Courtesy Trimble Navigation Limited Trimble is one of four companies that got an FAA permit to fly unmanned aircraft for commercial purposes. Pictured here is the firm's fixed-wing UX5. Courtesy Trimble Navigation Limited Trimble's UX5 launcher. The Federal Aviation Administration on Dec. 10 issued five permits to four companies to fly unmanned aircraft for commecial purposes. It remains unclear how the permits might branch out.“It’s available to us to be subcontractors with this, but our distribution channel is our strength,” says Todd Steiner, marketing director of geospatial imaging solutions at Trimble, which is the first fixed-wing manufacturer to get issued

Photos Courtesy of Eric Reslock An OSHPD senior structural engineer demonstrates real-time virtual plan review. Photos Courtesy of Klas Berghede HerreroBOLDT conducts a coordination session. California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is piloting real-time electronic plan review and submittal for two San Francisco hospital projects, which have a combined price tag of $2.7 billion and are scheduled for completion in 2018.Sutter Health, the owner, asked "us to pilot some tech they had, and it was new to us, so we jumped on it," says Eric Reslock, OSHPD's assistant director for legislative and public affairs. "The idea is to

Aqua AMRSR-E, MetOp ASCAT A computer visualization of the monthly average soil moisture in Australia. Related Links: Surface Soil Moisture Data Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Data The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is scheduled to launch this January a new satellite to gather soil-moisture data to help predict floods and droughts.NASA’s soil-moisture active-passive (SMAP) satellite joins the recently launched Sentinel-1 satellite, which collects data for the European Space Agency’s soil-moisture and ocean-salinity (SMOS) mission. The SMOS project measures the level of water saturation in the top layers of soil and the concentration of salt in the surface layer of

Image Courtesy of UrbaWind Related Links: Energy Plus DataBase Free Envi-Met CFD Tool Acomputational-fluid-dynamics software update helps architects to avoid building designs that are too blustery for the comfort of pedestrians walking through urban areas."The main benefit of UrbaWind is the graphical display of results," says Shannon Testart, CAD technician for microclimate at Novus Environmental Inc., Ontario, Canada, who uses the software. "The graphics of wind comfort are an efficient way to display results and are easily understood by our clients."UrbaWind 2.2 by Meteodyn, Nantes, France, accounts for the angles of buildings, trees and other cityscape features to calculate pedestrian-level

The following projects all involve ideas that originally came from science-fiction tales. However, many of the projects remain within the realm of possibility and some are on their way to reality.

Photo by Kevin Marino/Balfour Beatty Keith Walsh, virtual-design construction intern at Balfour Beatty, helps fellow employee Daniel Shirkey, senior process manager for traffic planning and design, navigate virtual- jobsite software, called HazYard, which Walsh helped program. Shirkey wears an Oculus Rift headset he bought after attending the second AEC Hackathon in March. Related Links: Greg Howe's Take on AEC Hackathon 1.2 AEC Hackathon: an Industry First Sponsor prizes are beginning to ensure the usability and usefulness of software developed at the architecture, engineering and construction "AEC Hackathons" now popping up around the country and, soon, abroad.For the weekend charrette, team

Image Courtesy University of California Berkeley Seismological Laboratory UC Berkeley's early-warning system detects more benign fast-moving shock waves (yellow) in advance of slower vibrations, which cause more damage (red). Related Links: Northern California Earthquake Causes an Estimated $1 Billion in Damage Earthquake Warning System Makes Every Second Count An earthquake-detection system under development by the University of California's Berkeley Seismological Laboratory proved its mettle on Aug. 24 by issuing a warning 10 seconds before a magnitude-6 temblor struck south of Napa, Calif. The alert could have gone out 2.5 seconds sooner if the ShakeAlert system, based on Japan's primary-wave detection

Related Links: Construction Industry Drones Fly in Rules Vacuum Survey Technology Firms Deploy Their Own Drones Some Firms Are Not Waiting For Regulations On Commercial Drone Operations Construction companies are putting unmanned aerial vehicles to work overseas, or they are quietly conducting "hobby" trials domestically, at least until commercial use is legalized in the U.S.John Myers, senior virtual design and construction engineer at Gilbane Building Co., Providence, says "We're back to the Wild Wild West," and also likens the regulatory atmosphere to the "Prohitibion era."Since Myers can't fly legally for commercial purposes, he takes his drone up in a park

Related Links: Trimble Steps Into Facilities Management With Manhattan Software Acquisition Wireless Load Monitors Boost Crane Safety Trimble's construction technology vice president cites a growing crane market as a reason behind its Aug. 21 purchase of Load Systems International Inc., Quebec City, Canada, a crane-safety instrumentation firm."In a world that has experienced scores of major crane accidents in recent years and thousands of smaller incidents that hold up construction projects, LSI's crane-avoidance and load-management solutions certainly match Trimble's focus," says Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president of construction technology. Fosburgh would not comment on the cost of the acquisition.Fosburgh says that,