Swiss drone manufacturer Wingtra has announced their next generation offering, the WingtraOne GEN II—a VTOL drone with an oblique payload and advanced reliability algorithms for the ultimate 3D drone mapping data capture.
“GEN II reflects 100,000 flights worth of intelligence taken on by a dedicated team of engineers who translated it into leading-edge reliability, safety and performance. These updates offer the best possible experience for customers across industries. We are proud to share it with professionals across the world and excited for this next chapter of how it’s revolutionizing workflows,” Julian Surber, Product Manager at Wingtra, tells DRONELIFE.
Known for its vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) precision and dependable data capture over large areas, WingtraOne has been chosen by professionals worldwide across many industries. The GEN II represents a solid step forward in industrialization and reliability along with some new perks that challenge the previous limits of commercial mapping drones.
“We wanted to make the WingtraOne drone even more versatile for our customers. So next to our flagship 42MP Sony RX1, we’re including new, high-end mapping payloads,” said Maximilian Boosfeld, Co-founder and CEO of Wingtra. “I’m especially excited to announce our oblique solution, which offers outstanding 3D mapping results. It’s the perfect choice for capturing infrastructure—from a single industrial plant to full-scale cities.”
Oblique Payload for the Ultimate 3D Drone Mapping Data Capture
“WingtraOne’s GEN II oblique mapping solution is backed by signed partnership agreements with industry leaders Bentley Systems and Esri,” says the company release. To demonstrate the GEN II’s 3D drone mapping capabilities and the Oblique Sony A6100 payload, the Wingtra team mapped the city of Zurich, Switzerland, in just six flight hours. The results were an amazing 3D model processed with both Bentley ContextCapture and Esri’s Site Scan for ArcGIS. (Bentley and Esri’s software are both recommended for processing Wingtra oblique datasets.)
“Bentley Systems is delighted to partner with Wingtra to transform high-resolution oblique imagery from WingtraOne drones into 3D reality meshes—an ideal starting point for infrastructure digital twins,” said Phil Christensen, VP, Industry Solutions, iTwin Context, Bentley Systems. “This enables our common users to perform analytics on the resulting models as well as leverage Bentley’s iTwin platform to share performant, city-scale digital twins.”
“Our partnership with Wingtra unlocks new capabilities for Site Scan for ArcGIS users by allowing them to create wide-scale and accurate 3D meshes leveraging the oblique payload on the WingtraOne Gen II,” said Richard Cooke, Director of Global Business Development at Esri. “These high-resolution images processed through Site Scan produce an enriched 3D GIS for our users who require modelling of open pit mines, accurate construction updates, creation of digital twins for cities, and more.”
More Reliability, More Features
WingtraOne GEN II has added more features to improve reliability and functionality for their users. PPK is integrated on every drone, including multispectral Altum and RedEdge payloads, “as well as advanced fail-safe and self-diagnosis algorithms and services for dependable operations,” says the announcement.
“We have studied over a 100’000 flights and all incoming customer reports to understand what the limits might be so we can push them further,” said Julian Surber, Product Manager at Wingtra. “As a result, we’ve designed many reliability tools for GEN II to guarantee uninterrupted operations.”
The electronics of the GEN II are a completely new design, including a new navigation and heading unit. In addition, the GEN II runs self health checks on motors, servos, batteries, camera, PPK and onboard sensors. “These “drone health self checks” minimize the potential of flight with unsafe equipment,” says Wingtra.
With the Gen II, Wingtra is aiming to be the commercial drone of choice for 3D drone mapping and modeling, precision ag, and more.
“…when you’re aiming for the highest detail orthophotos, point clouds, NDVI maps and digital surface models across the majority of your applications, you only need one drone. And that drone is WingtraOne Gen II,” said Boosfeld.
“With GEN II, we’re marking a key point in commercial drone evolution by providing you with a reliable workhorse that you can count on over every flight,” added Surber.
WingtraOne GEN II is available for purchase as of the 3rd of August, 2021, directly from Wingtra distributors globally. Register for a WingtraOne GEN II product webinar to learn everything you need to know about the drone and ask questions directly to WingtraOne GEN II product manager Julian Surber. Register here.
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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