News

Keeper Pond Survey

Keepers Pond (Pen-Ffordd-Goch) is a man made pond situated at high up on the hills near Blaenavon, South Wales. It is popular with wild swimmers throughout the year though it was originally built to support local industry in the early 19th century. We have been using it as a test site whilst building a small autonomous surface vehicle. No modern survey data existed of the site so this is the first glimpse into the nature of the bottom of the pond. We collected two datasets; a single beam echosounder survey and a side scan sonar survey. The single beam echosounder survey provides the depth information whilst the side scan sonar survey provides acoustic imaging of what lies on the muddy bottom.

The shallow draught of our ASV allowed it to work in and measure depths as shallow as 0.20 m, the majority of the data was collected using the vessels autopilot whilst some hand steering was conducted around the shallow edges. The results have been charted and now gives visitors an idea of what lies beneath the often murky waters. Swimmers report stubbing their feet on submerged rocks which are clearly evident in the side scan sonar data. The outlet which runs through a tunnelin the hill side has also been located along with what local history enthusaists have indentifed as the remnants of an old pier structure.

Arkendale H. & Wastdale H. UAV Survey

Over the last 8 months we have been optimising settings for collecting data with our UAVs in the intertidal environment where safe access cannot be gained to measure GCP or check points. One of our testing locations has been the site of two wrecks which caused the collapse of the original Severn Crossing, a rail bridge between England and the Forest of Dean which stood until the 1960's (https://www.severntales.co.uk/severn-bridge-disaster.html).  These wrecks offer an ideal location for testing over, as such we have performed several flights adjusting settings and examining the results. We can achieve centimetric repeatability across different: vehicles, flights, days & months in the horizontal and vertical planes giving us confidence to collect data in this manner. 

To carry out a MBES survey over these wrecks would require significant planning, organisation and man power due to the difficulties in working in such a tidal estuary. We were able to deploy our UAV and conduct several flights within one hour with little risk and much less of a carbon footprint. Hydrography in the Severn Estuary is made difficult by the tides, fluid mud and ever changing banks; by minimising the use of vessels to collect data where possible the operation can be made safer, more efficient and at a lower cost both monetary and to the environment.

The data has been referenced to Lowest Astronomical Tide and provided to the UKHO, this data provides a significant leap in detail and accuracy compared to previous surveys. This data has relevance to safety of navigation, archeological, and monitoring uses.

One of the point clouds can be seen below, note the detail and density of measurements over the highest features giving in confidence when reporting least depth of the obstruction.

Teignmouth Survey January 2026

We deployed our new UAV to survey the drying areas of Teignmouth at low water early in January 2026 giving excellent coverage to the waters edge, weighing under 900g including RTK antenna makes it currently legal to operate in the 'open A1 category'. Three flights were undertaken within two hours to cover the area shown below. RTK check points (not GCP's) were taken on the shore to verify the data against where safe access was possible. The result was an accurate set of data referenced to chart datum serving as an excellent demonstration of the benefits of this method and a baseline for future surveys.

Teignmouth Survey February 2026

Since we last visited Teignmouth in January storms have hit the UK causing coastal damage and change on the shores. In Teignmouth the end of the pier was lost to the sea, large amounts of sand was moved around on the point and the breakwater was further exposed, a large crack is developing. After hearing about this on the news we decided to revisit so we could 'measure the difference'. The winds had subsided by early February enough to allow us some flight time to collect data over the low water spring tide early in February. Even before we collected data it was obvious walking around the point that signifcant change had occured.

Comparing both images above changes can be seen visually however if a difference surface is produced then numbers are generated which identify how much the level of the beach has changed. Around the breakwater over 2 m of scouring has occurred, on the channel side of the point over 3 m of sand has been deposited.

We also took some close ups of the damaged breakwater which have been processed into a model for future comparisons to be made against if and when further damage occurs.