ArcGIS Survey123 and TruPulse® Laser Rangefinders
This article describes how the Survey123 mobile app works together with TruPulse® laser rangefinders from Esri Silver Partner Laser Tech.
Introduction
TruPulse® laser rangefinders, by Esri Partner Laser Tech, allow field workers to remotely map the location of assets as well as measure slopes, distances, lengths and heights using a handheld device. As you will soon learn, you can now tightly integrate measurement routines performed with your TruPulse® rangefinder, with logic in your Survey123 form, streamlining field data collection workflows.
Combining the ArcGIS Survey123 mobile app with TruPulse® laser rangefinders has applications in forestry, telecommunications, electric utilities, mining, public works and many other industries. Use Survey123 and TruPulse® rangefinders to accelerate data collection, improve data quality and worker safety.
Watch this 3 minute video to learn the basics:
As shown in the video, the laser rangefinder and Survey123 forms can be configured to work in two different modes:
- Measurement first: This mode is great when you want field users to use the laser rangefinder to initiate the data collection workflow. The measurement in your laser rangefinder opens a specific Survey123 form and auto-populates certain questions in it, such as the location of the asset you are mapping, its height, etc. Typically you would include some additional questions in your form such as condition, comments, a photo, etc, for field workers to complete manually. Once the survey is saved, a new measurement from the device would initiate the workflow again.
- Survey first: In this mode, you start completing your survey first and then you configure questions in your form to request the field user to make measurements with the laser rangefinder. This mode is more flexible, in that questions in your form can request the user to perform different types of measurement routines based on the logic of your form.
Common measurement routines
Laser rangefinders in the TruPulse series support a number of measurement routines. We will explore here a few that are commonly combined with Survey123.
Height routine
To measure the height of an object you use a 3-shot routine. You can measure the height of trees, poles, buildings...
Multiple height routine
A variation of the height routine, where you can collect multiple height measurements along an object. In the illustration below, the routine measures the height of the transformer and the pole. In this routine, you can calculate as many heights as needed along the object.
Offset Mapping
This is a one-shot routine where the location of a remote asset is calculated. In this workflow, the laser rangefinder must be able to measure distances and also the azimuth to the remote object. Survey123 provides the source location from which the measurement is made.
For offset mapping workflows one important consideration is accuracy. The laser rangefinder will very accurately measure the bearing (azimuth) and distance to the target object, but to complete the calculation of the remote location the position from which the measurement is made is also needed. The source location could come either from the built-in GPS on your Survey123 mobile device or from a high accuracy external GNSS receiver connected to Survey123.
TruPulse series
The Survey123 team has been closely working with Esri Partner Laser Tech to integrate the TruPulse series of laser rangefinders. There are a variety of models in the TruPulse series, each with its own characteristics and OS support.
TruPulse rangefinders can be integrated directly with the Survey123 mobile app. That is, you do not need extra hardware or software. Additionally, we have expanded XLSForm support in Survey123 to help you integrate the measurement routines with the logic of your forms.
To learn more about the different types of TruPulse sensors available and how they work with Survey123, watch this 60-minute deep-dive recording.
XLSForm expressions for TruPulse laser rangefinders
The XLSForm syntax has been expanded in Survey123 so you can bring TruPulse measurements into your Survey123 forms.
Below is a very simple example: Note how the rangefinder appearance is used here to allow the end user to gather a height measurement from a TruPulse device. The bind::esri:parameters column determines what type of measurement routine will be executed in the laser rangefinder. In this case, the rangefinder will return a single value so we use a decimal question type to keep it.
For more complex measurement routines, such as multiple height or offset mapping, the output from the rangefinder will be handled in your XLSForm logic as a JSON object. To learn more about the details of XLSForms for TruPulse integration check out:
- Survey123 Help: Prepare for rangefinder data collection
- Survey123 Connect samples: Use the keyword rangefinder to filter Survey123 Connect samples
Below is an example of the various XLSForm samples in Survey123 Connect. There are 6 of them
