Topic: UAS Applications in Civil Engineering

UAV in flight

Airborne LiDAR data collection using emerging technology platforms such as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is improving the quality of geospatial data in a profound way, and will forever change the way we perform surveying and engineering services.  UAS platforms have the capability to greatly increase the horizontal and vertical accuracy of both LiDAR and photogrammetric data collections, and provide a more detailed representation of the earth’s surface.  

Wohnrade Civil Engineers (WCE) is an FAA licensed UAS owner/operator that performs aerial data collections, data processing, and finally incorporates precision (near survey-grade) UAS data into final civil engineering design.  Together with Black Swift Technologies, WCE has designed and built custom UAS platforms to serve the science, surveying, and engineering professions.

WCE and Black Swift are corporate members of UAS Colorado, a non-profit business league comprised of UAS professionals committed to promoting and improving the unmanned aviation industry in Colorado.  Constantin Diehl is the President and CEO of the organization, and Jack Elston serves as Vice President.  Jack and Constantin will discuss the rapid growth in the UAS industry, and recent developments in UAS technology.

The WCE will also present the newest platform in the WCE fleet, the Mountain Mapper, which is in the final stages of development.  This custom, multi-rotor UAS carries a payload that includes a 42.4 mega pixel RGB camera, a Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR scanner, and a highly accurate GPS/IMU inertial navigation system.   This UAS platform was built by Black Swift Technologies, and can simultaneously collect high-resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data.

   

Presenters: 

 Mary Wohnrade  

 

Mary Wohnrade, P.E. has been a practicing civil engineer since 1989, and a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado since 1995.  Her areas of expertise include: complete site design for land development projects; hydrologic and hydraulic modeling; floodplain and stormwater management, and erosion and sedimentation control.

Ms. Wohnrade formed Wohnrade Civil Engineers, Inc. in November 2002, and currently assumes the responsibilities of company president and principal engineer. Wohnrade Civil Engineers began offering UAV precision mapping services in March 2015, and currently has a fleet of 4 fixed-wing and multi-rotor UAV platforms.  Ms. Wohnrade has been at the forefront in the development of precision topographic mapping using UAV technology, for the science and engineering professions.  She developed an in-house proprietary workflow for collecting, processing, and incorporating precision geospatial data into an AutoCAD Civil 3D environment, which can be used for final engineering design.

 Dr. Jack Elston

 

Dr. Jack Elston has over 14 years experience working in the UAS field, and is the CEO/President and co-founder of Black Swift Technologies.  He is also the technical lead on all avionics work at BST including the creation of a low cost, highly capable autopilot system along with unique networking technologies to enable cooperative control of UAS.  Jack received his PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2011 where his research culminated in the design of a UAS used to conduct the first ever intercept of a tornadic supercell thunderstorm by an unmanned aircraft.  He has been directly involved the development of many different unmanned aircraft systems and has conducted hundreds of flight experiments in difficult conditions including surveys at 14,000 ft and operations in the Arctic.

 Constantin Diehl

With a 15 year Engineering and International Program Management background in the Automotive Industry, Constantin is now pursuing his long time passion for Aviation. Since 2013 Constantin is driving UAS related programs in Colorado. Constantin is board member and CEO of UAS Colorado, a non-profit business league, committed to supporting the use and safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems in Colorado. Constantin holds an FAA Private Pilot Certificate and a Part 107 Remote Pilot certificate. 

Some additional images of UAVs and Wohnrade Staff