LIDAR Magazine Podcast

#30 - Jeff Fagerman

Jeff Fagerman is CEO of LiDAR USA, the well-known UAV-lidar integrator, based near Huntsville, Alabama. He explains, in an entertaining way, how he first became involved in the geospatial world and how he was motivated to set up his own company 16 years ago. He espouses the beauties of a family business and is not reticent about the challenges of equipping UAVs with GNSS/IMU, camera and lidar components, well supported by extensive, user-friendly software, whilst managing a successful livestock farm. The technology is center-stage, of course, but the effects on his business of the regulatory environment and, in particular, the arrival of NDAA-compliance are fascinating too. Mobile mapping systems on vehicles are a significant part of the business and many of the UAV systems are "dual-use", i.e. they can also be used on land vehicles. Among several projects currently in progress at LiDAR USA is the manufacture of UAVs.

#29 - Kevin Andrews

Kevin Andrews is Director, Land Systems at Trimble Applanix in Toronto. He's been with the company for 26 years. In this episode, Kevin explains how the challenges for GNSS/IMU systems installed on land vehicles differ from those on airborne vehicles. He talks about the use of Trimble Applanix solutions on mobile mapping systems, rail vehicles, and construction equipment, covering the well-known POS LV, the lighter, smaller APX product line and the specialist POS TG and RT200. He describes three application areas in particular – precision agriculture, pipeline management and autonomous vehicles. The transition of Trimble Applanix products to a subscription basis and the continuing roll-out of the LVX+ solution bring the podcast to a close.

#28 - Grayson Omans

Phoenix LiDAR Systems was founded in 2013 and Grayson Omans is co-founder and CEO. In 2020, the company relocated from the Palms area of Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. In this episode, Grayson gives his reasons for making the move and assesses how successful it has proved, before describing the company's portfolio of hardware and software products. The evolving regulatory environment for UAVs has of course been a big influence on the company's direction over the years. It's interesting, however, that the company's products for crewed helicopters and aircraft, especially for wing-strut mounting, have led to considerable expansion in that market. Vehicle-mounted systems for mobile mapping have also been an area of considerable growth. The range of components that the company has successfully integrated is very broad, including not only different lidar sensors, but also RGB, hyper spectral and thermal infrared cameras, and the company has always tried to respond to customers' needs.

#27 - Alex Brihac

Alex Brihac is Vice President, Head of Strategy and M&A at Hexagon Geosystems. He explains how his interest in engineering was imbued by his Romanian parents, resulting in his choices of undergraduate and graduate studies. His work for Turner Construction and McKinsey led to expertise in improving firms' performance as well as a deep interest in digital twins and how they should be created and used. He provides insights into the strategy development process at Hexagon and the way the company manages the acquisition process. He stresses technology – Hexagon spends more than 15% of annual revenue on R&D – and the tremendous importance of talking to customers. Finally, he briefly covers the Octave spin-off and some of the directions Hexagon will take in 2026 and beyond.

#26 - Raul Bravo

In this episode, Austin catches up with Raul Bravo, a prolific inventor holding more than 70 international patent families. As president and founder of Outsight, Raul explains how his firm's technologies transform streams of lidar data into real-time 3D spatial intelligence. The conversation delves into the analytical capabilities of dynamic 3D databases and explores the technical challenges of orchestrating thousands of laser scanners into a cohesive sensing system.