Exyn Technologies Partners with Construction Leader Obayashi
by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M Crosby
Today, multi-platform autonomous AI pioneer Exyn Technologies announced a partnership with Japanese construction leader Obayashi, known for such projects as Tokyo’s Skytree and Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport. This new partnership is the most recent instance of a large company selecting Exyn’s technology for drones in construction after experiencing it firsthand.
Following a round of thorough testing conducted at its Silicon Valley Venture Lab in the US, Obayashi purchased Exyn’s autonomous aerial drone based on Ascent Aerospace’s Spirit platform. With comparable flight times to the ExynAero, the compact size of the Ascent platform’s fully modular, plug-and-play payload design grants it access to smaller spaces.
Obayashi also purchased the ExynPAK portable 3D mapping solution, enabling the company to reliably update their Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools. Boasting survey-grade accuracy and real-time point cloud colorization, the ExynPAK’s durable design allows for it to be mounted on a vehicle, and its small size makes it manageable enough to transport by hand.
Exyn’s Autonomy Level 4-equipped robots are able to be deployed on exploration missions, requiring the operator to only define a volume of interest and press play. The drone then generates a map in real-time, guaranteeing full coverage and post-processing the data into BIM software following the drone’s landing.
“Our expansion into the construction vertical with a world-class company like Obayashi is further validation of the robustness of our autonomy and high-fidelity data capture to perform in almost any environment we throw at it,” said Exyn Technologies CEO and Co-Founder Nader Elm. “We’re also thrilled to see the ExynAI-powered Ascent being put to good use in the field, along with the colorized ExynPak. With this toolkit, survey teams can map areas 20 to 30 times faster than traditional terrestrial based LIDAR scanners. This is already a game changer for the future of the construction industry.”
“What’s really beneficial for our industry is if we can capture the construction site using these autonomous technologies instead of walking. The main purpose of this collaboration with Exyn is to improve our productivity on the construction site,” said Obayashi Corporation AI Researcher Takuma Nakabayashi. “The technology was great … it was really easy to set the flight route and also we prepared some really difficult, narrow routes but the ExynAero achieved them all. We were really satisfied with your technology.”
Read more about Exyn, Ascent, and drones in construction:
Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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