UK drone surveying company creates specialized solution for rail clients

UK aerial surveying specialist Plowman Craven has produced a drone data collection solution specifically designed for owners and operators of rail networks across the nation and globe – including lines where physical access to infrastructure isn’t feasible.

Operating from offices in London and Hertfordshire, Plowman and Craven has built up one of the largest infrastructure surveying and inspection businesses in the UK in its over 50 years of work. Of late, that activity has increasingly relied on the considerable efficiencies and advantages that UAV tech provides in mapping and modeling, with the company’s latest development in that evolution being its Vogel Freedom drone platform designed for rail infrastructure clients.

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The company says its Vogel Freedom drone solution solves a lot of the problems rail operators face in carrying out network surveys, especially the traffic disruptions caused by – and dangers created for – workers needing access to infrastructure to lay ground point sensors.

Using the company’s own intellectual property innovation, the Vogel Freeman drone platform not only needs far fewer of those ground points to deliver complete topographical surveys, it can also produce sub-5 mm accurate rail system models using off-track sensor placement – at times entirely removed from a client’s restricted infrastructure boundaries.

Plowman Craven says that capability eliminates habitual “boots on ballast” placement of ground points – meaning no human access near rail assets. It says the solution completes aerial surveys 20% faster, 30% cheaper, and with 85% less carbon output than other options – including traditional aircraft overflies – and has been adopted by the UK massive Network Rail company.

“We developed Vogel Freedom in response to ever-increasing industry challenges and needs,” says Plowman Craven’s head of new business, Steve Jones. “It removes previous limitations to surveying and can add substantial value… all while improving workers’ safety and ensuring a safe and efficient rail service for customers. Since becoming the UK’s first adopter of survey-grade UAV, Plowman Craven has continued to invest in the evolution of cutting-edge technologies and, with Vogel Freedom, we enter the next generation, providing the same high-quality data faster, cheaper, more sustainably and with no track access.”

Read: Rail company claims longest drone BVLOS flight ever in UK 

A UK government report released this month on the advantages of a number of new technologies estimated the nation’s drone sector alone can contribute £45 billion ($55.5 billion) to the economy – representing 1.6% of total GDP – and save the country’s businesses around £22 billion ($27 billion) annually by 2030.