Safer, Smarter Overhead Utility Surveying
One tech, one walk — survey-grade results for poles, distribution corridors, and transmission alignments.
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).
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.
SPIDAcalc
Export feature-coded CSV including pole geometry and attribution for pole load analysis.
See the Looq Platform in Survey Workflows
Capture and process precise geometry for poles, conductors, crossarms, and other overhead assets. Learn how to organize your data, work with classified point clouds, verify heights and angles, and assign field codes—so your data is ready for engineering analysis or design work. Watch survey workflows or a session on 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 for overhead utility work?
With PPK GNSS corrections and a local base station on a short baseline, overhead utility captures deliver the survey-grade accuracy needed for distribution-pole modeling. Accuracy is highest in open environments along distribution lines with strong GNSS signal. Dense vegetation, transmission-tower height, or limited GNSS coverage widens the band; the platform compensates with denser captures and ground control.
How do you handle GNSS in dense vegetation along a pole line?
The qCam continues capturing imagery even in low-GNSS environments. Walk the path of least resistance — shoulders, sidewalks, pathways — staying 1 to 2 meters (5 to 8 feet) from heavy vegetation. The reconstruction engine pulls from image overlap and control alignment rather than continuous satellite lock. Bridging into open sky areas at the start and end of each capture gives the platform anchor positions to constrain the obscured portions.
How accurate is the overhead capture compared to aerial LiDAR?
With PPK GNSS corrections, captures deliver the survey-grade accuracy needed for distribution-pole modeling. For higher 3D positional accuracy — when wire sag, clearance measurement, or absolute geospatial accuracy matters — walk both sides of the wires in two parallel passes, run a local GNSS base station, and use the Align to Control tool to link the dataset to surveyed control points. Open-environment captures with strong GNSS signal hit the tightest residuals; dense vegetation widens the band.
Do I need a local GNSS base station for overhead work?
Not for most overhead utility work — auto-processing via global GNSS corrections handles distribution-line capture well. Use a local base station when you need higher absolute geospatial accuracy: tying the dataset to existing project control, wire sag measurement, clearance verification, or any work where the absolute 3D position of the wires matters. Shorter baselines (under 5–10 km) produce the tightest results.
Pole Capture Workflow
How many poles can I capture in a single walk?
8 to 10 poles in a single 20-minute capture is typical for distribution-line work. The capture engine has been extended to comfortably support 30-minute captures for longer corridors. For larger runs, tile into multiple sequential captures with an overlapping pole between them so the platform can stitch the sections cleanly.
How close to the wires do I need to walk?
3 to 5 meters (roughly 12 to 15 feet) adjacent to the wires, in a snaking pattern. Never directly under the wires — from directly below, the cameras can’t separate parallel lines vertically. The 3 to 5 meter offset gives the reconstruction engine the parallax it needs.
What is POI tagging and when do I use it?
POI (Point of Interest) tagging is a button on the qCam capture interface that marks an image at a specific location with higher proximity and detail. Walk up to a pole, press the POI button, and the platform tags the closest image — showing as a green dot in qApp. POI tagging is essential when you need close-proximity detail on specific poles, attachment plates, or hardware. Within roughly a foot of the pole, imagery resolution increases significantly.
What about dense vegetation around the corridor?
Walk the path of least resistance — shoulders, sidewalks, pathways. Stay 1 to 2 meters (5 to 8 feet) away from heavy vegetation; photogrammetric reconstruction degrades inside dense foliage. If the corridor passes through vegetation, capture the cleaner-visible sections heavily and accept that the obscured areas will have lower data density. Do not push through brush or move obstacles to capture obscured poles — the safety hit isn’t worth the marginal data.
What about fences and obstacles along the corridor?
You can climb fences, but keep the qCam pointed upright through the climb — that maintains GNSS signal and image tracking. Avoid fast or jerky motion, and avoid pointing the device into your body or another person while climbing. If a fence or obstacle is genuinely unsafe to cross, walk around it and accept a small gap in the dataset rather than risking the crew.
Capture Types & Scaling
Can I capture transmission lines, not just distribution?
Distribution-line capture works well. Transmission is more challenging at the top of large structural-steel towers because of the height — at long range, photogrammetric reconstruction gets sparser. Larger wooden-pole transmission captures are usually doable, but plan for a denser capture (more parallel passes, slower pace) to compensate for the height. Looq is actively extending the platform’s range for transmission applications.
How do I tile a longer pole line into multiple captures?
Cap each capture at roughly 20 to 30 minutes — typical 8 to 10 poles per capture. For longer pole lines, plan adjacent captures with one overlapping pole between them so the platform can stitch the sections cleanly. Use a naming scheme that lets you organize and manage the captures in qApp. Start and end each capture at a pole, not between poles.
What’s the processing turnaround?
Typical 12 to 24 hours from upload to deliverables in qApp. The published worst case is 24 to 48 hours. Most overhead captures fall in the 12-hour range.
Comparison
How does Looq compare to a bucket truck for overhead utility capture?
A bucket truck reaches the top of the structure but requires a vehicle, a flagger, a surveyor, and often lane closures. The qCam is a lightweight handheld captured at walking pace from the ground. One tech, no bucket truck, no aerial LiDAR contract. Looq captures what’s visible from ground level — pole, attachments, lower wires — and reconstructs the geometry photogrammetrically. For wire conditions and pole modeling, ground-based capture is the safer, faster call.
Can the Looq Platform replace my total station for overhead work?
No — Looq complements your total station rather than replacing it. Total stations remain best for high-precision discrete points (control monuments, anything needing single-millimeter targeting). Looq fits the work where dense, continuous, single-tech ground capture is the safest and fastest call: long pole lines, traffic-tight corridors, anywhere a multi-person crew would be slow or exposed. Use them together: total station for control, Looq for the corridor capture.
What’s the difference between PPK and RTK for overhead capture?
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 pole lines is unreliable, and shorter baselines (under 5–10 km) produce tighter results.
Integration & Sharing
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.
Does Looq support pole loading analysis (PLA)?
If your firm handles PLA in addition to field capture, Looq’s PLA modeling product — qPole — is built specifically for that workflow. qPole extracts pole geometry and component attributes from the field capture and exports PLA-ready data into the tools your engineering team already uses. Learn more about qPole →
If your firm hands captures off to an engineering partner for PLA, the standard Looq deliverables are PLA-ready as-is — your downstream partner can use them in their own modeling tool.
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