High Definition Surveying

Mulkey, Inc.’s High Definition Surveying (HDS) service offers customers innovative and cost-effective solutions for many traditional as well as unique survey applications. Also known as laser scanning, laser RADAR and LIDAR, HDS maps objects and terrains in 3-D, providing the most detailed and accurate survey results available today.

HDS can be used as a stand-alone survey technology or it can be fully integrated with conventional surveying, aerial photogrammetry/LIDAR, bathymetric mapping, subsurface utility mapping and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), providing clients with the as-built results they need.

HDS is an efficient and productive technology that allows surveyors to acquire large amounts of data quickly. HD scanners capture photo-realistic representations of an object or a scene, displaying coordinates so close together that the result is an exact computer replica “point-cloud” of the existing object or scene. Processing this information can provide data in a variety of formats from standard 2-D drawings for fieldwork to a full color 3-D model for computer animation and simulation. Mulkey’s employees are experienced in all facets of HDS applications.

HD scanners use a pulsed laser combined with scanning optics to quickly and accurately map objects and work environments in three dimensions. Because the scanner is very versatile and portable, it can be easily mounted on a tripod or used in various positions to capture data.

Unlike conventional survey methods, which rely on discrete targeting of the features to be measured, the HDS system “blankets” the scan area with thousands of closely spaced data measurements. Combined with conventional control surveys, HDS allows 3-D images captured from several different vantage points to be merged into a single, spatially accurate, data set.


Representative Projects

HD Scan of Progress Energy Tower

I-85 / I-40 Hydroplaning Survey (NCDOT Tip No. I-4713)

Tryon Road Bridge


Representative Applications