Bradley Barnhart, Nobel Systems application developer, and customer representative, recently gave a course lecture for civil engineers at Mt. San Antonio College on the GPS technology of Nobel Systems’ GeoViewer application.
Kenneth Tang, the senior civil engineer for the City of Southgate, invited Barnhart to explain to students how Nobel’s GPS collection tool saves data to draw points on a map.
The students, who are all majoring in civil engineering, recently studied a chapter about GPS data collection and GIS. The course the students enrolled in primarily focuses on surveying for building projects, using highly accurate equipment on tripods.
“Knowing that they already had a good understanding of GPS perfectly led me into discussing the three possible ways that Nobel is able to collect GPS data,” wrote Bradley in a summary of his lecture.
Barnhart first explained Nobel Systems most accurate method of collecting data by using the GPS location device, the Trimble R1 GNSS Receiver.
“This device is able to get measurements accurate to within three feet of the collection point,” Barnhart said, explaining further that “the device uses GPS satellites to get its location.
[bctt tweet=”This device is able to get measurements accurate to within three feet of the collection point. @mtsac #GPS #GIS ” username=”nobelsystems”]
Although less expensive than the tripod equipment the students use, the Trimble receiver is fairly expensive at $2,600 per unit, which caused one student to audibly gasp, Barnhart noted.
“Yes, the Trimble is expensive but for many agencies that level of accuracy is worth the cost,” he told the students. “However, some agencies simply don’t want to spend the money and are willing to sacrifice accuracy to save some money.”
Barnhart segued into talking about Nobel Systems’ second method of collecting GPS data, which uses an iPad’s built-in location services.
“An iPad determines its location using the cellular network and not GPS satellites,” he explained. “The catch is that the iPad needs to have an active cellular plan to function and that the accuracy will at best be within about 10 feet.
“For many agencies, this would be close enough as most objects they would be recording locations on would easily be spotted if the user was within 10 feet.”
If the iPad did not have a Trimble connected and no cellular connection, one last option to collect data points would be by having the user manually place the location on the map.
This method, Barnhart explained, could potentially be the most accurate but was also the most prone to error as it relied entirely on the user’s ability to correctly identify the location of the object.
After describing the three methods of collection, Barnhart gave a short demonstration of Nobel Systems’ Geoviewer Mobile (GVM) and Geoviewer Online (GVO).
“They were very impressed by the speed at which we could collect a point and then see it in GVO.”
He briefly explained the collect GPS tool and layer controller for both GVM and GVO. After going over the Collection tool and how to turn on the required GIS layers to see new points, the class went outside and collected a few test points.
“Every student was able to collect one point in various locations around the classroom using each of the three collection methods via Trimble, iPad, and manual placement,” Barnhart said.
Back in the classroom, Barnhart showed the students the points they collected had already been displayed in GeoViewer Online.
Tang and the students asked Barnhart how to manage the data after the point is saved.
“I gave them a basic overview of how our systems save the data locally and then sends it via the cellular network to a cloud server, and that GVO reads data from that server to display.
“They were very impressed by the speed at which we could collect a point and then see it in GVO.”