Photo courtesy of Suyang Dong/University of Michigan SmartDig's market includes earthwork contractors looking to boost productivity in cities. Related Links: Robots on the Jobsite Advancing in Construction Bridge Builder Hooked on GPS-Guided Gantries Why are some excavators wearing what appear to be giant quick-response codes? The QR codes are not the latest e-commerce trend on construction sites but part of a research project at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, aimed at making machine controls more accurate in urban settings."It's weird," admits Suyang Dong, a researcher at the school's Laboratory for Interactive Visualization in Engineering, speaking of the strange signs.
Big data is like the Atlantic Ocean; it’s huge and deep and full of power but we know that—whatever we have done so far—we have barely touched its potential.One example of tapping the potential of big data is a service that mines and analyzes the hits generated by more than one million mobile wireless devices as they register at one cell tower after another while traveling along. The identities of the users are never known, but it doesn’t matter. It is the pattern of movements on a grand scale that tells the tale.The transportation studies the data analytics company, AirSage,
Image Courtesy of Tesla Motors Inc. The plant, to be built on a 600-acre site, is slated to be open by 2017. The Sept. 4 revelation that northern Nevada is the site for Tesla Motors' planned $5-billion lithium-ion-battery "gigafactory" sets the stage for what is likely to be a sharp drop in the cost of such batteries over the next few years, as market forces come to bear.The electric vehicles built by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla Motors Inc. are powered by batteries composed of thousands of the small, cylindrical, lithium-ion 18650 commodity cells such as those commonly found in
Image Courtesy Gehry Technologies Gehry Technologies' GTeam platform allows for online collaboration on BIM design documents. Image Courtesy Gehry Technologies Gehry Technologies' Digital Project is a BIM design and management suite. Related Links: Trimble Steps Into Facilities Management With Manhattan Software Acquisition Trimble Buys Crane-Safety Instrumentation Company Show Me the Money: 5D-Cost Estimating Tools Taking Off Gehry Forms Alliance of Architects To Promote Technological Integration Gehry Tech Launches Latest BIM Collaboration Tool Q&A: Over the Horizon with Dennis Shelden, Gehry Technologies In the latest of a string of high-profile acquisitions, Trimble, Sunnyvale, Calif., announced Sept. 8 it has acquired Los
Estimators have never had it easy in the rough-and-tumble world of construction cost estimating—especially when using traditional 2D files or drawings for quantity takeoffs and cost estimates.
Related Links: Construction Industry Drones Fly in Rules Vacuum Some Firms Are Not Waiting For Regulations On Commercial Drone Operations Topcon Positioning Systems Showcases Unmanned Aerial Systems at ESRI User Conference JAVAD Triumph F-1 Promotional Video Consumer-level unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be purchased off the shelf and be up in the air as soon as the batteries are charged, but the data-driven world of construction surveying often demands something a bit more robust. In anticipation of up- coming regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration, surveying and mapping equipment firms are making big investments in UAVs. Many companies are already
The deaths of eight students at a school struck by a tornado in Enterprise, Alabama in 2007 and the deaths of seven others when a tornado struck a school in Moore, Oklahoma in 2013 have spurred building code writers to make the protection of students from tornadoes a priority in the 17 U.S. states commonly referred to as “tornado alley.” The International Building Code 2015 requires new schools in those states to be built with tornado shelters—which is a step in the right direction.But for the approximately 40,000 existing school buildings, averaging 40 years in age, it’s no step at all.
Related Links: Construction Industry Drones Fly in Rules Vacuum Survey Technology Firms Deploy Their Own Drones Some Firms Are Not Waiting For Regulations On Commercial Drone Operations Construction companies are putting unmanned aerial vehicles to work overseas, or they are quietly conducting "hobby" trials domestically, at least until commercial use is legalized in the U.S.John Myers, senior virtual design and construction engineer at Gilbane Building Co., Providence, says "We're back to the Wild Wild West," and also likens the regulatory atmosphere to the "Prohitibion era."Since Myers can't fly legally for commercial purposes, he takes his drone up in a park
Within a year or two, U.S. companies likely will replace many human workers now flying aerial survey and photo missions or inspecting structures from scaffolds and platforms with missions flown by unmanned aerial vehicles—drones.
When Greg Sherwin started tinkering with radio-controlled (RC) quadcopters three years ago, he wondered about using them for construction surveys and inspections.
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