GGS Oblique Camera System

“The Phase One aerial cameras are an excellent match for our products and are easily integrated into our systems." Gerhard Kemper, CEO of GGS

Last year, GGS GmbH, one of Phase One‘s integration partners, completed a project for Realworld Engineering Consultants Inc., a Taiwanese company. They designed and built a new oblique camera based on Phase One aerial cameras.

The client stipulated certain conditions:

• Phase One aerial cameras had to be used.
• The complete oblique camera had to fit in an existing GSM 4000® gyro mount.
• The array had to work with the PosAV (GNSS/IMU) 510 from Applanix.

GGS took three important design areas into consideration:

Mechanical design
GGS designed a solid metal frame to hold the five cameras in their different positions. The bottom part of the frame contains the cameras and the upper part houses the IMU and PC as well as the other electronic components. The complete structure fit into a tubular sleeve that protects all components from environmental conditions, making it easy to insert and remove the system into the GSM 4000.

Electronic design
In order to supply stable power to each camera, the embedded PC and other electronic components, and internal, unlimited power supply (UPS) was installed. In this way, power fluctuations that may be caused by inconsistencies of the aircraft's power supply could be managed. The cameras were connected using Phase One's multi-sync cables to ensure fast synchronization for the trigger signal.

Data management
The camera was required to manage four different communication systems simultaneously. GGS designed the system to enable fast data transfers between the cameras, IMU/GNSS, FMS and gyro mount. The cameras were connected to the PC via USB 3.0 and the images were saved directly to the SSD with the IMU/GNSS information written to the header of each file.

Conclusion
With this turnkey oblique camera solution made with Phase One cameras, 3D city models and other projects requiring oblique imagery will become an easy task. As more clients request oblique images, oblique systems using Phase One cameras, such as the one designed by GGS, are becoming more accessible to users, who can provide oblique aerial data to today’s market.