New Kespry construction innovations further drive project profitability by enhancing drone flight and on-demand data accuracy
Kespry, the drone-based aerial intelligence solution provider, is highlighting its new construction industry-focused innovations at the World of Concrete industry trade show in Las Vegas, January 22-26. The international event is the only large-scale show dedicated to the commercial concrete and masonry construction industries. As part of its global strategic alliance with John Deere, Kespry will be featured at John Deere's World of Concrete booth located at C545.
Kespry will be highlighting its new capabilities to improve the efficiency of earthworks construction projects, including site design plan integration, removal of heavy equipment from automated volumetric and progress tracking, and a new tool to provide rapid elevation profile analysis to support in-the-field decision-making. These new capabilities further advance how Kespry is helping its customers to maximize the profitability of all of their construction projects with frequent, accurate survey data. Customers can now have even greater confidence to take on jobs knowing they have Kespry to optimize how they use their resources, reduce costs, and ensure projects stay on track.
Kespry construction customers benefit from unlimited flights that can be completed in as a little as 30 minutes, meaning companies can use it at every stage of a project to plan and track progress—reducing unnecessary rework and costly change orders, while better managing equipment.
Design Plan Increases Project Management Efficiency
Kespry now imports site design files directly into the Kespry Cloud for comparison with data captured from drone flights. The new feature allows site managers and other team members to quickly calculate progress against original plan design surfaces or a specified base plane elevation. Directly importing design files in the Kespry Cloud empowers teams to make quick decisions about the accuracy of production levels or the progress of earthwork tracking—all without leaving the workspace. No third-party software or data processing is needed.
"Kespry makes our team more efficient all the way around," said Kyndra Tezak, Project Engineer, Tezak Heavy Equipment, a Southern Colorado company specializing in civil construction, including roadways, bridges, dams, and river restoration projects. "I fly every quarry and project site every two weeks. I send out information after I upload all of my data and process the flight, and the users don't have to wait on me for anything. They can go into the Kespry Cloud and get the answers they need. "
Feature Extraction Automatically Removes Equipment from Topos
This new tool uses machine learning (ML) to automatically remove equipment from topographic models and volumetric data automatically generated from Kespry drone flights over active earthwork construction. Algorithms identify equipment within the survey data, and then removes them from the digital surface model—providing an even greater level of accuracy in the data used to drive production or work order changes. Customers will now have a choice to calculate volumes and/or generate topographic maps with or without equipment removed—all in a quick and easy dropdown menu. All datasets are available for download in several CAD/GIS file formats.
"With the Kespry Feature Extraction tool, we're able to calculate volumes with higher confidence and produce cleaner, more accurate volume reports," said Ethan Gassman, Superintendent, Turner Contracting, a leading construction company with decades of mass excavation and mining experience. "Now, our team can directly download feature-extracted digital surface model data to update grading and mine plans quickly. We're saving lots of time by not having to manually trim or clean up our datasets."
Cross Section Generates Detailed, Actionable Elevation Profiles
The Cross Section tool auto-generates an elevation profile along any line that users capture. Users can compare several surfaces and determine elevation changes needed to stay on track or adjust earthwork operations as necessary. With Cross Section, site managers and supervisors are more empowered to quickly perform grade checks without tasking in-house survey teams or hiring third-party services.
Accurate, yet easily-accessible tools like Cross Section help speed up access to the data that managers need to make to optimize the profitability of their sites, allowing them to make operational decisions in the moment, instead of waiting for engineering efforts in CAD systems better suited to more strategic planning efforts.
Kespry is the sole industrial drone platform vendor within John Deere's WorkSight portfolio. A growing number of John Deere dealers are using the Kespry solution as part of their complete earthworks solution.
"John Deere continues to be very impressed by how Kespry's complete aerial intelligence platform enables customers to fly their sites frequently across their entire project lifecycles," said Andrew Kahler, Product Marketing Manager, John Deere. "Kespry's unique offering delivers the accuracy and ease of use that enables contractors to survey their sites on their own schedules, keeping earthworks projects on track, ensuring they're granularly measured, and allowing them to get paid quickly. Kespry's excellent customer support is also invaluable in helping customers achieve rapid value from the platform."
