AI inside and Kajima Corporation Develops “AI and Drone-Based Materials and Equipment Management System”

To Contribute to Digital Twinning of Construction Sites Utilizing “AnyData”

Tokyo, July 19, 2023 –  AI inside Inc., a provider of an AI platform, announces the development of an “AI and drone-based materials and equipment management system” utilizing AI inside’s multimodal AI integration platform “AnyData” in collaboration with Kajima Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Kajima”). It enables material and equipment management tasks that were previously performed by human patrol and visual inspection to be performed on the digital twin, thereby improving the safety and work efficiency of on-site personnel.

This system has been selected by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (hereinafter referred to as “MLIT”) in fiscal 2022 for the “Public/Private R&D Investment Strategic Expansion PrograM (PRISM).” It has already been introduced at Kajima’s construction site with the effectiveness in reducing the work time of on-site personnel by approximately 75%. AI inside will contribute to the DX of construction sites by supporting the advancement of this system and its conversion to other sites, with plans for company-wide expansion at Kajima.

Background

At construction sites, many materials and equipment are handled in the construction process, and they have been traditionally managed visually and manually by on-site personnel. The work has not only been time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it has also posed safety issues in that the personnel must enter high and narrow areas. In addition, most of the materials and equipment used on-site are rented, and there is a concern about the risk to worker safety in the unlikely event that expired materials and equipment are used. Poor management may result in duplicate materials and equipment rentals, thereby incurring extra costs. Therefore, it is one of the most important priorities at construction sites to correctly understand the status of materials and equipment, such as “where, what, and how many units are present”; advanced management methods are required to improve safety and work efficiency.

Initiatives

AI inside and Kajima developed an “AI and drone-based materials and equipment management system” to improve on-site personnel’s safety and work efficiency by solving the challenges of managing materials and equipment at construction sites. Management of materials and equiptment at construction sites will become advanced by combining drones, which can travel faster than humans, with image recognition AI. 

AI inside utilized the originally developed multimodal AI integration platform “AnyData” in building this system. Based on images of the construction site taken from the air by a drone, “AnyData” generates an AI model identifying the names and locations of materials and equipment scattered around the area and links the model with Kajima’s 3D model of the site. Materials and equipment can then be automatically detected from the drone’s aerial images, with their names and locations displayed and managed on the 3D model. Human patrols and visual searches for materials and equipment will be unnecessary, leading to improved safety and work efficiency for on-site personnel.

This system has been selected by MLIT in fiscal 2022 for the “Public/Private R&D Investment Strategic Expansion PrograM (PRISM).” It has already been introduced at Kajima’s construction site at Ohkozu Diversion Channel for the first phase of the new second-bed solid conversion project. The realization of digital-twinning the management work for materials and equipment has reduced the work time of on-site personnel by approximately 75%.

Looking Ahead

AI inside and Kajima will continue working together for a more advanced and comprehensive “digital twin of things at construction sites” through the advancement of AI models, including the expansion of materials and equipment that can be detected and improvement of detection accuracy, and the addition of functionalities to the materials and equipment database to improve searchability in the on-site 3D model. AI inside will contribute to improving the productivity at construction sites by supporting the advancement of the system and its conversion to other sites, with plans for company-wide expansion at Kajima.

AI inside will bring DX to construction sites and create new value through data, leveraging the know-how on data utilization at construction sites accumulated through these efforts. We will also contribute to the promotion of “i-Construction,” an initiative by MLIT to improve the productivity of the entire construction production system and make the construction sites more competitive through ICT. Our goal is to accelerate the social implementation of AI and realize a society where AI is democratized, and anyone can benefit from it without being aware of it.

References

“Public/Private R&D Investment Strategic Expansion PrograM”

MLIT has set a goal of increasing productivity at construction sites by 20% by the fiscal year 2025 and is implementing “i-Construction,” intending to utilize ICT in all construction production processes. For this purpose, MLIT aims to dramatically improve productivity at construction sites by bringing together knowledge from different fields, acquiring digital data in real-time, and introducing innovative technologies such as AI and IoT using this data at construction sites in public engineering works.

About “AnyData”

“AnyData” is a multimodal AI integration platform that includes all the basic functionalities required for the development and implementation of AI; the data, learning, and operation foundations. It generates high-value-added AI solutions contributing to customers’ business issues by combining AI inside technologies and multimodal data processing in various formats, including numerical, images, and text.

Details on “AnyData”: https://any-data.inside.ai/ (Japanese only)

About AI inside Inc.

AI inside is a tech company that conducts R&D and social implementation of cutting-edge technologies, such as generative AI, LLM, and autonomous AI. We provide multimodal AI solutions and professional services that facilitate data-driven business transformation to a wide range of government agencies, local governments, and private companies. We will create a prosperous society where we can all benefit from AI without being aware of it by leveraging our unique AI integration platform to promote business use of AI to provide comprehensive support for DX in all types of companies and organizations.

Company Name: AI inside Inc.
Location: 4th Floor, 3-8-12 Shibuya Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, Japan
Representative: Representative Director, President & CEO Taku Toguchi
Founded: August 2015
Business details: Development and provision of artificial intelligence and related information services
Website: https://inside.ai/en/

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