Faster, Safer Linear Surveying
One tech, one walk — survey-grade results for corridors, roads, and bridges.
Easy Workflow. Survey Grade Accuracy.
Photogrammetric capture, reconstructed in the cloud — with every accuracy lever in your hands.
Walk the site with the qCam capturing everything you see. Each capture can be up to 30 minutes. Upload to the cloud when you return. qAI reconstructs 3D point cloud through PPK. Additionally, you can run a local GNSS base station for tight baselines, drop three to five ground control points at the extents of the capture, and use the Align-to-Control tool in qApp to lock the dataset to your surveyed network. Dial in exactly the level of accuracy your project requires. Then, use the web application environment, qApp, to look at your captured sites, measure, and prepare the data to share with downstream tools.
LAZ point cloud — RGB colorized, ASPRS classified (ground, road, sidewalk, vegetation, structures), projected in your site coordinate system. ~1.5–2 GB per 20-minute capture.
Thin LAZ — ~10% file size, key features preserved, ground detail stripped.
GeoTIF ortho — full resolution (~6mm spacing uncompressed), 1cm JPEG-compressed, and 3cm JPEG-compressed options.
Panoramic JPGs — 270° FOV imagery from the 4-camera system.
Track file — GeoJSON (ellipsoidal) + CSV (projected) of the qCam path.
PPK report — GNSS quality report, downloadable.
Virtual Survey CSV — feature-coded linework, ready for Civil 3D or TBC import.
Fill gaps in your survey workflows.
Environments where the Looq Platform improves your work.
Sites with dense ground detail
Curbs, gutters, base-of-structure — most anything a drone cannot see from above, you can with the qCam.
Under canopy or light vegetation
Ground-level photogrammetry sees what drones lose to canopy — base of pole, topography under trees, building facades.
Constrained urban corridors
Downtown blocks, no-fly-zones, traffic-tight rights of way — all captured on foot.
Linear corridors
Roadways, pipelines, easements — walked end-to-end with loop closures.
Overhead utility lines
Pole-by-pole capture from ground level. Walking adjacent, not under to capture line detail.
Manholes and vaults
Strobe lights let you reach and capture details of smaller enclosed spaces underground as part of your above-ground capture.
Easily share Looq data with downstream workflows
Same formats. Same workflows. Same tools (CAD/GIS).
AutoCAD Civil 3D
LAZ + GeoTIF imports through Autodesk ReCap. Virtual Survey CSV brings in begin/end curve codes natively.
Trimble Business Center
Set coordinate system in TBC, then drag LAZ + GeoTIF. TBC-matched feature code library from Looq.
Esri / ArcGIS
Pull panoramic JPGs and feature-coded CSV directly into your GIS feature service or asset database.
See the Looq Platform in Survey Workflows
Simplify field capture for corridor projects and deliver clean and accurate data for design. Watch survey workflows, preparing data for Civil 3D, or preparing data for Trimble Business Center.
Run your numbers.
Sixty seconds on the calculator. Adjust the inputs to your operation, see your annual savings update in real time. No form required.
Frequently Asked Questions
Accuracy & GNSS
How accurate is the Looq Platform PPK vs. RTK?
With a local GNSS base and 4–5 well-placed ground control points, corridor captures hit 90%+ fixed certified positions — the survey-grade accuracy benchmark Looq targets for linear projects. Accuracy is highest in urban or curb-and-gutter environments with strong GNSS signal and dense vertical features. Open rural roadways without vertical features lean more on GNSS and dense GCP placement.
How do you handle GNSS in dense vegetation or under canopy?
The qCam continues capturing imagery even in low-GNSS environments. In these conditions, positioning is reconstructed primarily from image overlap and control alignment rather than continuous satellite lock.
Absolute accuracy is maintained through:
- ground control points
- GNSS re-acquisition when exiting canopy
- post-processing alignment in the Looq Platform
Bridging into open sky areas at the start and end of capture improves overall stability.
What about flat, featureless roadways?
Photogrammetry performs best in environments with vertical features and high texture. On flat rural roads with no vertical features, accuracy depends more heavily on GNSS and dense GCP placement. The technique still works — plan for more parallel passes, denser GCPs, and the higher-accuracy two-sided pass pattern.
Do I need a local GNSS base station for corridor work?
Strongly recommended. Looq’s PPK auto-processing works for relative measurements via public networks, but for survey-grade absolute accuracy a local base on a short baseline (under 5–10 km) is the move. With a local base, captures hit 90%+ fixed certified positions. Run your own base, pull from a paid network (SmartNet, Trimble, Topcon), or use a CORS/DOT network within range.
Workflow & Technical
How do I tile a longer corridor?
Cap each capture at 20 to 30 minutes. In urban or curb-and-gutter environments with strong GNSS, push to 30 minutes per tile. In areas with limited GNSS or sparse vertical features, keep tiles at 20 minutes to avoid drift. Plan adjacent tiles so they overlap, and place ground control such that GCPs fall in the overlap zone — that’s how the platform stitches the tiles cleanly.
Why do loop closures matter for corridor work?
Open traverses (start at A, end at B with no return path) degrade reconstruction quality. Closed loops give the algorithm a constraint to balance against. Wherever you can safely cross a roadway or return through a different path, close the loop. The platform produces tighter results with even a few loop closures in the corridor walk.
How many GCPs do I need per tile?
Minimum 3 per tile for the rigid-body transformation. 4 to 5 GCPs per tile is recommended for redundancy and check-shot validation. Place them at the extents of each tile — not in a line, not clustered at the center. The transformation needs spread in all three axes to be well-conditioned.
Where should I place GCPs on a roadway corridor?
At the four extents of each tile: the two outer corners at the start and the two outer corners at the end. For wider corridors, add one in the middle as a check shot. Place them so they fall within the overlap zone between adjacent tiles — that’s what lets the platform fit both tiles to the same control network.
What’s the maximum capture length per tile?
30 minutes per tile when GNSS is strong (open urban environment, good satellite coverage). 20 minutes per tile when GNSS is limited (under canopy, vegetation, urban canyons). The tile-and-stitch approach handles arbitrary corridor lengths.
Should I walk both sides of the roadway?
For higher density and tighter accuracy, yes. Walking both curb lines (and the center median when accessible) gives the reconstruction engine parallax from multiple angles. For lower-density surveys, a single pass along one curb line is workable but loses detail on the far side of the corridor.
What is the “look swagger” walking pattern?
A one-to-two-foot S-pattern in your walk, side-to-side as you move forward. It adds parallax variation that improves reconstruction across all four cameras — especially helpful for vertical features along the corridor (poles, signs, building façades, bridge structural elements). The platform reconstructs better when the device’s geometry is constantly changing rather than locked in a straight-line path.
Bridges & Structures
Can the Looq Platform capture bridges and structural elements?
Yes. Bridge surfaces, abutments, piers, and the geometry of the structure itself all reconstruct from the walking capture. AJ Surveying has published bridge clearance survey work using the Looq Platform — captured in under ten minutes, accurate to ±1.5 cm against ground truth.
What about underbridge clearance or hidden structural details?
The qCam can be walked under bridges and around abutments wherever the operator can safely access on foot. For tight underbridge spaces where GNSS coverage is limited, consider applying the same bracketing approach used for manhole captures — open GNSS capture before and after the underbridge walk to anchor the dataset. Talk to a Looq surveyor about the right capture pattern for your specific structure.
Comparison
How does handheld photogrammetry compare to aerial LiDAR for corridor work?
Photogrammetry reconstructs 3D from 2D imagery, so the qCam captures everything it can see — including base-of-curb detail, under-bridge structure, and adjacent terrain that aerial LiDAR can lose to angle or canopy. LiDAR is faster for very large open corridors; handheld photogrammetry wins where ground-based, single-tech capture is the safest and fastest call: traffic-tight corridors, bridge inspection, urban roadways, anywhere a crew shouldn’t be standing exposed.
What’s the difference between PPK and RTK for corridor work?
RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) corrects GNSS positioning in real time during capture, requiring a continuous radio link to a base station. PPK (Post-Processed Kinematic) corrects positioning after capture by aligning to base station RINEX data — no radio dependency. Looq uses PPK because it works in areas where RTK radio coverage along long corridors is unreliable, and shorter base-to-rover baselines under 5–10 km produce tighter results.
Can the Looq Platform replace my total station for corridor work?
No — Looq complements your total station rather than replacing it. Total stations remain best for high-precision discrete points (control monuments, structural deformation, anything needing single-millimeter targeting). Looq fits the work where dense, continuous, single-tech ground capture is the safest and fastest call: long corridors, traffic-tight rights of way, under canopy, around water bodies or steep elevations where a total-station crew would be slow or exposed.
Integration & Sharing
Can I use Looq corridor data in Civil 3D without buying additional CAD seats?
Yes. The capture downloads as standard LAZ + GeoTIF + feature-coded CSV — formats Civil 3D handles through Autodesk ReCap. Stakeholders viewing the data in qApp don’t need a CAD seat at all; the browser-based viewer lets them measure, share, and inspect the corridor capture from a link. CAD seats stay where they’re needed (design), not where they’re not (viewing).
Does the Looq Platform work with my existing GPS base station?
Yes. Any base station that captures a static RINEX file works — Trimble, Emlid, Leica, others. You upload the RINEX along with your capture and the platform uses it for PPK corrections. Shorter baselines under 5–10 km produce the tightest residuals.
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