October 20, 2008 -- Middlesbrough Council, UK, has praised the quality of information provided by an innovative automatic inventory survey by Yotta, the 3D mapping division of OMG plc (Oxford Metrics Group [LSE: OMG]). Using vehicle-based digital photography and special software, Yotta maps signs and barriers along 100km of Middlesbrough’s A, B and C roads, confirming the numbers of each type of inventory.

Middlesbrough was one of the first UK Councils to establish a Highway Asset Management team to record data and monitor its wide range of inventory items and is keen to employ high-tech approaches to help the team improve its performance. The success of the survey paves the way for further asset inventory collection on the Council’s unclassified roads.

“I am very impressed with the results from the asset collection survey and my colleagues are equally impressed with the technology and the quality. This is the way forward for speeding up inventory collection,” says Ian McConville Principal Engineer, Highway Asset Management, Middlesbrough Council. “The quality of the Yotta video is also very important to us, providing a snapshot in time in high-resolution to give us an accurate visual record of each sign, barrier or other highway asset. It helps us measure deterioration so we can prioritise maintenance plans. The video also allows us to revisit the assets time and time again without having to leave the office,” he adds.

For the survey, Yotta will use its specially designed and developed Y270 vehicle equipped with six high-definition cameras that give a detailed street-level view of the highway. The cameras take an image every 2 metres as the vehicle drives along, with the precise position (less than 1m) of each image calculated by combining GPS, Inertial and Optical tracking systems with advanced algorithms. These images are processed by Yotta's proprietary software which analyses them pixel-by-pixel to give a highly accurate position and detailed information of each inventory item seen by the cameras on the survey.

Yotta also provides Middlesbrough with other surveys including road surface condition assessment (SCANNER) and coarse visual inspections (CVI).

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Contact David Lowe of Yotta, +44 (0)845 45 96882
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