成功的测量公司不太惊讶

作者：Angus W. Stocking

David E. Titcomb, PLS, runs a small but thriving survey business in Falmouth, Maine, USA. Founded in 1969 by David’s father, Robert P. Titcomb, PLS,Titcomb Associates有两个办公室，雇用了三名专业土地测量师和六名现场工作人员，并为缅因州，新罕布什尔州和佛蒙特州的数百名客户提供了服务，其中包括众多工程公司和缅因州交通运输部（Mainedot）。在公司的主要业务决策中，一项坚定不移的承诺是提供优质的服务和一流的技术。这是一种具有前瞻性的策略，通常需要进行大量投资，这使许多小企业主停顿了这种投资。但是戴维·泰特科姆（David Titcomb）采取了不同的看法。

“We’re always looking at how we can make life easier for our clients,”he says.“For example, we’re one of the few surveying firms in our region that works in MicroStation as well as AutoCAD, and MaineDOT and a lot of engineering firms prefer to work with us because they get files in the format that’s best for them.”

Achieving a faster turnaround on high quality deliverables is another way Titcomb Associates aims to provide better service. To that end, the firm recently invested in two new technologies after consulting with solution provider Maine Technical Source. One is the Leica GS18 T GNSS receiver, billed as the world’s fastest RTK rover, and the other is the Leica Nova MS60 MultiStation, which combines a laser scanner and a robotic total station in one platform. According to Titcomb, these investments have paid off in ways both predictable and unexpected.

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GNSS的速度是两倍……而且更安全

TheGS18 TGNSS rover is one of themost technologically advanced receivers on the market。这既是最快的RTK漫游者，也是第一个提供第一个真实的“plumb-free” pole solution—that is, the GS18 T uses GNSS andinertial sensors to make an antenna that always knows exactly where it isand, importantly, where the end of the pole is. It doesn’t need to be calibrated before use, doesn’t need to be plumbed before readings, and it’sfoolproof against magnetic disturbances。

For Titcomb, these capabilities, combined with the “trust factor”, were far more important than price when considering the investment.

“Dad started with a Wild theodolite, so we’ve always had a trust in Wild and now Leica Geosystems instruments—they’re bulletproof. So I trusted this receiver to be as fast as advertised, and I knew that speed would pay off for us.”

Project Manager Nicholas S. Elliston, PLS, says that has definitely been the case.

“We’ve already seen the difference with the GS18 T being able to collect additional constellations and frequencies over our previous receiver. We’re now getting data in places we couldn’t have used RTK before—that’s a game changer.”

这是特殊的ly true given the particular conditions in Maine.

“We obviously have a lot of trees here, and we developed a good sense of where we could work with our previous RTK solution—more often than not, in tree cover, we couldn’t,”Elliston添加。“With the GS18 T, more often than not, we can. That means we don’t have to go back with a total station, and, of course, saving trips is a big-time saver.”

But it’s not justbetter coverage and faster readings那有所作为。根据埃利斯顿的说法calibration-free pole is a time saverin itself.

“Not having to take those couple of seconds to plumb a rod—for every single shot—使我们加快20％至30％。And it makes an even bigger difference when we can tilt the rod to get a shot right on the point we want—for example, building corners or the line under a guardrail. We get accurate locations without extra measurements or offsets or coming back with the total station. When all these factors are considered, there are projects we’re now doing in half the time compared to previous methods.”

倾斜漫游器的惊喜是安全。

“We do a lot of roadway surveying on the Maine Turnpike,”Elliston explains.“I’m often working near live traffic, and now I can be a step farther away just by leaning the pole out and taking the shot without plumbing up. The increased speed is great, of course, butworking more safely is probably the biggest advantage。透明

Clearly, the investment in a more advanced GNSS receiver was a good one for Titcomb Associates,paying off with faster work, more effective work in Maine forests, reduced total station work, and greater safety。The firm leveraged the new receiver’s superb performance even more by making a further investment in an echosounder kit for bathymetric surveys.

“We connected the GS18 T to the echosounder and now we’re able to collect one shot every second when doing bathymetric surveys,”Titcomb说。“这很光滑！”

那Nova MS60呢？这是对另一种先进技术的更大赌注。这对于缅因州的这家相对较小的测量公司有效吗？

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The payoff of a scanning total station

当被问及他在投资多个阶级之前是否有任何疑问，而多阶段几乎是一个非常好的机器人总站的两倍，Titcomb是Frank。

“当然，对于我们相对较小的公司来说，这是一个昂贵的选择，我对我们的现场工作人员有疑问，这是一个疑问。”

So, what convinced him to take the plunge?

“My father was always convinced that a survey company needed to be able to gather a lot of information in the shortest time possible because, well, time is money. I agree with that, and I’ve also decided that we’ll only buy robotic total stations now because they give us so much flexibility and power,”Titcomb解释了。“So, first of all, theMS60是一个很棒，非常快，机器人的总站。添加扫描对我们来说很有意义。它使我们能够做以前做不到的工作，是much faster对于某些项目，最重要的是，我已经知道我们正在做一些工作much safer带扫描仪。”

他想到的工作是道路项目，这是Titcomb Associates最大的重点领域之一。该公司定期调查许多工程顾问的桥梁，道路和十字路口。“对于州际或收费公路项目，他们总是会为我们关闭车道，但是有些地方，例如在坡道上，很难进行车道封闭并确保安全安全，”解释Titcomb。现在，在这种情况下，Titcomb Crews设置了Nova MS60，并使用扫描功能来执行fast, accurate topographic surveywithout getting anywhere near traffic.

The safety benefits of scanning are even more obvious when surveying bridges.

“We used to be up on ladders, near traffic, when we surveyed bridges,”Titcomb解释了。“这是非常不安全的。现在，我们再也不必这样做了。”

Instead, his crews can simply scan the entire bridge deck in just afew minutes with greater accuracy than before从地面上的安全有利位置。

Aside from roadway and bridge projects, Titcomb Associates keeps the Nova MS60 busy with standard engineering and architectural support projects. The firm realised early on that most of their clients don’t really care how data is gathered, and very few in their region wanted a point cloud as deliverable. But the MS60, used as a scanner, can do most of this work—topos, as-built surveys, roadway cross sections, site monitoring, building interior surveys, etc.—much faster than conventional surveying, more accurately and more safely, while gathering far more data。An important side benefit is being able to view the point cloud data in the field with the Leica Captivate software to make sure the crew has captured everything they need before they come back to the office, thereby eliminating return trips.

“If we can do all that,” says Titcomb. “Then it doesn’t matter if the client knows that we’re using a scanner—we’re still getting a lot more quality work done and making money at it.”

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扎实的业务方法

Commitment to quality and to always working with the latest technology is not for the faint of heart, and it is not necessarily the right strategy for every survey firm. But for Titcomb Associates, it’s a strategy that has proven itself over nearly five decades and made the company one of the most trusted surveying specialists in New England, USA.

“It’s like my father used to say—'You have to spend money to make money,’”Titcomb说。“In our experience, that’s true. Spending money on advanced equipment from a reliable source has always worked out for us.”

该公司定期调查许多工程顾问的桥梁，道路和十字路口。Titcomb crews set up the Nova MS60 well off the road and use the scanning capabilities to perform a fast, accurate topographic survey without getting anywhere near traffic.

在调查桥梁和立交桥时，扫描的安全益处是显而易见的。机组人员无需爬上梯子以获取数据，而是可以在几分钟内以更高的精度和地面上的安全有利位置扫描整个桥梁甲板。

Being able to view the point cloud data in the field with the Captivate software ensures the crew has captured everything they need before they come back to the office, thereby eliminating return trips.