Geologists and field workers have been doing this from long time, it started with simple paper forms and now moved on to GPS enabled devices like PDAs and Tough-books.
This process can be tricky when it comes to collecting data at a site with no network coverage (3G or Wi-Fi). Field users will need the updated data when heading to field in the morning and will need a mechanism to push all the newly collected data back to the GeoDatabase Server.
We recently implemented a solution for world's largest gold producer (
Barrick Gold) at few of their mining sites. The 'Field Data Collection' Systems works great and everyone involved at Barrick and they are loving it. The 'System' consists of a custom mobile application which runs on toughbooks (
from Panasonic) with Windows XP and Windows 7 operating system, as well as small handheld devices such as
Trimble Nomad. Field users use the custom field software to collect geology data which is further used by geologists and mine design analysts.
But how we make the said field data available to everyone in company where it can be shared across the globe? Geodatabase Server! We installed a ESRI SDE (on SQL Server 2008) on one of the Windows 2008 server in corporate office. This SDE instance hosts all the field data, provides data to many map services which are then utilized into other applications and ArcMap documents. To make the data transfer easy between field devices and Geodatabase SQL server, we utilized our signature product
GeoMerge. This product is available as desktop application (as of now) and it enables field users to get/create a cache of data/maps and sync the field data back to database server (using a simple Check-out/Check-in process).
After we did little bit customization (of GeoMerge) as required by our client, the whole process was fairly simple, just few steps!
1. Get the cache (latest data) on to field devices (PDA or Tough-Book) using GeoMerge.
2. Go out in field, collect data.
3. Sync the data back (Check-In) to database server at the end of the field trip.
Although this implementation runs custom
ArcPad application, we have implemented the same solution using
ArcGIS Mobile 10, which makes the whole process even easier. ArcMap 10 development API comes with built-in functions like Creating Mobile Cache. I hope this helps. We at
GeoSpatial Services are always trying to solve our client's business need using innovative and efficient ways. Let us know if we can help you with our GIS mapping services or Application Development for web, desktop or mobile devices!
