cost savings and productivity boost will be equally obvious — and well worth any growing pains along the way.
Ask them which processes give them the most trouble and where they see the majority of delays. Find out which of the available SaaS plat- forms provide tangible, daily value for the people with boots on the ground. Ready to Adopt SaaS into Your Construction Business? Software-as-a-service is a force to be reckoned with in manufacturing, agriculture and many other industries. The benefits for construction are becoming obvious. With the right strategy and follow-through, the
MEGAN R. NICHOLS is a technical writer who regularly covers manufacturing, supply chain and construction industry trends. She’s written for sites like Manu- facturing.net, IndustryWeek and Contractors from Hell. Megan also publishes easy to understand manufacturing articles on her blog, Schooled By Science, to encourage others to take interest in the industrial sector.
unmanned systems
Although awareness of the safety solutions offered by unmanned aerial systems (UAS) – a.k.a. commercial drones— has recently spiked across the healthcare community due to the coronavirus crisis, perhaps one of the fastest growing uses of this burgeoning technology is within the civil and structural engineering industry. Not only can unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) be used for asset inspection and foundation repair on large scale construction sites, now a new breed of bots is able to monitor work-in-progress in all environments and across natural ele- ments by moving on the land and swimming in the water. The advent of spherical, amphibious, and all-terrain drones has created a powerful complement to their airborne counterparts to achieve better business practices, streamline solutions, increase safety, and elevate profitability across the entire engineering field. The key is in the cloud. Programming any type of drone hardware with customized capabilities enables it to collect, analyze, store, model, and share data in real time, thus giving engineers the ability to transform bots and UAVs into powerful, autonomous, AI-infused entities for complicated missions in surveillance, security, and detection. Using a cloud-based drone system also allows for remote deployment in all engineering field applications.Besides a variety of aerial drones with Amphibious, All-Terrain & Airborne Drones Enhance Efficiency in Execution of Essential Services for Civil & Structural Engineering Industry By Barry Alexander
highly-specialized vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) functions, spherical drones offer total environmental protection and ultimate pre- cision to the engineering profession by traversing all types of terrains, including paved roads, dirt paths, sand dunes, snowy fields, sloped mountains, and water surfaces. These radical bots can range from 6.5 inches to 7 feet in diameter and move fluidly in a forward and backward motion, as well as make 360-degree turns, reaching maximum speeds of 12 mph on land and 3 mph in water. Each one contains interchange- able sensors, such as video cameras, thermal, infrared, microphones, GPS, and audio for continuous content gathering, transmission of data and constant communication with command control. What’s more, they can operate up to 25 hours on only one charge. Further, through cloud-based transmitters, land and sea drones will be able to deploy and communicate with their flying equivalents for a strong and seamless unmanned system (US) that works together in solving critical infrastructure challenges in a way that is more efficient, cost-effective and safer than traditional methods. A comprehensive US can be applied to an array of activities within the engineering industry, including the following sectors: Pipelines Drones can be equipped with optical sensors to inspect equipment for potential pipeline leaks and pending points of failures, infrared sen-
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csengineermag.com
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