Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF), a leader in smart following technology and subsidiary of the Piaggio Group, and Trimble have unveiled a proof-of-concept collaboration to enable robots and machines to follow humans and other machines in industrial applications. It integrates a PFFtag smart following module prototype and Boston Dynamics Spot robot platform controlled by Trimble advanced positioning technology, superseding a joystick. The proof-of-concept is one of the many robots and autonomous vehicles Trimble provides solutions for and could apply to many industries the company serves, including construction and mining. Through extensive research and observations of how people navigate the physical world, on the other hand, PFF continues to create innovative mobile technology solutions dedicated to improving human efficiency through intuitive collaboration with machines. "Most robotics companies look at the world as one of obstacles," says PFF CEO Greg Lynn.

When it comes to the construction industry machine learning means many things. However, at its core, it all comes back to one thing: data. The more data that is produced through telematics, the more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) becomes, due to it having more data to learn from. The more complex the data the better for AI, and as AI becomes more advanced its decision-making improves. This means that construction is becoming more efficient thanks to a loop where data and AI are feeding into each other.

Information technology has enabled the upheaval of longstanding business models, whether in the globalization of product supply chains, the outsourcing of manufacturing, delivery and support processes or the use of efficient, just-in-time manufacturing. While the changes have many benefits, they have also served to make the product development process more complicated, with one notable exception: the supply chain simplification from disintermediation. Disintermediation, namely the elimination of middlemen, took off with online commerce, but the notion of more directly connecting customers and suppliers has started to seep into almost every business sector. While disintermediation has historically involved streamlining a linear supply chain, the next stage in business evolution entails creating bidirectional connections between various stakeholders in the product development, delivery and purchase process. That's the thesis of Hortonworks' CEO Rob Bearden who characterizes the evolution of linear supply chains that follow a set of procedural processes into a mesh of connected communities comprised of customers, suppliers, producers, manufacturers and service providers as Hyperbolic?

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.

SenseFly collaborated with Trimble to integrate the drone solutions and make the work easier and efficient. SenseFly is a producer of professional drone solution and recently launched eMotion 3.5 software. "Making work easier and more efficient for geospatial professionals is the goal that drives every solution we develop," says Jean-Christophe Zufferey, Co-founder and CEO of SenseFly. They also stated that they are excited for the collaboration with Trimble for the solution integration. "Enhancements such as new eMotion-to-Trimble Business Centre workflow do exactly that, ensuring that the transition from data collection to acting upon this data is as seamless as possible," stated SenseFly.

Why are so many farm equipment manufacturers so heavily involved in the ag industry yet things are going so slowly in relation to robotics? Perhaps farmers need to first incorporate the digital era -- and the concepts and practices of precision agriculture -- before taking the next step toward the use of robots. Two traditional qualifiers for farmers buying new equipment are flexibility and return on investment. Precision agriculture isn't just rhetoric; it's real-time intelligence flowing into analytics software that transforms that flow into meaningful, practical information that farm managers can react to quickly. That data -- and that process -- have costs and, for the last few years, farmers have been stretched because commodity prices are down.