Esri India, the country's Geographic Information System (GIS) software and solutions provider, has introduced Site Scan for ArcGIS, a complete cloud-based drone mapping solution. The solution encompasses flight planning, data capture, data processing, analysis, data sharing and drone fleet management. It is offered as'Software as a Service' (SaaS) with unlimited storage and computing. Site Scan for ArcGIS is hosted in India, on a cloud approved by the Government of India and ensures that the drone data is stored and processed within India in compliance with the government regulations. Site Scan for ArcGIS exhibits the capability to process data captured by most of the drones manufactured in India or abroad.

A drone software platform for construction and engineering professionals, and makers of Site Scan, the 3DR has released 3DR GCP, an Android app to capture and use ground control points on commercial drone projects, enabled by the Trimble Catalyst on-demand global navigation satellite system service. Instead of exporting GCP data files and manually uploading them into Site Scan, the 3DR customers can take the help of 3DR GCP and automatically transfer the data for georefrencing and processing. "3DR GCP provides our customers an end-to-end, cloud based ground control point workflow from the field to the office," says Chris Anderson, CEO of 3DR. "Trimble is excited for 3DR to join our ecosystem with the launch of 3DR GCP," says Gareth Gibson, business development manager for Trimble Catalyst.

Drones and airports usually go together like oil and water, but you can't say that about Atlanta's air hub. The city has formed a partnership with 3DR, Autodesk and engineering firm Atkins that has drones mapping Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as part of a planned expansion. The key to making it work was Site Scan, 3DR's autonomous data capturing tech. The drones could capture 2D mosaics and 3D point scans while staying well away from the airliners -- no mean feat when they're flying between runways at the busiest airport in the world (over 100 million passengers per year). If anything, the biggest challenge was getting the green light from extra-wary FAA regulators.