WSP Opus: Delivering Cost-Effective UAV Services for the Surveying Sector

Designing and engineering of sustainable solutions for future generations continue to thrive. While investigations are still underway into the cause of the frequent collapse of buildings, some of the most common problems are those of weak foundations, inadequately durable building materials, human errors, and the negligence of testing the property strength. Even the surveying of civil, geotechnical, infrastructure, and environmental sites face the challenges of time, weather and seasonal changes, incomplete model laws, and the continuous modification of as-builts. Fast, efficient, and capable of capturing large amounts of detailed information remotely, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are a game-changer in the surveying field. For over ten years, WSP Opus, which is a global infrastructure development and management consultancy, has operated its UAV fleet- changing and improving the way the clients survey their civil, geotechnical, infrastructure, environmental (and more) sites. WSP Opus offers a holistic approach to the challenges pertaining to transport, infrastructure planning, and surveying. WSP Opus has highly qualified UAV pilots across New Zealand, who can survey sites no matter what the location. Their pilots have many years of experience at expertly and safely operating UAVs. Till date, WSP Opus has helped its clients survey hundreds of sites spanning infrastructure, environmental, and more. "We have built up a reputation for providing the highest level of surveying services, ranging from the simple site survey through to the leading edge of UAV and 3D laser scanning technology," said Ian Blair, Managing Director at WSP Opus.

WSP Opus is a leading design, engineering, and environmental services consultancy with global reach and local connections. Their survey teams are supported by the experience and knowledge of 65 highly skilled surveyors around New Zealand alongside another 42,000 colleagues from the WSP international offices.

There's a lot that can be harnessed from the game-changing UAVs made by WSP Opus. The company's motive behind launching this product was to receive valuable information on otherwise inaccessible work sites and thus to keep people safe by limiting human exposure to dangerous landscapes. Since their UAVs are small, surveys can be conducted seamlessly without hampering the one-site response operations upfront. WSP Opus' UAVs help avoid disrupting site operations by collecting data remotely. This innovation is just a cost-effective way of accessing in-depth site surveys. Their UAVs help clients save ample time and resources by rapidly creating accurate work site models, base plans, and cross-sections. The WSP Opus UAVs come with a high level detailing feature facilitating better quality surveying results than that obtained from the traditional methods. The WSP Opus pilots have gained Civil Aviation Authority Part 102 Certified UAV operator status and thus are regularly trained and tested. They provide a massive range of surveying services that suit a wide variety of sites, purposes, and time or budget constraints. Their UAVs offer the services of aerial photographs, ortho-mosaic images, volume calculations, high definition video capture, digital terrain/surface models, and slope and data analysis. Complementary design and planning activities, environmental concerns of erosion monitoring, and the provision of data or visuals for marketing purposes of assessing hazards; are now all made easy with the UAVs manufactured by WSP Opus.

Inspecting buildings once involved hiring two cranes for two days, blocking access to car parks around the building. WSP Opus accomplished the same task within six hours by blocking just a small area for the drone's launching pad. This new approach was safer, less disruptive, less time-consuming, and more cost-effective. The WSP Opus surveyors strive for technical excellence across all that they do. They employ leading-edge technology to create innovatively, cost-effective solutions to achieve the required outcomes. From local beginnings to a vast international presence today, WSP Opus has enjoyed continuous growth and enrichment of its service offering. Every milestone reached has enabled the company to fulfill better their purpose of preparing the communities and environment for the future.