RIEGL VUX-100-25

The RIEGL VUX-100-25 is a UAV laser scanner from Austria with a very wide field of view of 160°, built for heavy multicopters. It reaches high pulse rates up to 1.5 MHz, delivers 1.33 million measurements per second and is a pure scanner without its own IMU and GNSS.

The range is 980 m at 80 % reflectivity and 500 kHz, and 510 m at 20 %. At 1,500 kHz the values drop to 300 to 590 m depending on reflectivity: a high pulse rate means denser points but shorter range. Up to 30 echoes per pulse capture ground, vegetation and structures in between. The field of view of up to 160° covers a very wide swath and also records vertical surfaces such as facades and embankments. Accuracy is 10 mm, precision 5 mm. The unit weighs just over 2 kg.

IMU and GNSS are added through the interface or the system configuration. The scanner is a laser device, and the laser class given by the manufacturer (standard IEC 60825-1) is to be observed. The weight of just over 2 kg counts towards the take-off mass of the aircraft, which thereby lies in EU class C2 (below 4 kg) or above it up to C3 and C4 (25 kg), in practice usually above it for aircraft of this size. Surveys of large areas are often flown in the specific category, above all for flights beyond visual line of sight.

The 30 echoes pay off in dense forest, power lines and industrial plants, where many obstacles lie one behind the other. The wide field of view calls for careful calibration of the edge zones. For georeferencing, quality hinges on the trajectory from IMU and GNSS and on a rigid mount. Wear points are the scanner window, the connectors and the deflection mechanics.