maneuvers as necessary.

Corridor mapping means that the drone is simply going straight and collecting data. While it may not be as fun as twists and turns, corridor mapping is what makes a LiDAR drone survey so efficient.

In addition to corridor mapping, you can have drones wait where they are. Corridor mapping is simply the most efficient method for surveying large volumes of land quickly. It’s often best suited to fixed-wing UAVs, as they operate like planes and can fly very fast.

GIS Data for Aerial Mapping

Once the data has been collected, it will be brought into a GIS platform. Most GIS data, whether it’s from LiDAR or another source, will be in a standardized format. From there, you’ll be able to look at your GIS data as points in 3D space. You can even manipulate this space, building on it, and potentially planning new projects.

GIS data will stay forever. But it isn’t just automatically converted to data that can be seen and understood. Rather, the raw data that’s recovered from the drone will usually be processed to ensure that it’s accurate. Most companies are not end-to-end data companies; they rely on a third person for their GIS data management. Working with an all-in-one company, such as Landpoint, will often involve fewer issues.

Simulating Topographic Data

A LiDAR survey is one of the fastest, easiest ways to survey any territory. A UAV is uniquely well-suited to the task, flying with precision accuracy and collecting the data at a much higher resolution. LiDAR and drone surveying can be used to simulate and store topographic data, which can then be used for virtually any need. 

GIS data can be used to simulate modifications that are made to the survey area not just now, but decades from now. If the simulated data is kept hosted, it may be able to be used in the future for expansions, teardowns, or repurposing. It can also be used in a variety of different simulated software platforms.

There are other solutions other than LiDAR for topographic mapping. But presently, LiDAR remains the most accurate and feasible solution. 

If you want to learn more about having an unmanned aerial vehicle complete your next LiDAR survey, the time to ask questions is now. Connect with us at Landpoint to find out what we can offer.