Welcome on board our new sponsors, Fugro! Let’s dive in to learn more about their character:
Company Name: Fugro.
Location: Leidschendam, Netherlands.
Why did you get involved in Get Kids into Survey? Educating students about new ways to explore the world is the best way to get them interested in the survey sciences.
What do you do? We use advanced technology to explore the earth’s surface and subsurface, creating maps about different parts of the world and explaining its composition (what it’s made of). We do this on land and underwater. The information we gather helps our clients make good decisions about how to use natural resources, like water, minerals, and food. It also helps them safely build and maintain infrastructure, like roads and bridges, ports and harbors, and pipelines and cables.
How long have you been in the Survey Industry? Fugro was founded in 1962, focusing on soil mechanics and foundation design. We added survey solutions to our capabilities in 1991.
How did you get into the Industry? We began by integrating positioning technology into our work, which helped us increase the accuracy of our existing services. Soon we added many more survey capabilities that allowed us to provide more services to our clients, including mapping large areas of land and sea. Today we are a recognized leader in the field, providing many different types of survey offerings to our clients to match their information needs.
Funny Fact about you: Fugro is a Dutch abbreviation for fundamental ground mechanics
Favourite piece of kit and why? We have so many, it’s hard to choose! But we’ll highlight our RAMMS system because it can be used to quickly map coastal areas, which is of pressing importance right now given the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise. RAMMS stands for Rapid Airborne Multibeam Mapping System. It is operated from a small airplane or drone and uses laser beams to create maps of the seafloor. Scientists use this information to understand and protect fish habitats, mariners use this information to plan safe transportation routes, and engineers use this information to understand potential hazards from hurricanes and other large storms.
Favourite Survey technique and why? We love all things remote and autonomous. We are using uncrewed platforms to acquire survey information from the air (like RAMMS) and from the sea. These advanced systems provide faster, safer, and more sustainable acquisition and delivery of survey data. It’s better for our employees; it’s better for our clients, and better for the environment!
Your website
How did you choose the character and what does he/she/it represent? Mean to you? What’s his/her name? Our character is a small fixed-wing aircraft flying our RAMMS system. The equipment we used to use to map coastal waters would have filled your bedroom from floor to ceiling, but with RAMMS we can fit all that technology into the size of a small suitcase. This small size is what leads to huge efficiency gains, both in terms of survey speed and reduced carbon emissions.