The work of construction project management has always been an immense task for one person to wrap their whole mind around. And as projects continue to increase in size and scope spanning blocks and towering skyscrapers, tools will need to evolve to offer more transparency in order to avoid costly rework which could have been avoided.
Imagine if you could have eyes on every critical location spanning your entire construction project. Now imagine if those eyes were attached to a precise photographic memory that could help you immediately detect any construction progress that was deviating from spec, even if only by centimeters.
Better yet, imagine if all that information was delivered right to your desk or laptop at the end of each day so you could make the most informed decisions possible before proceeding with additional construction phases.
You’re probably thinking how that would make your life immensely easier. But you're also likely thinking this is something out of a science fiction movie. However today, innovative tools in the world of 3D mapping and robotics and making this closer to reality than ever before.
To understand how, let's look into a typical construction scenario that can take advantage of this technology to save costs and stay on schedule.
Under the hot Nevada sun on a late summer afternoon, construction is in the early phases at the Harry Reid International Airport.
This multi-billion dollar expansion project looks to add new terminals, access roads, and additional passenger waiting areas within the airport.
As the project manager, you’re overseeing the initial construction of the first new terminal building that will be added as the first phase of the project.
It’s Wednesday afternoon, and construction crews are finishing up some of the internal work before the walls begin to be poured and constructed starting on Monday of next week.
As the day winds down, a four-legged robot jumps to life. Powering this robot is Nexys -- a modular autonomy and mapping payload with a custom software deployment set to run daily data collection exploration missions around the entire construction site. 
On this job site, the crew refers to the robot as “Boss” or "Bruno", an inside joke about how it patrols the job site at night checking on their work. There’s no pilot controlling Bruno. The nimble dog-like robot uses the Nexys system to safely navigate the site while performing its daily inspections.
While exploring an older section of the job site Bruno came across several pallets that had been placed in a hallway that it had navigated the day before. But with a powerful online SLAM algorithm, Nexys can intelligently detect and carefully plot a new course for Bruno around the pallets while still completing a scan of the entire area.
As Bruno navigates through the area where the walls will start going up on Monday, it takes in precise 3D mapping data along with detailed color photographs. These fully panoramic color photos are known as photospheres. As the project manager, you can pull these photos up and visually inspect any area with the finest detail.
Example of a panoramic photo embedded in a Nexys point cloud
When Bruno is done with the daily inspection, it goes back to its charging station to recharge for tomorrow and to activate an automated post-process pipeline to clean and geo-referencing the 3D point cloud data that was collected during the days mission.
After answering a few emails to start your day, you pull up the data and imagery that Bruno collected the day before. It’s gone through a custom post-processing routine and everything is now viewable through a standard BIM software suite.
By this point, going over the data has become routine and a regular part of your morning. Your organization is so used to deploying a ground robot with Nexys autonomy that they regularly use these data scans to sign off on work complete orders, contractor payouts, and day-to-day tasks that keep work moving. But as you're going through the data, you notice something that catches your eye.
While ensuring that certain fixtures and mechanical elements are being installed at the right coordinates within the 3D point cloud, you zoom in on a panoramic photosphere for a quick visual inspection of the area.
You zoom into the photosphere and see that several sections of insulation are missing on a series of copper pipes that will soon be behind the thick concrete walls that are going in on Monday.
You call the supervisor overseeing the construction for that area and ask that he perform another inspection to ensure the correct specifications are being met.
You get a call back confirming that insulation segments are indeed missing. He was able to quickly divert a crew for the day and confirmed the missing insulation was installed and concrete is now safe to be poured.
Had Bruno not captured that series of photospheres for inspection, the walls could have started going up before the insulation issue was detected. The result would have been considerable demolition and rework, extra costs, and a schedule deviation that could cost the project days or even weeks.
This example may seem like science fiction, but it’s possible today with our Nexys autonomy and mapping system. However in this example, the post-processing step was highly automated and not available in that form as of this writing. It will be available to customers in 2025.
Whether attached to a ground-based robot like Bruno or an aerial drone to cover more rugged areas, the Nexys system can perform completely autonomous exploration of any environment.
Surveying construction progress is now easier, faster, less expensive, and safer than ever before. With our fully autonomous Nexys system, you can capture survey-grade data to make the most informed decisions possible.
Contact us today for a demo of our Nexys payload and learn more about our amazing technology that’s delivering cost savings and efficiency for projects and industries around the world.
