5 Questions to... Johannes Riegl

Congratulations on the launch of your very own UAS, the RiCOPTER, at Intergeo 2014. Why was it the right time for that now?

The use of unmanned aerial systems has increased dramatically over the past two years and has opened up completely new areas for aerial surveying. Our survey-grade UAS Lidar sensor, the VUX-1, has already been integrated into various UAS systems, such as SARAH by FlyingCAM or Scout B-100 by Aeroscout. As it is our mission to surpass our customers’ expectations and we saw the market desire for a turnkey UAS survey solution increasing, we decided to develop a RIEGL UAS aircraft, the RiCOPTER, specifically designed for our VUX-1 Lidar sensor. Intergeo 2014 was the perfect moment to introduce this game-changing new turnkey solution!

Can you tell the GIM International readers more about the RiCOPTER? Who are the potential users of this RIEGL UAS?

The RiCOPTER is a high-performance UAV which can be equipped with the RIEGL VUX-1 survey-grade Lidar sensor to offer a fully integrated turnkey solution. RIEGL puts itself again at the forefront of this industry: our customers now can rely on a fully integrated Lidar UAS solution coming from a single manufacturer. From integration, training and acquisition to data processing, a complete UAS solution is now made available thanks to RiCOPTER – the first ‘flying laser scanner’!

The RiCOPTER was demonstrated live in the UAV flight zone at Intergeo. What was the general reaction?

We received overwhelmingly positive reactions. We were very glad we were able to fly demonstrations in the Intergeo flight zone. We really appreciated the co-operation of the other companies in the outdoor area who had already planned the demo flights to fit us in the schedule! Spectators in the UAV flight zone were impressed by the sonorous sound of RiCOPTER and also by the very stable hovering and flight characteristics, even under very demanding wind conditions.

RIEGL has additionally launched a brand-new airborne Lidar system, the VQ-880-G. Can you describe this system for our readers?

The VQ-880-G is RIEGL’s first fully integrated airborne Lidar system for combined hydrographic and topographic surveying and represents the ‘big brother’ of the proven VQ-820-G bathymetric Lidar scanning engine. The system is offered with integrated and factory-calibrated high-end GNSS/IMU system and cameras. The design allows flexible adaptation of these components to specific application requirements.

You have also added a new terrestrial laser scanner to your portfolio, the VZ-2000. How is the VZ-2000 different from your previous laser scanners?

The VZ-2000 is our fastest terrestrial laser scanner yet, with a maximum PRR of 1MHz and an effective measurement rate of up to 400,000 points per second. This is all for a time-of-flight instrument offering range performance of more than 2,000 metres! The VZ-2000 complements our VZ terrestrial product family and fills the range gap between the VZ-1000 and the VZ-4000. The VZ-2000 is an ideal instrument to upgrade to mobile scanning when needed using our VMZ hybrid mobile mapping system. We offer our valued customers more options to meet their specific requirements.

Dr Johannes Riegl is founder and CEO of RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems.