Skip to main content

Forum8 takes to the air to develop new maps

Japanese interactive 3D simulation and modelling software specialist Forum8 is showing its Micro Aerial Pilotless Scanning system (MAPSs) at the show.
October 6, 2015 Read time: 1 min

Japanese interactive 3D simulation and modelling software specialist 848 Forum8 is showing its Micro Aerial Pilotless Scanning system (MAPSs) at the show.

It demonstrated the mini-drone on Tuesday night at the Nouveau Stade Bordeaux, adjacent to the Exhibition Hall.  
MAPSs, which uses a small, remotely-piloted DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter, maps a predetermined area by flying via GPS waypoints. Forum8 describes it as a low-cost method of producing a range of Geo, GIS and 3D Interactive mapping products and city models.

Flight time is up to 10 minutes, depending on weather and battery capacity.

During that time, the cameras mounted on the drone take between 500-700 photographs, which are then processed by Mitto Design of the US.

The resulting imagery can be processed to create 3D point clouds, real-time interactive 3D virtual reality simulation models or digital terrain maps.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • 3D Repo’s VR Simulator helps TRL shape future of autonomous vehicle services
    August 11, 2017
    3D Repo is creating 3D virtual reality visualisations to help simulate driverless vehicle routes as part of a US$130 million (£100 million) UK government-backed research project. Led by TRL, the project is part of the Smart Mobility Living Lab, located in Greenwich, London. The Living Lab provides a real-life environment where connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) can be developed, evaluated and integrated with the local community. 3D Repo’s cloud-based Building Information Modelling (BIM) collaboration
  • Traffic management to the fore at Vision 2014
    December 8, 2014
    Colin Sowman reviews some of the traffic-related exhibits at the 2014 Vision Show in Stuttgart. Traffic was a major theme at this years’ Vision Show in Stuttgart and several manufacturers used the exhibition to highlight their traffic-related equipment and applications.
  • Vehicular networking architecture for local road weather services
    August 19, 2015
    The Finnish Meteorological Institute is currently testing two-way delivery of local weather data as Timo Sukuvaara explains. Road weather information is one of the key ways in which ITS can help reduce traffic accidents and fatalities – which is why the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has long provided road weather services. Now, the CoMoSeF (Cooperative Mobility Services of the Future) project has been developing communication methodologies to deliver road weather services directly to vehicles and g
  • Toyota demos HD maps for Tokyo AVs
    March 31, 2020
    Toyota's Research Institute-Advanced Development has demonstrated high definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles (AVs) for surface roads in Japan with a relative accuracy of less than 50cm.