| 17 Waikato Business Awards: Beca BUSINESS An ingenious new way to survey T T Richard Loader Surveyors developed a prototype robotic survey vehicle, specifically designed to accommodate one of Beca’s lightweight Leica 3-D scanners. In the true spirit of Kiwi ingenuity Beca has proven that necessity really is the mother of invention and has been aptly rewarded as Finalist in the Waikato Chamber of Commerce Business Awards’ Innovation category. In 2018 one of Beca’s highway structure inspectors identified significant cracking and damage to the overt of a 40-metre long/ two-metre diametre culvert. Sitting along SH35 near Te kaha and the only road in and out, if the culvert had collapsed it would cut off a major part of the community. After taking photos, the inspector quickly exited the culvert and brought the damage to the attention of Beca’s engineering team. Given the age and remoteness of the culvert records of the culvert were very limited and, given the extent of damage, the engineers required more data including imagery to further assess the damage. The engineers approached the survey team in Hamilton with the problem and asked how they could accurately measure the culvert’s interior without sending a surveyor inside. The problem was referred to Beca’s survey team and it came to the attention of Senior Surveyor Marcus Hall who had previously worked on a problem like this in Australia. Marcus embraced the challenge of the project with the support of Beca’s Technical Discipline team. “Surveying is very technically driven and we have to keep up with all the latest technologies, so it’s good to have a team that’s focused on that. Their approach is if you have a passion, an idea, an innovation, here’s a budget, go for it and make it happen. That pushes our survey team ahead.” The surveyors got to work and developed a prototype robotic survey vehicle, specifically designed to accommodate one of Beca’s lightweight Leica 3-D scanners that uses laser beams to capture the environment. After developing a working concept that demonstrated the use of several technologies Marcus says it didn’t take too much effort to embrace a bit of innovative spirit to enhance the technology. “It was all designed in CAD and 3-D printed. We developed the prototype under a very tight time frame, very limited budget and quite a lot of passion. The device was designed to conduct the measurement survey, while the surveyor remained in a place of safety. From the original prototype several iterations of the robotic device were developed” Using the robotic survey vehicle three separate measurements were taken over several months, determining that the damage was not worsening, effectively buying time to develop a solution which has now been achieved, averting damage and risk to people. While the robotic device that entered the culvert measured 750mm long by 500mm high, part of its innovative design enables it to be compacted and adapted for multiple environments. “We ended up putting it underneath the floor of a one hundred year old Cathedral in the Waikato, which was also a confined space and unsafe to enter. So we were able to very quickly modify and adapt it to change shape and survey this underfloor area. “So it’s a bit of a chameleon. It’s a proud moment for Beca. Seeing it all come together and the value it’s provided to this project and to other projects and the interest it generates is very rewarding.”
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