The New Normal: How PCL Works with Drone Data Every Day

MATTHEW DODGE: just make sure you're in the right place, this is "The New Normal, How PCL Works With Drone Data Every Day."

KEVIN JOHNSON: So we're going to start off with just some quiz brain teaser questions to get you guys going, and then we'll go from there. So who here knows what a GCP is? OK, good. Somebody over here raised their hand. What is it?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KEVIN JOHNSON: Perfect.

MATTHEW DODGE: Woo.

KEVIN JOHNSON: OK.

MATTHEW DODGE: Yeah. Bring presence this morning.

KEVIN JOHNSON: Who knows what a METAR is?

AUDIENCE: A weather report?

KEVIN JOHNSON: Good enough.

MATTHEW DODGE: Yeah, we'll give it him.

KEVIN JOHNSON: It's a neurological aerodrome report. Who knows what a TAF is? T-A-F? You already got sunglasses. Do you know the definition? Nico?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] your question.

KEVIN JOHNSON: OK. And what's one of the main differences between a METAR and a TAF? Does anyone know? So a TAF is a forecast, and a METAR is an observation. So METARs are reports right now. TAFs are forecasts that you look into the future.

What about-- does high density altitude increase or decrease aircraft performance?

AUDIENCE: Decrease.

KEVIN JOHNSON: Decrease. That's correct. Cool.

MATTHEW DODGE: Just to get a feel for the room, how many of you are currently using drones in your company? It's about half. 6%. OK.

KEVIN JOHNSON: OK. So this morning we're going to talk about the current job we're working on. It's a JW Marriott Hotel. We'll talk about how we collect drone data. We'll talk about which stakeholders use that data. We'll focus on primarily on how we use that data. And then, we'll talk about what we learned over the last six months on this job, and where we think drone data and data collection is heading.

MATTHEW DODGE: So my name's is Matthew Dodge. I'm a Project Manager at PCL. I've been with PCL a little over four years now. I started as a Field Engineer. I worked through the ranks. I've got a lot of experience with hospitality and residential. And I'm myself a certified drone pilot.

KEVIN JOHNSON: I'm Kevin Johnson, virtual construction specialist. I come from a architecture background. Came to work with PCL at the American Dream up in New Jersey, transferred down to Florida, maybe six or seven months ago. That's when I started flying drones and became a drone pilot.

MATTHEW DODGE: So what you're seeing on the screen is a drone flight from back in March or February. When we started this project, we purchased a drone to use specifically for the project. We started flying around, just taking some cool shots. You know, pretty much what everyone was doing about a year ago, using it for just like, beauty shots for marketing and whatnot.

At this time, I did not know where we'd end up taking this drone data, essentially. And when we started this, we hooked up with Site Scan. And kind of a fun story is, when our site contractor was on site, he was digging out the area for our pile contractor to come and install his piles. Well, I through flew the drone, overlaid our foundation plan, and realized right off the bat that our site contractor had underestimated and didn't unearth enough dirt for the pile contractor to start.

If we wouldn't have caught that, that would have caused probably about a week or two delay once the power contractor arrived, and it would've been a big issue. So that was a good one right off the bat.

KEVIN JOHNSON: So flash forward to the current state of the job. You can see here, the parking lot's full, filled with Conaxes. We're up to level 10 in the tower. There's a garage space there. You can see tables going up. So there's multiple zones and areas.

So you know, again, on the bottom of the screen, all those little blue dots are flights. So if you look all the way on the left, you can see in November, when it was just a dirt lot. And then you can see as construction progressed, we started flying more and more. And we'll talk about why, why we were doing that.

MATTHEW DODGE: So here's one of our site area scans that's been put together in a big ortho. As you see, the right side is the actual hotel site. On the left, you'll see our parking lot, site storage, materials, and whatnot.

So just one of the cool features that Site Scan has to offer for us is the time lapse. We were able to put this together. And you kind see what our project's done pretty much for the last year. So what we'll get into is the benefit of these daily drone flights is the historical aspect, so we have a picture history of what this job site's done for the past year, year and a half almost.

KEVIN JOHNSON: In addition to that, when I started the job, I was in New Jersey, committing basically Fridays. And I was able to go on Site Scan, open up the drone data, and be able to make decisions based on what drone data we had captured. So I was in the loop, and I was able to actually work remotely from hours away. So that was a huge benefit for me in the beginning.

So we'll talk about how we collect drone data. So this is a little snapshot into our pre-flight planning process. So if you look on the left, that's a sectional chart. You can see the red circle is actually Disney's airspace. It's a temporary flight restriction, but it's actually like, a permanent temporary flight restriction. So that's pretty interesting.

We're kind of right along the edge of that that red circle. So we're actually able to fly in that area with no issues. Yeah, so we're kind of right below Epcot, in that little red zone there. So, you know, so another thing with flying and flying in Florida, there's a lot of rain. So using storm tracker apps, and being in the loop with when it's going to rain, literally down to the hour, if not minutes, you can see this flight.

In the bottom of the screen, there's actually some storm clouds. That's me landing. So just being able to make a decision on when is the best time to collect the data. You know in Florida, it will start raining at the end of the day, almost every day. So you may have to push your flights to lunch during that season, and then you can start getting them later and later throughout the day.

We have our pre-flight checklist that's part of PCL's safety program. So we go through all of our checks. We check the airspace, the clouds, the weather. You know, we do pre-flight We do post-flight checklists. We report any issues with the drone. And that's just part of our process. So we send those through every day, and we maintain those logs. We track the batteries, and we track who the pilots are, and who the visual observers.

So if you're taking off from ground and you're going up to the top deck, you want to have someone up there on that deck. So how we collect data. You know we basically go through our pre-flight checklist. We go outside. And we use the Site Scan app to fly the drone. One of the things I want to talk about, actually, is there's a number of different flights but that are automated and allow you to collect data very rapidly.

Additionally, one of the things I had learned was, I was getting bad photos. You know, just taking the drone out and flying it. I was getting these grainy photos. And what I ended up learning was, by bringing the drone out and letting it acclimate to the environment, you're going to get much better photos. So any piece of equipment, if you just change the environment and you don't let it adapt to the environment, you're going to get bad results. Things are going to fog up and get condensation.

So the point being, you can open the app, you can plan a flight in less than a minute. And rapidly have your drone taking off, and collecting data. Before you do automate your flights, you should be flying, and flying on your own. You know, maybe use the DJI app, or whatever drone standalone app you have. And make sure that you know how to fly without just going straight into the automation. So that's an important part of the learning steps, is being comfortable with your drone prior to using automation.

MATTHEW DODGE: So just to piggyback off of what Kevin's saying, we do fly, or we least at try to fly the drone every day, depending on weather and what's going on the job sites. That's the main basis of this presentation, to show you what all that data can do for your project as a whole.

So going into who uses our drone data. So first off, the VC team is obviously all over the drone data, using it for stuff on job sites, whether it's calculating dirt fill, or working with the contours and elevations. We use it for pursuits. So pursuit phase, presentations, we're able to show off some of our drone data.

Specifically, this project, we've learned that our owners are all about it. They want to-- we've given them access-- like, our owner gave them access to their insurance, their bankers, their investors. Everyone's got access to the site scan, to view our site, and check in what's going on. And they're able to use that to keep up with progress, check in if any questions on something. It saves them having to call like, five people. They can just go check Site Scan.

KEVIN JOHNSON: And additionally to that, actually, I got an email this morning from the owner at like, 4:30. And it was CCed from the bank. And he's like, hey, can you take a video where you take off from ground, and you show the tower going up, and then you go up to the top of the tower and spin around. Can you send me a video of that?

So I thought it was pretty funny that both of our pilots are out for the week, and the requests for drone data have already started.

MATTHEW DODGE: Additionally, our architects, structural engineers, they all have access. So our structural engineer is able to kind of keep tabs on what a structure's looking like each week, seeing if there's anything she's got questions on. Or she's savvy enough, in the midst of changing something, she's making sure we're not to that point yet.

Subs are working with us for quantity take-offs. We'll get into that a little bit, as well as QC. And then our HSE, which is our safety team, use it heavily for site logistics. And I'll show you that as well.

So real quick, here's a video of just some of the people who use our drone data daily. You'll see the owner. She's going to speak. And then we'll have a few of FEs, or field engineers, speak to it as well.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- Hi. I'm Bob Hoffman. I work for DCS. We're the owners of the JW Marriott. We use the drone specifically for the banks to show progress in the job, and also for ourselves to see how far we're progressing, to maintain schedule, and also to see what equipment and everything that's being brought in. I guess that's about it, but the drone is very productive for our use.

- My name is Sean Dillon. I'm a Field Engineer for PCL. I use Site Scan to overlay wall layout with MEP penetrations in the slab to find areas in conflict and potential conflicts with PT cables nearby.

- My name is Kurt Bailey. I'm a Field Engineer at PCL construction. I use Site Scan to measure the horizontal distance in between two columns, where we have PT cables inside the concrete slab. We had a subcontractor on-site using 4 inch anchors right in that area, so we had to verify where those cables were at. And we can also use the point cloud feature to measure the vertical distance to see how deep those cables run into the slab. This prevented conflict in between the cables and the anchors.

[END PLAYBACK]

MATTHEW DODGE: So that's just a taste of what we use it for daily. We have 28 people in our construction trailer, and I can tell you all 28 people open Site Scan daily and use it for something, whether it's checking progress, looking for PT cables, looking for MEP pipes. Like, it's constantly being used for many demographics.

So we're going to go through the PCL Project Lifecycle and show you how it applies, how the drone data applies to every step of the way. So we have our business development estimating, planning, safety management, quality management, resource management, and cost management.

So we'll start with business development, which is the easy one. Everyone knows pretty much what it started out as. So we use the drone to take these, what we call beauty shots. We fly around the job site, take photos from the same location. We actually have a wall in our main conference room that we show the progress of the tower as it's been growing.

And then as well, as you can see on the left, we have a project wall in our District office, where we showcase our projects. So just another one of the shots we take, we get random calls from marketing asking for, you know, can you take a picture of the tower from this side, showing this, or can you do a video flying around? So we get kind of called upon to do some of that stuff, and they use that for project pursuits, or showing potential owners what other kinds of assistance we provide.

So next, I'll touch base on how it affects estimating phase. So for estimating, we use our daily drone data on Site Scan. And we're able to-- if there is a conflict with maybe some dirt in the way that now we never planned on moving, but now we need to plan, we can go on Site Scan, go to that day that it's most exposed, take off the area, get an accurate estimate of how much dirt is in that pile so we can work with our site contractor on what he needs to do for resources to move it.

We use this heavily with him. He kind of relies on this. It's turned out to be very helpful with like, debating on how much we need to pay for this cubic yard and whatnot. So with Site Scan, they make it pretty simple. You can mark off your area, and then it'll create like, a 3D base plane, or a 3D image of what your pilot looks like, and you can adjust your base plane based off how much you want to take it down to?

So this pile you're seeing is actually a good story. The lot we're sitting on with all of our parking and storage is actually a lease lot. And we had to move this gigantic pile of dirt just to create enough parking stalls for our guys. So later in the project, we started messing around, taking off quantities, and it helped get trucks queued up, and kind of figure out how many-- how long it was going to take the site contractor to get this moved off-site.

And then there was a good historical-- it was good historical data, so that if the owner decides he wants to bring the dirt back and put it back on his lot, we can. We know how much dirt was accurately on there, and we can bring it back at a later date.

So planning. So this is the bulk of what it's used for. We use this Site Scan daily with our operations team, our field staff. Myself as a Project Manager, I'm working with the site superintendents to make sure we're making good plans that makes sense.

So I'm going to show you a video here in a second. Every morning at 6:30, we have a team huddle. We meet up in our large conference room. We go over what the day's tasks are going to be. Kind of review what happened the day before . And we use Site Scan the whole time. We have a big projector in the front room.

As we'll show you later, we have a bunch of file overlays we're able to throw on top of our drone data. And pretty much, that's how we plan out our day.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- I'm not sure when this picture was taken. But you'll see, we've got going on some table flying last night, or yesterday afternoon.

- OK. Slab on grade, grade B.

- [INAUDIBLE] that quarter right there on [INAUDIBLE]

- OK. The structural steel.

- Yesterday, they were just doing more of the [INAUDIBLE]. And then, some of that [INAUDIBLE].

- Right now, when is C4 scheduled?

- We got some [? state-ordered ?] repaired [INAUDIBLE].

- But we have to get the recess slide for it. Is it inspected?

- The recess and support, yes.

- OK. Masonry.

- So there's a lot of colors here. I'm guessing the blue and the green were going zero-- oh, there's [INAUDIBLE]. OK. So the mason's going to work on the orange walls today and get them up to 8 feet, and then we're going to be able start cutting loose MEPs on the first floor.

The roof, this must be recent. The south section right there, he has started. He's going northward. So as we get that covered up, and it looks like the bottom of the joists are dry. We'll start fireproofing on the second floor. Area G?

- [INAUDIBLE] start on the fourth floor, [INAUDIBLE]

- All right. Anybody else got anything?

- All right. [INAUDIBLE]

[LAUGHING]

[END PLAYBACK]

MATTHEW DODGE: OK. So that meeting actually goes on for about 30 minutes. In the morning, our project is split up into mini zones. We go zone by zone, kind of go into what happened there and what's going to happen that day. So like, a big thing you saw is we were able to check in on how many tables we flew for concrete, how much square footage of roofing we were able to accomplish the day before, and we can see that live from the drone.

Because normally, we fly at the end of the day, when everyone is complete and off the job site. So we're able to get a good snapshot of what that whole day progress entailed.

So just kind run through some of the overlays we use with Site Scan, how we use them for planning. So at the beginning of the project, back in the foundation phase and deep MEP underground phase, we heavily used the plumbing underground coordination file. So you see it shows all-- we're able to accurately overlay over our site. It shoes where all the plumbing pipes that need to be installed throughout our job site.

So we use this in our plumbing meetings, and we're kind of able to see like, where's our plumber going to go to next? What areas need to be cleared out for him? There's a stack of rebar over here. We need to get that moved so he can put his-- run a plumbing pipe in.

So just kind of a zoom in, kind of a project win here. We also use it for QC after installation, so our field engineers, site superintendent, who are watching over plumbing, can accurately QC what's going on. As you can see, you've got the drone image on the left, and then on the right, it's the Site Scan overlay with the plumbing coordination. And as you can see, they're right on top of each other. So that's a QC win, double checking to make sure their pipes go in the right spot, right links.

So moving on, as you heard in the video, slab on grade is heavy right now. So we use a slab on grade overlay to show us what slab on grades are still left. So anything colored, or has full color still needs to be poured. Everything that's kind of been cleared out has been poured.

We'll do a zoom in here. We put square footages on here. We put dates on here. We put any data that's necessary on here for the teams. So in the morning meetings, it's all there for us just. There's a quick overlay feature on the Site Scan, and we're able to have a really good meeting and discuss what's going on.

So another one we've got on Site Scan is a level two work plan. So this is like a level two slab pour. So we've poured out pretty much all level two at this point. There's two pours that are left, as you can see. But if we zoom in and turn down the opacity a little bit, you'll see they're still waiting on structural steel. So that's why they're there, so.

Lastly, another one. So our podium team, they are down working on levels one and two, getting the convention center and all the public spaces built out. They wanted a little piece of the action with the Site Scan. So in the morning meetings, they have their overlay they threw on here. It shows the floor plate, and they're showing like, critical walls that need to be put up to start utilities and MEP areas, like rooms that need to be built out that are a high priority.

And so they use Site Scan in their meetings to kind of go over this stuff. So it's better than just having a blue beam drawing. They're able just to take that blue beam drawing, overlay it on what the site looks like, and it creates more talking points.

So moving on down the list, how we use the drone data for safety management. So for every worker that enters our job site, we run them through a safety orientation. And that safety orientation, that requires we go through like, a project site plan. Logistics, where everything is. We've taken that project site plan for moving. We've uploaded into Site Scan, and it's overlaid on top of our latest and greatest drone flight.

So when they're reviewing this logistics drawing, looking at fire extinguishers, First-Aid mustering points, they were looking at the shot of the site from the day before. So they're getting an accurate representation of what's out there. They're not kind of looking at an old drawing that, yeah, some stuff has moved around. They're looking at something that's from the day. Highly accurate.

As you can see, I'll zoom in here, we show routing of trucks. We show the tower crane radiuses. So you'll see the circles on there are kind of faint. But you'll kind of see how we've sectioned off storage zones based off of that radius. So that's been a big help with like, making sure people are putting materials in the right spot that can still be picked by tower cranes, so they can be moved throughout the job site. We've got staging areas on here.

Biggest thing we use this for us is, when we're getting ready for big concrete pours, for deck pours, figuring out where the pump's going to sit, how it's going to affect the routing, where trucks are going to go, what materials need to be moved in order for that pump to be set correctly. And then our safety supervisor, he does walks throughout the week, or throughout the day. He actually checks into the Site Scan, makes sure there's nothing that he should go look at that's critical, like maybe he sees some material that's not stacked right. He's going to make sure he walks over there to check in on it.

So, quality management. So, with quality management, we're checking day-to-day production, making sure what we're doing is correct. You know, as you can see here, we've got a timeline feature. We're able to kind of go through what the day before progress looked like based on today's. You know, say, did they actually get all the rebar in that they were supposed to? Did they get the waterproofing done in this footer? What footers are poured out.

It's a pretty cool feature. What we also did for QC, especially in the foundation phase, we uploaded a PDF of the structural foundation plan. We were able to kind of just double check the QC of our foundation layout and installation, making sure everything's lining up right. You know, maybe a footer was installed 2 foot to the wrong direction, and we can correct it if we catch it on the Site Scan. So you can see that all very clearly with the overlay feature.

So just showing on the top deck of our project, you know, the elevated deck cancellation, we're tracking tables as they're being flown. You know, making sure they're getting put in the right spots, looking at PT, rebar, making sure everything that needs to be there is there. Double checking block outs for MEP and chases in that deck. So that's the last thing you want to miss, is a giant blackout in a concrete deck.

We're also able to overlay the MEP sleeves from the coordination files. So we take the 2D image of the sleeve layout on the deck, overlay it on a pre-pour scan of the deck, and make sure the sleeves are showing up when they need to be. For ones like far out, we go get with the sub, and get that corrected before we pour it in with concrete and make it gray and hard.

Another good feature we've used is we fly the perimeter of the building with the perimeter scan. So we're able to kind of-- we've started exterior wall close up, so we're watching the waterproof-er, the framer, and the window wall contractor, make sure they're there keeping up with progress as I said they are. They use these scans highly in their exterior wall meetings. You know, checking on their subs. Making sure there's nothing that's going to be in their way as they climb.

So, resource management. Obviously, our superintendents are keeping good track of their stuff on site, and making sure the right equipment's the right spot. However, I sit in the office most of day. I'm able to kind of be a little eyes on the site as well. So I'll be on the Site Scan checking in every now, making sure, you know, if we've got formwork that's been sitting in the corner for a week or two, I ask the question like, hey, can this get off-site? Can we maybe cut the rent off here on this thing? Do we really need it?

Because, it's a large site and superintendents can get kind of overwhelmed at some point, so it's kind of helps keeping, track of things. Sub saying there's materials on-site, and we can prove, buddy, you never had it on-site. Nice try. You know, kind of for billing and whatnot.

And this has been a big help with like, working out our parking cells. Obviously, it's a big project. We've got a lot of people that are about to hit it with interior drywall and fit out. So working on what's the best parking lot configuration. Kevin has done some overlays where we've lined up parking stalls in different orientations, seeing what's going to fit, what's going to give us the most cars.

So this is just one of the touch-backs to the historical data. You know, we're leasing this lot. The owner had some material that was already there. We were able to prove that we actually had not touched it. It's still sitting in the exact spot. You know, if they ever ask any questions.

KEVIN JOHNSON: To that point too, you know, Resource Management can protect you from lawsuits. So maybe somebody says they did something, and you can prove that they didn't, or you can prove when they did it. That's huge for us. Like, foundations, getting submittals after concrete's poured. All that kind of stuff, you can protect yourself with this data. So.

MATTHEW DODGE: And I'd love to touch base on this timeline at the bottom. So you can see, I was the first one on the job site to start flying. And then you can see once Kevin actually got the job site about midway down, he picked it up and ran with it. So I didn't have much time but, luckily, once he got to the job site, between the two of us, we were able to really pick up speed and fly more often.

So, lastly, I'll touch base on cost management. So midway through the project, we had an area that we were building a concrete structure, and we had the walls going up for level one, columns going up for level one. And at that point, we got a phone call from the engineer saying she needed to change the slab elevation sloping thicknesses, the whole ordeal.

So we were able to use Site Scan and this data to essentially say like, well, this is where we're at. We've already got columns stood to the elevations that we previously know. We've already got walls to [INAUDIBLE] basins previously known. So like, if we're going to come up with a solution, there's either going to be chipping and whatnot. But we're able to give them the accurate as built data saying like, this column is this high, this wall is this high. Let's work together and find the best solution to get your end goal.

So that's been a big help. You know, especially a lot of times, they'll claim you weren't that far. But we got Site Scan proving, yes, we were that far, and this is what we've got to work with.

KEVIN JOHNSON: So that brings us to what we learned. Again, prior to this job, I was not a drone pilot. So getting mentored by Matt, learning to fly drones manually, learning about Site Scan, learning about Florida's lovely environment and weather. So we'll delve into that.

So we're going to talk about-- we're not going to use that clicker. We're going to talk about traditional scans versus drone scans. So one of the decisions we made was to opt out of using a traditional laser scanner for pre-pour inspections prior to concrete placement. So with a drone scan, we can gather that data in around 10 or 12 minutes.

And you can see here, the drone data overlaid with the scan data. So on the left, you have both. And then on the right, you have just the drone data. Additionally, our engineering requires x-raying for any coring in the slab that's near PT cables. So if you quickly overlay something and you see that you need to be in that general area, like if you're in the center there, where all of those banded tendons are, we're going to have to core it, whereas if you're-- by the uniform tendons, which are running up and down, and you know, roughly where you're going to be, you don't need to X-ray. So having this drone data allows us to make decisions on whether we need to x-ray prior to coring.

And additionally, if we can move the penetration or the block out, it helps us make decisions on where we want to put those items.

MATTHEW DODGE: This was a pretty big time savings for our FEs, our field engineers, so they're not trucking around a laser scanner, which they would have quickly fly the site, or the actual pour in about 10, 12 minutes.

KEVIN JOHNSON: Right. And taking off from ground versus carrying a scanner up 10 floors, and it just keeps going up to level 16. So here, you have our pre-pour elevated deck scans. So we're going to talk about a specific one. This was kind of one where we had like, a bit of an aha moment. And we said this seems to be working.

So this flight was-- the deck was at 89 feet. We flew 41 feet above it. Puts it at 130 feet. You can see here, the time was 18 minutes. 442 photos. That was actually two concrete pours in one flight. And we still had done it in less than one battery.

Another thing just to bring up is, typically, we do this at the end of the day, but that's also when our crane operator likes to swing tables on the next pour, after they get their column. So this is a column hung system, so they pour the slab, then they pour their columns. And then when they have the column, they fly a table. And then that's how you get your form work up for the next slab.

So, you know, we got to a point where we would actually have to communicate to the crane operator and say, hey, we're going to be in this area, so if you could work around us. And that really kind of limited our time. But if you do have more time, you can do a cross hatch and a traditional aerial survey.

So the one that we're looking at here is a cross hatch, which basically means that the cameras, the gimbal, is on an angle. So it's taking like, an oblique photo. But if you take an additional flight from top-down, and then you combine those, you're going to get a much better orthographic image. And we'll look at that in more detail.

So, again, we talked about taking off from the ground. So we're taking off at zero, but we're flying up at 89 feet. Right? So we're increasing the overlap and the side lap. Think of that as the distance between the photos and the amount of sameness in the photos. So how fast are you taking photos? And how close are the photos to each other?

So by just upping those counts, right off the bat, you're going to get a better point cloud. And then, again, if you're combining your ortho and your cross hatch, again, that's going to take it to the next level. So this is the ortho. And all of those little bubbles are each of the photos it takes. Like I said, better data with more photos, you know, still less than one battery.

So here's what one of the photos looks like. So right off the bat, you can see that this is much better than an FE with an iPhone. And you can download each of these images separately. Here's what that photo detail looks like enhanced. This is what happens when you just zoom in all the way. So you can see it's a pretty rich photo, and we're pretty happy with the data we get there.

So, again, you're taking these photos. They're being processed in the Site Scan app. And it creates an ortho image, which basically just takes all the photos and stitches them together. So here, you're looking at an exported TIF file opened up in QGIS, which is a software that lets you look at TIFs. Additionally, you can bring it into Civil 3D, and start to overlay it with As Built information and your layout files. Stuff like that.

So both of those programs are free. And I'll have some additional notes that we're going to repush with some helpful resources on how to import and export data, et cetera. So, again, to increase your point cloud quality, you don't want to just have one flight per se. So the example I'm showing here is how easy it is to just merge two flights. It's hard to spell, though.

[LAUGHING]

But if you look here, basically, you just take your two flights, and you merge them. So we will talk about point cloud accuracy and stuff like that. But if you think about that, you could take four flights, merge them, then do that four times and merge those, and start to get something that is pretty accurate.

This one here, we do perimeter photos, which catch the faces of the building. That's how we rapidly collect photos of the exterior elevations. And then we do our traditional area scan, which is just the whole job site. It's like, 10 minutes. It gets us the whole job, as well as the rental lot. And if you stitch those two together, then you have your flat surface, you have your obliques around the perimeter. And you can start to get a pretty good point cloud.

MATTHEW DODGE: Yeah. And that 10-minute flight covers about 20 acres.

KEVIN JOHNSON: So point cloud level of detail. Like I said, you can use Site Scan's app and open the Point Cloud and view it. But additionally, you could take it into ReCap and start to do things in ReCap. Here, you can just see the conduit going above the tendons and rebar above and below the tendons. So just kind of highlighting where we're at with that data.

Again, this is an area hatch. But if you were to come back with another flight that's top-down, you're going to get a better result. So GCP maintenance and management. The story here basically is, you have three flights. You can see these little red dots down here. And the first flight is up on the top right. That's what the ground control point looked like from 300 feet, or 310 feet.

So you can see it's just good enough to tag. You know, we're not going to show you like, manipulated data, at least in this section. But that's what the cross hatch looked like, or the GCP looked like. The photo in the middle is what it looks like just a few months later. So you can see that just because you set something up doesn't mean that it's going to be maintained. So that GCP was completely washed out.

So what we did was we just went out there with spray paint, and redid it, and flew it the next day, and it was back to normal. So one of the things I learned was just questioning the process. Our traditional area scan was from 310 feet. And the first thing I had said was, well, if the GCPs from 310 are-- so what happens if we go a little lower? OK, well, we have cranes.

All right. Well, let me pull up the cranes cut sheet and see what height it's at. OK. Well, is it actually at that height? So then I took the drone out, and I did a manual flight, and I flew up, and I had the camera straight out. And I said, OK, yeah. It's pretty much at that height. So I flew up, and then I flew over it, and I said, well, that's a safe height.

So then I came back and I landed. And I took that flight. And then I just lowered it 30 feet. So now, I'm just flying 30 feet lower, and getting better photos. So questioning the process. And additionally, if you have automated flights, it's very easy to just hit refly. Refly, refly, refly, right? You just do it every day. Refly additional flight. Right?

But if you start messing with your side lap and your overlap, you can find that you get different results and better results. Maybe just by changing the angle, you could end up having three or four more photos of that GCP, so you could tag that GCP more times than your previous flight.

So that's kind of what I learned in the last six months, which brings me to where we're heading. So it's kind of-- I leave a question mark there, because it's kind of open to debate. Some things are basically there. Other things are kind of where we think things could be in the near future.

So we'll talk about that. Autotag and GCP. So I talked about maintaining them. But, obviously, when you finish your flight, you got to come in, and you've got to click the GCP in each photo. And you got to zoom in and click. And then you go into the next one, zoom in, and click. So it's a manual process. Right?

Lovely.

[LAUGHING]

So, basically, we're at a point where Site Scan can detect these GCPs, and that'll be out in the near future. So that's pretty exciting because that's a manual process that you do at the end of the day to get those flights done. If you don't tag them, then the flight's not geolocated. Then, when you go into the morning meeting, and they put their overlay on. And they're like, oh, it's off. Why isn't lined up? So it's important that you tag those GCPs right after your flight.

So DXF overlay and edge detection. So what we're trying to show here, first off, the ability to upload DXFs and CAD files, right? Because no one is really working with PDF files for their drawings, for their [? sleep ?] penetrations, showing their block outs, et cetera. We provide the DXF files to our layout team, and they use the robotic total station. Right?

So as a starting point, the ability to upload DXFs versus PDFs would be a good thing to see. Additionally, we think using AI that we'd be able to detect the edges on the layout file and compare that with the drone data and identify block outs that are in the wrong location, embeds that are in the wrong location, missing embeds.

So you can see the two photos with the X's, you can see an embed in the wrong spot, a block out in the wrong spot. And then the two on the right, you can see two block outs, one a mechanical, the other one for ladder access. And those are lining up.

So progress tracking from drone data. So, additionally, we think there's an emerging potential to use drone photos to track work. So this is a view instruction site, where we uploaded our drone perimeter photos, and using AI, it's marking up where the window wall is installed. And then, it's taking those markups, and it's putting them on an elevation view that we've uploaded.

So we upload the PDFs. We upload the drone data. And the instruction site uses its AI to detect and identify window walls and marks up that information for progress tracking. Right? So you can see here, 7% of the window wall is installed. And you can see the square footage is.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

[LAUGHTER]

KEVIN JOHNSON: Thank you, Bill.

So my last slide here is a view validation exercise. So this was taken by flying the drone up to 180 feet, which is the height of the penthouse, and then taking a view at the sunset. And then what I did was I opened Revit, and I used the endscape rendering engine to basically pick up the window wall and the slab there. And then I just used Photoshop to combine the two of them.

And this is really valuable, especially for clients like Disney and Universal that build hotels in Orlando or JW Marriott. You know, what does that view actually look like? Well, we don't need to build a tower, and then run up to the tower, and see what it looks like. We can just fly a drone up to that height, up to that coordinate or location, take that photo, overlay it with our model data, and give them a pretty accurate understanding of what that site looks like from that height. So this is big for pursuits and for the clients that we have in Orlando. So with that, we're at just about 45 minutes. So we'd like to open it up to questions. So.

MATTHEW DODGE: Yeah?

AUDIENCE: So you when you have your GCPs, all of those seem to be ground-based. Are you putting any GCPs up on the decks as you go?

KEVIN JOHNSON: So we're not putting them on the decks. We could. But additionally, if you want to tighten up that elevated deck scan, you would go back to your area scan that has all the GCPs. You would merge the two. You'd wait for that to process, and then you'd go back and hit the GCPs. And that'll help tighten it up. But having them on the slab would actually tighten things up even more. And to go to that point, where are we at with accuracy and tolerances relative to the actual site?