Laser technology specialist Measurement Devices US, LLC (MDL) has introduced the industry’s first custom designed land and marine survey vessel.

Following the success of their Dynascan mobile mapping system and the increasing market demand for a combined multi-beam sonar and LiDAR data collection system, MDL has designed and built a hydrographic survey vessel, appropriately named Dynascan 1. The innovative vessel is an easily towable 30 foot ‘V’ bottom aluminium work boat designed and built for shallow water survey operations. MDL’s vessel also features an extended 12′ cabin and instrument room which is fully air conditioned and can comfortably accommodate a skipper, two survey engineers and two client’s representatives. The Dynascan 1 can operate in all weather conditions, has a comprehensive inventory of safety equipment and is suitable for use in inshore and inland waterways, ports and harbors, dams and rivers.

Every detail of the boat was meticulously planned, from selecting only the best-of-breed technologies available to placement of each sensor for optimal performance. Among the many features of the Dynascan 1 are a number of Trimble® GNSS positioning systems, short range(150m) and long range(500m) LiDAR systems, and a full multi-beam echo sounder system.

Onboard survey and positioning sensors, together with the data acquisition software, are precisely time synchronized to each other using the GNSS 1PPS (Pulse per second timing source which varies by less than a second over a thirty year period). Accurate dimensional control and precise time synchronization gives MDL’s survey vessel the ability to generate a near perfect 360° field of view 4D data set which requires little or no post processing. The resulting real-time geo-referenced point clouds generated by the vessel can be exported in a number of industry standard and user customizable formats.

The suite of applications can be used for various types of surveys, ranging from simple single bathymetry surveys up to complex dredging or offshore construction operations. On the Dynascan 1, the system is configured to acquire and QC the data from all of the onboard survey and positioning systems in real-time. The Dynascan 1 has full onboard capability to complete a project from start to finish, including data acquisition, data cleaning, post processing and final production of the project deliverable.

The Dynascan 1 is now available for hire in the US and Canada or MDL can also provide a complete turnkey service by supplying the vessel and all of the survey and engineering personnel required for a specific project. Their experienced hydrographic survey experts are available to consult on, plan and implement small and large projects as well as provide full training packages to clients and service providers.