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Discover how digital twins—virtual representations of real-world objects or processes—provide risk-free environments for simulation, monitoring, and predictive capabilities across industries like construction, manufacturing, transportation, mining, and healthcare.

What AI Brings to Surveying If you thought drones were an exciting advancement in surveying, hold on to your hats-AI is upping the capabilities of both data capture and processing. Driving greater precision and greater analytic capability, and more informed decision making, the application of AI has changed geospatial engineering forever.   Automated drones can…

What would you say to implementing metrology technology that could: Boost precision? Enable better quality control and consistency? Provide continuous monitoring capable of responding immediately to abnormalities? Bring more data to uncertainty analysis? Automate inspections? Offer predictive analytics that anticipate machinery breakdowns before they cause costly repairs, replacement and downtime? Extend the life of your…

Digital twins are not new, but their potential has grown by leaps and bounds with the application of machine learning. Employing AI to digital twins to facilitate smart manufacturing was always just a matter of time; now that future is here. Digital twins-virtual reproductions of physical objects, processes or entire complex systems, such as a…

Digital surface models (DSMs) are nothing new, but as software and scanning equipment have become more sophisticated so have DSM’s. Digital terrain maps have many engineering applications, of course. but other sectors, such as agriculture, energy, and conservation, are finding uses for them as well. When you add AI to the mix, however, the capabilities…

Mine surveyors perform essential services. The data they glean helps plan work, make decisions, improve safety, and aid in mineral exploration. But ground-based surveying methods and manual calculation leave a lot to be desired. Slow and subject to human error, traditional mine surveys can take days or weeks. Traditional surveying often puts surveyors at risk.…

Metrology – the scientific study of measurement – has been around a long time. The first known attempt at creating a standard of measure came nearly 5,000 years ago in Egypt. The unit of measure, called a cubit, was modeled in black granite based on the length of Pharaoh’s forearm and hand. Pyramid builders using…

When most people hear the term “staking a claim,” their minds go back to their 4th grade history lesson about the California Gold Rush from 1848-1855. They recall images of grizzled miners crouched over a stream panning for gold, actively working their claim. Staking mining claims is not a thing of the past, however. The…

No matter how meticulously a construction project is planned, no matter how detailed the blueprints and no matter how prepared the builder and subcontractors are, there’s one thing you can always count on – changes to the original drawings as work progresses. Today’s digital as-builts contain detailed information about the changes that occur during a…

When conducting a commercial property transaction, an American Land Title Association survey (ALTA) will likely be required by the lender or title company or suggested by your attorney. In most cases, title insurance cannot be obtained without an ALTA survey. Far more accurate than a boundary survey, the details presented in an ALTA survey can…

UAV, UAS, uncrewed, unmanned, drone…the lexicon surrounding small, pilotless aircraft can get confusing. Do all those terms refer to the same thing? If not, what distinguishes one from another? How is a drone different from a UAV? What is the difference between uncrewed and unmanned? Drone or UAV? The word drone did not originally designate…

Artificial Intelligence is changing the construction industry, and we are just beginning to explore the possibilities. Starting with the design process and ending with a built environment’s decommissioning, AI is playing increasingly vital roles in achieving collaboration and connectivity in construction. AI, specifically the machine learning subset, is valuable because as data accumulates over time,…

Combining laser scanning, 3D modeling, and AI provides revolutionary efficiencies and innovations never before possible. Highly versatile digital twin solutions are a must for many applications and industries. The extreme versatility of laser scanning and 3D modeling, combined with AI to create “smart” digital twins makes this technology ideal for a host of applications and…

Digital Twins have been around for a little over two decades, but today’s digital twins can employ AI and machine learning, setting them apart from earlier virtual modeling capabilities. They are complex virtual representations built from multiple data sources such as processes, people, devices, and mechanical systems. Digital twins represent not just one process but an entire organization.

For anyone new to thermal imaging, it has been a game changer for so many industries and fields.  Thermal imaging, at its most basic, is the visual representation of infrared radiation-or heat-put off by something, be it organic or inorganic.  If an object or organic being has a temperature above zero degrees, it emits heat…

Drone thermography plays so many roles in the construction industry. Combining UAV and infrared (IR) capabilities, the technology can be used to: inspect work monitor and maintain systems diagnose problems early assess and help improve energy efficiency verify proper installation of mechanical systems like HVAC UAV thermography has many advantages over handheld IR technology.  Because…

3D mapping and modeling, which are accomplished using point clouds of data collected by laser scanner, have come very far very fast. Anyone around in the infancy of laser scanning can recall how large, heavy, and slow the equipment was. Once the technology became more efficient, affordable and widely available, however, there seemed to be no limit to its uses.

LiDAR created 3D maps and models are made up of individual data points. A point cloud is a massive collection of virtual data points, with each one representing actual points in the real world. These millions of individual data points, taken together, create a usable dataset. Using software to model physical objects in digital space makes point clouds imminently useful.

If time is money–and many argue that it is–then 3D drone surveying delivers a resounding mic drop. Traditional surveying and drone surveying are not even in the same ballpark when it comes to the amount of time it takes to complete a survey. The slowness of traditional surveying methods can contribute to costs running into the thousands of dollars for a single small acreage topographical map.