If contractors knew the best way to capture site data for each kind of job, whether it was using laser scans, drones or their own smartphones, it would certainly solve some problems up front.

Esri has expanded its reality capture data management platform to a suite of services that promise to move drone, satellite, site, mesh and point-cloud data into its ArcGIS platform.

Aerial reality capture SaaS platform DroneDeploy has agreed to acquire StructionSite in order to strengthen its ground game. 

With $111 million in capital raised in 2022, reality capture startup OpenSpace is taking its 360° imaging technology to a global construction market.

In a sign of continued interest in technologies for tracking work progress and keeping on schedule, Israel-based startup Buildots announced that it has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round.

In recent years contractors have seen the advantages of employing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology with unmanned aerial systems (UAS), also known as drones.

As more images and reality captures come in from jobsites, the work of blending that data with existing digital twins can be onerous.

Digital twins are often touted because of their use for owners and facilities managers, but what about a digital twin for contractors that documents the ever-changing work site?

Keeping track of construction progress is often a matter of waiting for engineers and site supervisors to walk the site and document it when they can. Getting that data into the general project pipeline is a challenge in itself.

The dog-shaped Spot robot from Boston Dynamics will be available next year with a Trimble laser scanner and GNSS antenna built in, for an out-of-the box autonomous reality capture on jobsites.