Show us why the public should always call a land surveyor

Where are you surveying?

Wow!  Land Surveying Robots

For modern day Land Surveyors, this is nothing new.Ā  Ā Robotic Total Stations are widely used in Land Surveying, worldwide!

Surveying has been around for a very long time. It is known as the second oldest profession and men have been practicing it since early 3000 BC. It was used in ancient Egypt when they built the pyramids, and was used by the Roman Empire to establish tax registers of conquered lands. Surveying requires a skill in mathematics and was one of the first professions to be licensed.

Shades of Asimov, they are among us. The robots are here. Now they are surveying the land, no, this is not fiction, but real. Robots are joining the work force in even greater numbers. Where before they were mostly used in factories, they are now mapping, or rather, survey the great outdoors for us. These robots, called total stations, can measure distances and even email the information to the main office and connect to GPS satellites if needed.

What used to be a two person job, can now be handled by one person. One person, with some robotic help. Now if you are looking for something out of Star Wars, well, you are going to be disappointed. R2D2and C3PO they are not, what they can do is save money and take the place of people in terrains that are hazardous or just too difficult to reach.

Robotic Total Stations inside Community

Check out Introduction to Robotic Total Stations

Surveying is used in many ways, it is used to plan construction, roadways, erosion control, to check boundaries and building locations. It is used to map out roads and define property boundaries. It is used in construction to make sure that the building planned will meet all building requirements for the location. It is used is a court of law to help establish ownership, in case of dispute. While it is an old profession it is one that is not going to disappear any time soon.

Surveying tools may vary from a simple hatchet to chop down brush that stands in your way to total stations that do the work of the second team member. This includes such tools as laser levels, laser detectors, laser distance measures, prisms, poles tripods, measuring wheels anded tapes. Don't forget the bags to carry all this stuff in, perhaps a backpack.

Ā 

While a good share of these tools remain rather pricey the cost of technology goes down the more it is put in use. Still for a company starting up, the tools of the trade will still be on of the biggest investments. However, when you figure in work lost due to sick days on the part of team members, robots do not get sick, the cost of medical insurance, overtime and all the other expenses of hiring workers. Now compare the yearly cost of an employee to the cost of buying a robot helper and maintaining this helper. In most cases the robot will be cheaper and has the added benefit of being able to go places where a person might have trouble or may be placed in danger.

In the future we can look forward to even more advances in this field. Thanks to NASA and the advances in underwater surveying. NASA is even now testing a robot that will be surveying the Moon sometime in the future and tests have been made on an underwater surveying robot that will be able to go where man cannot. In the mean time if you have a need for a total station or just want to look, the Internet is full of places where you can get on of these surveying robots.

ā˜…
ā˜…
ā˜…
ā˜…
ā˜…
Votes: 1
E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Land Surveyor

Charlotte NC Land Surveyor

You need to be a member of Land Surveyors United - Global Surveying Community to add thoughts!

Join Land Surveyors United - Global Surveying Community

Thoughts

This reply was deleted.

Share your Surveyor Articles

Surveying Articles is a place for members to Share Land Surveying related articles, presentations and knowledge with the Land Surveyors United Community. Post or embed articles for future generations of land surveyors.

Surveying Articles and Presentations

Do you have an article about Land Surveying that you would like to share?

Land Surveying is a timeless art and science and it is therefore, evergreen! You may also know that a lot of older publications have gone away, unfortunately.   If you have written or published land surveying articles in the past, we would be honored for you to share them here with us.  If it is an older article, you can even republish it here with updates and reflections.  

class="block"Tip:   If you published an article in the past on one of the older sites which no longer exist, you can use the Wayback Machine to find it.  Then just copy/paste the old article inside a new post here.  Just be sure to tell us where it was previously posted.

Want to embed a PDF Document?

 If you have a PDF document or article related to land surveying that you would like to embed inside an article post, simply copy/paste the following code block into the HTML view of the post editor and replace the BOLD part of the code with the URL of the PDF you'd like to embed.   

Code to use:

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https://landsurveyorsunited.github.io/cssfiles/manuals/Surveying-Photos-Submitted-Land-Surveyors-United.pdf&embedded=true" frameborder="0" height="500px" width="100%"></iframe>

TIP:  You can also upload your PDF using the file upload button and then copy/paste the URL of the document you uploaded with the BOLD part of the code above to get a flippable PDF like so:

Uploading PDF land surveying documents to Surveying Articles

Differences between Forums, Blogs and Article posts

Forum Posts are great for asking questions which have a definate answer.  Forum posts are best for a quick exchange of information between Land Surveyors United members.   Please note that All Community Hubs have their own dedicated Forums so if your post is related to a specific hub, it is best to ask your question or share your tip inside the hub in which it belongs for targeted answers.  For example, if your question relates to Leica equipment, ask your question inside the Leica Hub forum for best results as all members inside that hub uses the equipment in question.  Likewise if your question pertains to a Location, you should consider making your post inside the appropriate hub.

Add Discussion

Blog Postsdiffer from Forum posts because you can embed and upload different kinds of information.  Blog posts are best for presenting information and updates for feedback and sharing.  When posting a Blog Post, you can also publish a short excerpt at the bottom which is what most members will see before reading the blog post.  Blog posts are also great for posting new surveying projects and digests of links to multiple surveying topics or your own website.   Things that can be embedded into Blog Posts are videos, images, slideshows, powerpoints, spreadsheets, PDFs, documents and more.

Add Blog Post

 

Articles are similar to Blog Posts in all ways except one.  Articles allow for you to post an Author Block at the bottom with links to your contact info, website information, credentials, etc. Similar to Blog Posts, things that can be embedded into Blog Posts are videos, images, slideshows, powerpoints, spreadsheets, PDFs, documents and more.  Similar to both types above, Hub Owners can add article sections and features to any hub they control on the community.

Add Article

Land Survey Guides