We have become used to Wingcopter drones traversing our skies carrying medical or other small cargo; they have been doing this since 2017 in Tanzania; in Malawi, in Japan, in Germany and in the USA.

But now those drones will take to the skies carrying a different type of payload: one for survey and mapping.

The German drone manufacturer, seller and service provider, has announced that it will be expanding its offering beyond cargo drones, to include the sale of long-range BVLOS LiDAR surveying solutions.

For this, the Wingcopter 198, company’s flagship drone, will be equipped with laser scanning and camera systems, which will be used to rapidly collect high-quality data.

The announcement was made at GEO WEEK in Denver, Colorado, a trade show for geospatial technology, where Wingcopter is currently showcasing its new application.

The planned system allows to collect up to 570 pts/m² with a sensor accuracy of ten millimetres and a precision of five millimetres.

Using a Wingcopter with a high-end LiDAR, customers can scan up to 2,560 acres (10.3 square kilometres) in a single 42-minute BVLOS mission, the company said.  

“After years of developing and relentless testing, we have frozen the Wingcopter 198 in the configuration that is currently undergoing FAA type certification in the United States,” said Ansgar Kadura, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Wingcopter.

“The drone has unique payload and range characteristics, and with a proven product lifetime of more than 1,000 flight hours, it is one of the most reliable long-range eVTOL UAS on the market.

“Based on this configuration, we are developing a solution to address the field of high-quality LiDAR surveying and integrating the best commercially available sensor systems. I look forward to discussing with surveyors and learning about their vision for an ideal BVLOS LiDAR surveying drone.” 

The company statement did not mention whether it was working with a partner for this new payload, or it had developed its own; but in explanation, Wingcopter said the main reason why they have branched out into survey data collection is because they want to give clients the opportunity to survey up to 60 km of linear infrastructure in one mission, carrying a 4.5kg sensor system.

Potential use cases include the inspection of power lines, pipelines, railways and roads, as well as the mapping of terrain and vegetation that is difficult to access.  

Wingcopter’s Brazilian partner Synerjet, Wingcopter says its plans to deploy fleets of Wingcopter 198 drones and put them to the test in the in the surveying market soon. 

“Together with Wingcopter, we are developing custom applications, adding more functionality to the aircraft and meeting requirements from other industries, such as asset inspections, vegetation monitoring and mapping,” said Augustinho Simoes, Synerjet’s Director of Drone Operations and Development.

“The first version will be equipped with a high-end LiDAR sensor that offers a wide 100-degree field of view and an extremely high pulse repetition rate of up to 2.4 MHz. The measuring beam is emitted consecutively in three different directions: it alternates from strictly nadir to +10 degrees forward, and to -10 degrees backward.

“This allows data acquisition with unparalleled completeness in data capture, especially in challenging environments with vertical surfaces, narrow canyons, transmission lines, railways, highways, forest plantations and many other applications.”