We formed the company under the name NIIRS10 (that’s another story!) in July of 2003. Thus this is our 14th birthday! Prior to forming this company, I was the CEO of Z/I Imaging, a global photogrammetry hardware and software company. Z/I was acquired by Intergraph in 2002 (the point at which I left the company). Intergraph was, of course, subsequently acquired by Hexagon, the new home of Z/I Imaging. Our core group of developers joined me from Z/I and thus have a long and rich history in developing advanced photogrammetric and LIDAR hardware and tools.
The first product set of GeoCue (at that time, NIIRS10) was GeoCue, a set of enterprise workflow management tools aimed at organizations who need to manage professional LIDAR and photogrammetric workflows. GeoCue was rapidly adopted by most LIDAR production companies (in those years, primarily airborne laser scanning, ALS) in North America where it remains strong to this day.
Most of our LIDAR workflows encompassed the Terrasolid processing toolset. This caused us to form a close relationship with Terrasolid OY of Finland. In 2005, Terrasolid asked us to become their North American distributor, providing software, training and maintenance. This, too, we maintain to this day.
In 2009, we recognized that LIDAR was being exploited, to a small degree, by end users of LIDAR data such as federal, state and local governments. We quickly entered this business by acquiring QCoherent Software LLC of Colorado Springs, Colorado. QCoherent was the company that initially developed LP360, an ESRI extension that allowed advanced exploitation of point cloud data directly in an ArcGIS desktop environment. We quickly internalized this product and developed a robust standalone version for use outside ArcGIS. Since that time, LP360 has become the standard for LIDAR exploitation (especially QC) in a great many agencies including the USGS, the USACE, the USDA, Forest Service, many water management districts and so forth. LP360 is the desktop LIDAR tool against which all others are judged.
In 2012, we entered the small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) or “drone” business with the aim of bringing tools such as LP360 to bear on the point clouds produced by dense image matching. After a very careful evaluation (from an accuracy and model conformance point of view) we selected Agisoft PhotoScan and Pix4D Mapper as the tools of choice for point cloud generation. We developed agreements with these two companies and began sales and support of these products. We also started down the path of adding powerful sUAS mapping tools to LP360, such as volumetric analysis.
In 2014 we began development of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) post-processed kinematic (PP)K) direct geopositioning system for our high-end drone, the AV-900. This resulted in the AirGon Sensor Package (ASP), one of the most accurate positioning systems for rotary wing drones. The ASP is based on a Septentrio GNSS engine specifically designed for sUAS operations. Since we were effectively entering a new market, we decided to launch this through a wholly owned subsidiary, AirGon LLC (www.airgon.com). We also developed an Amazon Web Services (AWS) drone products hosting site called AirGon Reckon. Reckon serves as a data repository and information sharing portal for companies with multiple mapping sites (particularly the aggregate mining industry).
In 2015, AirGon began offering limited drone services for companies who were testing the waters of drone-based mapping but did not want to internalize the operations until the workflows and products were proven. Our aim is not to compete with our customers, of course, but to evangelize this game changing technology. We were early to receive an FAA 333 exemption and had certified Part 107 Remote Pilots a few days after that new rule went in to effect. We have now flown over 600 missions with a wide variety of potential drone users from aggregate mining to paper mills.
Since we have been in business, we have always done some amount of bespoke software development when that development advanced our commercial products. These bespoke activities ranged from funded additions to our core software all the way to custom workflow solutions. An example is a very high throughput LandSat change detection system developed for MDA Information Systems. This system is controlled and managed by a GeoCue Distributed Processing System.
In 2015, we entered into an agreement with Teledyne Technologies (specifically Teledyne Brown Engineering) to develop an Amazon Web Services based system to manage and disseminate data from their Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), a multi-sensor host platform mounted on the International Space Station. This development, the Earth Sensor Portal (ESP), is being offered as a commercial hosting platform for data from satellite imagery to LIDAR data.
We saw a resurgence of interest in mobile laser scanning (MLS) in late 2016/early 2017. Our MLS software suite had a bit of a hole in that we did not have a package specifically aimed at asset collection from MLS data. We have been aware of the Orbit offerings from Orbit GT of Belgium for some time. Earlier this year, we re-evaluated their offering and signed on as their North American distributor.
So this brings us to the present! We now focus on several business areas:
LIDAR– Both Production and exploitation. Our portfolio includes:
- The GeoCue product family for workflow management from production to QC.
- The Terrasolid family of products for industrial strength geometric correction and processing of both ALS and MLS data.
- LP360 for high performance data editing, QC and specialized functions such as hydro modeling on the product side and a rich exploitation environment (in ESRI and standalone) on the LIDAR consumer side.
- Orbit GT for feature extraction from MLS data.
- LIDAR Server for local data management/distribution.
- Earth Sensor Portal for enterprise data hosting and dissemination.
sUAS (Small Unmanned Aerial Systems)– Data collection, processing and management. These offerings are via our AirGon subsidiary. The main thing to remember about AirGon is that we can bootstrap you into the drone mapping business and we can do it in a very cost effective yet completely professional manner. Our offerings include:
- Agisoft PhotoScan, Pix4D Mapper – software for generating point clouds and orthomosaics from drone collected imagery. We offer the software, support and training.
- LP360 (sUAS licensing level) – The same LP360 as used for LIDAR. We offer it at a lower price point for small area mapping, such as with drones. LP360 provides the full workflow from point cloud ingest (point clouds from imagery and LIDAR) to derived product output. This is really the most powerful tool kit on the market for processing drone data where the desired outputs are high accuracy mapping products.
- AirGon Mapping Suite (AMS)– this is a kit of PhotoScan, LP360, a Reckon subscription and comprehensive training that enables data production from any drone. It has a special emphasis on mapping using low cost DJI drones such as the Inspire 2 or the Phantom 4 Pro. AMS plus a DJI is a great starting point for entering the drone mapping business and we train you in how to be successful.
- AirGon Reckon – our AWS-hosted data dissemination system for drone data. This is a great tool for service providers who want to deliver data in a professional, cloud hosted manner to their customers. Service provider partners can actually use Reckon as a revenue generator for their business.
- LOKI – This is the most exciting product we have developed in the hardware arena in some time. It allows you to add PPK direct geopositioning to a Phantom 4 Pro, an Inspire 2 or any drone with a camera equipped with a flash hot shoe. Add this to an AirGon Drone Mapping Suite and you truly will have a professional mapping kit with direct geopositioning using low cost DJI drones! This is a financial game changer.
ESP (Earth Sensor Portal) – ESP is an Amazon Web Services hosted platform for LIDAR, Imagery and related products. It is a great dissemination platform for agencies who acquire data such as LIDAR and need it securely backed up and made available to stakeholders (including the public) via a web facing portal. ESP includes the idea of workflow so agencies can have us integrate in, for example, a QC workflow, allowing their collection contractors to post data directly to their ESP portal. This is a subscription model that offloads all need for server technology as well as concerns of your own firewall being maliciously penetrated via your data portal. This is exciting stuff!!
Bespoke Solutions – GeoCue continues to offer custom development when it adds value to our strategic product portfolio. For example, if you need a niche tool added to LP360, consider discussing a bespoke addition with us. It will show up in the standard code base, maintained as part of the global product. This prevents you from getting stuck in the situation of having to contract specifically for updates. On the larger side of the equation, we have developed very large projects for various clients, primarily around LIDAR/imagery data processing, management and dissemination.
As you can see, we have a complete product set for several different imagery/LIDAR related production and exploitation scenarios. We are very happy to entertain your inquiries ranging from simple product questions to those difficult things you encounter in your workflows. So please keep us in mind when you are thinking of adding a workflow or improving the ones you have.