Dive Brief:

• Aerial reality capture firm DroneDeploy announced the acquisition of StructionSite, a reality capture provider that maps out construction projects from ground level.  
• The acquisition will enable customers in the construction industry to deploy aerial drones, ground robots and handheld 360-degree cameras to document their sites at all levels through one unified platform, according to the release.
• DroneDeploy customers have used its technology to capture data from more than 300 million acres and 1.7 million sites via 7.9 million flights since the company's launch in 2016, the company said.  

Dive Insight:

DroneDeploy, which has over 500 builder customers in over 190 countries, has a history of expanding via acquisitions. Last year, the company bought Rocos, a New Zealand robotics software startup, to extend its reality capture capabilities to autonomous mobile ground robots.

The StructionSite deal adds to DroneDeploy's ground level mapping capabilities by folding both aerial and ground-based captures onto a single platform. 

“Companies across industries have been asking for a unified view of their sites: a single platform to document, inspect and measure the exterior and interior of their assets and infrastructure,” said Mike Winn, CEO and co-founder of DroneDeploy. “We're excited to deliver on this, combining DroneDeploy’s leadership in aerial reality capture with StructionSite's leadership in ground reality capture to enable full reality capture."

DroneDeploy claims the combination will result in 40% of the top 400 general contractors having ground to air and interior and exterior capture capability. 

The deal is expected to close later this month. 

Additional partnership

DroneDeploy is also announced an integration with Avvir, a reality capture firm which was recently acquired by Hexagon AB and folded into the firm's geosystems division. 

The combination will allow users to upload their photos from DroneDeploy directly into Avvir software, eliminating the need for customers to duplicate their work, according to the release.

Contractors can use images captured from the ground to accurately detect changes from one 360 walkthrough capture to another, while comparing those changes to a project's schedule and BIM model against its expected completion phase.  

Avvir has helped contractors on complicated projects through its virtual reality capabilities. It counts AECOM, DPR and Skanska among its customer base.