ACEVentures: Innovation in Action at Oracle's Innovation Lab

    As a part of the ACE mentorship program, I got to attend an interactive webinar hosted by Oracle's Dr. Burcin Kaplanoglu, Eilish Nolan, and Hilary Emmett, discussing emerging technologies in construction at the Oracle Innovation Lab site in Deerfield, Illinois. Different technologies that Oracle provides for construction sites including helpful robots, and a detailed and accurate virtual site map. These new innovations are reducing the need for the site to be managed in person, which the need for has been amplified by the global pandemic, where employees are working remotely. Moreover, this is the future of construction, as these new technologies are performing tasks that are repetitive or even unsafe for a person. 
    In my opinion the most striking (and coolest) technology displayed was a robot named "Spot" created by Faro and Boston Dynamics. The robot was deployed to provide detailed scans of the Innovation Lab site. It's scans are more accurate and detailed than ones taken by people, for example, a minor measurement error is nearly impossible to catch in a human scan, whereas according to Dr. Kaplanoglu, "Spot" was able to catch an error of 1mm at the site! Navigating a construction site a few times a day is a repetitive and possibly dangerous task for a person to complete. Overall, "Spot" the robot completes and takes the possible safety risk out of the repetitive this repetitive task in a quicker and more efficient way. The downside to utilizing this robot technology is the cost; one robot like "Spot" costs around $100,000! I asked a question about how many of these expensive robots are actually working at various construction sites. Ms. Nolan explained that they are not very widespread yet, and that it had taken over 10 years for the robot to be designed and developed, but that in the next few years, the price is expected to go down as they become more available, just as it did with smartphones.

Credit: https://www.oracle.com/news/connect/innovation-lab-showcases-the-construction-industrys-tech-future.html  
 
     The scans produced by the robot are transferred to an amazing program called Oracle Aconex. With the scans, an extremely detailed 3D map of the site is generated. My jaw dropped when I saw what can be done with this program, such as taking exact measurements of anything on site and viewing any area of the site from any angle. A vast array of possibilities comes with using this technology, such as site managers like Ms. Nolan and Ms. Emmett, and directors like Dr. Kaplanoglu being able to observe the site without actually traveling to it, and well as the site being remotely inspected for safety.

                         Credit:https://blogs.oracle.com/construction-engineering/enabling-social-distancing-and-remote-project-management-on-construction-sites

    Overall, before attending this webinar, I was not aware of the new innovations in construction and how they are changing the entire field of construction, as well as adapting to recent challenges, and I really enjoyed learning about them! I find it super exciting that in my lifetime, I'll probably get to see robots like "Spot" stomping around construction sites performing important tasks, and people being able to connect and manage sites from different areas of the world!

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