Custom military gps software applications

Trimble

An Example of Our Custom Solution for the Department of Defense The U.S. Department of Defense was looking for a field data capture solution to support an annual hardened runway survey of municipal airports across the United States in preparation for emergency landing operations. After an exhaustive search for a viable commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) application, the lead agency contacted us to develop a custom application specific to their requirements.

Background The Military routinely surveys the physical layout at municipal airports including the extents, direction, and gradient of runways, the location of taxiways, building footprints, and positions and heights of lights, signs, and any other obstacles in the flight path such as trees, cacti, utility poles, and land features.

Previously, the survey data was being captured using a combination of survey and mapping grade GPS, laser rangefinders, aerial imagery, and manual measurements. The data collected in the field was being manually entered into an AutoCAD application extension to generate the final drawings and reports. There were many time delays and risks to data collection teams due to airplane traffic.
Solution The project implemented a field solution which streamlined the collection of site-specific data and automated the systems interface to AutoCAD. The solution also included planning tools to aid in a team collection approach, and to consolidate data after team collection. The field solution was highly rugged and mobile and replaced several software applications running on numerous hardware platforms into a single, easy-to-use application. And, it supported survey and mapping-grade Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and high-end laser range finders.