Woolpert, a national architecture, engineering and geospatial firm, announced this week it was hired by Michigan Tech Research Institute to collect imagery via unmanned aircraft of haul roads throughout the Midwest.

The project, “Characterization of Unpaved Road Conditions Through the Use of Remote Sensing,” sponsored by U.S. Department of Transportation and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, will help test a set of algorithms developed by MTRI with the data collected.

“The contract is to help commercialize computerized analysis and assessment of unpaved roads,” says Aaron Laurence, Woolpert geographic information system expert and UAS technology developer. “Michigan Tech has some algorithms to detect potholes, rutting, damage, etc., through high-resolution imagery and 3-D point clouds, which would be used to assess and address unstable roads.”

The UAS is intended to provide a fast, safe and cost-effective collection to better understand where road material is lost and what damage there is to these roads. Woolpert has been employing UAS for multiple industries that require efficient, remote and highly accurate imagery collections.

In addition to roads projects, Woolpert is tasking UAS for oil and gas surveying, site design, and civil engineering.

“Post-construction UAS imagery can be very useful, because it captures significant change to the area after companies clear and level land, install equipment or build haul roads.” Lawrence says.

Woolpert was the first surveying and aerial mapping company to be approved to fly a UAS commercially the national airspace, earning an FAA Section 333 Exemption in December 2014. They are scheduled to fly the MTRI project this spring.

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