• Posted: March 15, 2023
• Building Point Midwest, Burcin Kaplanoglu, drone technology, Elbert Walters III, John Stepanian, John Weir, Kelso-Burnett, Maron Electric, Nick Dionne, Oracle Industry Lab, The Power of Better

Episode 4 of The Power of Better series brings viewers to Oracle Industry Lab in Deerfield, IL for a look at how drone technologies are changing the electrical construction industry and to a construction site to show how advanced robotics are helping contractors to maximize efficiency and to control costs.

How drone technology is increasing profitability in construction

In the first episode segment, to learn more about ways that drone technology is being used to improve the industry, the Executive Director of Powering Chicago and host of The Power of Better, Elbert Walters III visits the Oracle Industry Lab in Deerfield, IL. There, Walters met with the Vice President of Innovation at Oracle Industry Labs, Burcin Kaplanoglu.

Kaplanoglu introduced Walters to the new technologies and discussed ways they can be used to improve jobsite safety, collect data more effectively, check the health of an electrical system and more.

“I always joke that it’s like a virtual superintendent. Because when you have cameras on a flying object, you can actually see a lot of things,” said Kaplanoglu.

The Power of Better team then links up with John Weir, Vice President at Kelso-Burnett, to show how Weir’s team uses drones to survey a rooftop for a photovoltaic (PV), or solar, installation.

“We can fly the drone around the building and through artificial intelligence (AI), create a 3D model, we can do shading analysis,” said Weir. “They can get a really good visual of what those panels will look like on their house.”

How robotics are improving safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness

In the second segment, Walters visits a South Loop high rise building that’s using robotic dogs and Robotic Total Stations (RTS) to build-out a raw space.

“Robotic Total Stations are replacing the traditional method of doing your layout,” said Nick Dionne, Building Point Midwest. “So as opposed to reading your blueprint and measuring with a tape measure, you can upload your 2D or 3D drawing into the Trimble tablet and the prism on the tablet communicates with the robot so it knows where you are on the jobsite.”

Building Point Midwest is the local dealer for Trimble Robotic Technology, the innovators of RTS and Spot, the robotic dog.

“Spot’s going to be able to gather information from whatever it can see from each location that it stops at. At the end of the night you can have Spot send that 3D data to the cloud,” said Dionne. “The next day, a guy in the office grabs his coffee and turns on his computer and has all that data at his fingertips.”

Chicagoland electrical contractors like Maron Electric have been all-in on these technologies since 2018. Maron Electric journeyman electrician John Stepanian, says that the cost effectiveness speaks for itself.

“You have less people laying out the actual job and they can be installing, versus it used to be multiple people laying out and everyone’s waiting on the layout to be done, now it can be done simultaneously,” said Stepanian.

While those are two strong arguments for robotic technology, Stepanian says the ability to anticipate a problem before it’s built makes this technology even more vital.

The episode features insights from the following industry professionals:

• Burcin Kaplanoglu, Vice President of Innovation at Oracle Industry Labs
• John Weir, Vice President at Kelso-Burnett
• Nick Dionne, Field Technology Account Executive at Building Point Midwest
• John Stepanian, Journeyman Electrician at Maron Electric

If you are looking to streamline your next project or development, this episode is a must-watch. Subscribe to Powering Chicago’s YouTube channel to make sure you’re notified every time a new episode drops this year.