Insights from the 2024 DroneDeploy Horizons Conference
Exploring Reality Capture
Our Quality Team recently attended the annual DroneDeploy Horizons Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona—an industry-leading event that brings together pioneers in technology, operations, and innovation. This year, Horizons focused on the evolving role of technology in reality capture, emphasizing three key themes: Unity, Automation, and AI.
Each of these themes emphasized the evolving role of technology in documenting our physical world and its impact on teams like ours, who leverage drones and advanced software to improve project outcomes.
Key Themes and Takeaways
Unity: Bridging Air and Ground
The theme of Unity highlighted the seamless integration of aerial and ground-based reality capture technologies. Similar to how the horizon connects the sky to the earth, our tools converge to provide a comprehensive view of projects.
By integrating data captured from above and on the ground, we achieve:
- Improved inspection quality
- Comprehensive documentation
- Streamlined analysis from multiple perspectives
This unified approach ensures greater efficiency and accuracy for our teams and clients.
Automation: Scaling with Efficiency
Automation was another major focus of the conference. It’s revolutionizing how we scale our reality capture efforts, enabling us to achieve more without requiring a massive increase in manpower.
Far from replacing the human element, automation empowers our team by:
- Enhancing productivity
- Maintaining consistent quality across projects
- Reducing manual tasks while boosting efficiency
This approach allows us to deliver exceptional results, strengthen our team’s capabilities, and scale confidently, almost like gaining some superpowers.
AI: Turning Data into Action
The most exciting advancements showcased at Horizons revolved around Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI transforms how we process and utilize the vast amounts of data captured by drones and software, converting it into actionable insights.
These developments bring a range of superpowers to our team, such as:
- Power of Flight: Safely inspecting elevated areas of a project while remaining on the ground.
- Power of X-ray Vision: Using augmented reality to see behind walls and ceilings, reducing guesswork and rework.
- Power of Teleportation: Enabling remote walk-throughs of project sites from anywhere in the world.
- Power of Time Travel: Reviewing previous stages of a project to track progress and make data-driven decisions.
AI ensures our team can make smarter, faster decisions while maintaining high safety and quality standards.
Setting the Industry Standard
We’re proud to be ahead of the curve in leveraging these advancements. Our team is currently beta-testing several new tools unveiled at the conference. By fully integrating these technologies across regions and standardizing their use, we gain a substantial competitive advantage.
“Once-hesitant technologies like autonomous vehicles are now part of everyday life,” DroneDeploy CEO Mike Winn noted. “We see a similar trajectory for drone and ground capture in construction—what feels cutting-edge today will soon become indispensable.”
Innovating with Confidence
Our key takeaway from the conference is clear: staying engaged with industry advancements is vital to success. Scaling the use of the DroneDeploy platform and standardizing it across all projects will help us continue delivering exceptional results for our clients.
Attending events like Horizons ensures that our team remains at the forefront of innovation, ready to set new industry standards and empower our projects with cutting-edge technology.