No Re/Cappers, maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
But you sure can teach a new dog old, old, oooold ones; just take modern racing and the 5-millennia-old discipline of metrology.
Today’s lead ‘Cap profiles a racing team that calls on metrology, 3D scans, and CMMs like Daytona 500 attendees call on SPF50. And while the race crew’s news is new news, metrology for the track – and most prominently Formula One – actually precedes the entire founding of McLaren by nearly two decades!
As in 1946, when the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) first established standardized regulations, necessitating precise measurement of vehicle dimensions and specs. 1950 saw the inaugural Formula One World Championship, and with it, strict guidelines on car dimensions and weight, expanding metrology’s duty in compliance and performance.
The ‘60s were the starting gun for CMMs (coordinate measuring machines), which did for metrology what championship celebrations did for champagne advertising. With the portable CMM of the 1980s, adherence to regulation became matched by obsession over aerodynamics whether in preparation, or in the very pit on race day. The sport was permanently altered, with NASCAR taking particular liking to CMMs.
A new millennium brought a new company to F1 – Red Bull, whose formula included new measurement toys of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, refining everything from lap time to shipping savings. CEO Norbert Hanke even called Red Bull his “most demanding client because of its need for speed.” Not that it was a deterrent; the partnership stands strong to this day.
In 2012, the then “New York Yankees of motorsports,” Penske Racing, signed a multi-year partnership with Nikon Metrology. And it was simply off to the races at that point, with sensors & simulations, laser scanning, AI, 3D printing, and other technologies turning racing into the paragon of competitive innovation.
In fact, the reality capture recently became so good, teams realized they’d been afforded a luxury – driver comfort.
What’s Cappenin’ This Week
Quick ‘Caps
Given its torrent of wins across diverse events from the Rolex 24 at Daytona, to the 10-hour Petit Le Mans, Wayne Taylor Racing has been entrenched as a racing force for over a decade.
But now, WTR is garnering recognition not just for what it’s doing, but how; metrology and 3D scanning, catalyzing superior design, aerodynamics, and handling of its supercars.
Creaform 3D scanners have secured pole position for the WTR crew, with a primary CMM use of measuring cars’ surfaces and assembly to ascertain the wear suffered during a race. That’s after enhancing driver comfort by minimizing jolts and vibrations thanks to a new, scanning-spurred design.
Those are just the first gear of WTR’s innovation fascination; Quality Digest hosted Creaform’s report on integrated software, the MetraSCAN portable CMM, ergonomic design, cutting outsourcing costs, simulations and modeling, skid measurement, and regulatory compliance. Take its pit stop below.
If you’re 5G, you sorta owe AI/LLMs royalties.
Think about it. 5G’s widespread disappointment would have almost certainly populated more headlines, had ChatGPT not burst on the scene like an Earth-sized Kool-Aid Man. While 5G initially promised speed, fidelity, and latency upgrades, its reliability only proved optimal in trial settings; as public spaces became crowded with devices and faced interference – not to mention increasing geopolitical/adversarial/hoodied hacker tensions – the priority shifted from maintaining perfect connections to ensuring networks could recover from disruptions ASAP.
For most of us, those wireless disruptions might mean some wasted seconds mid-phone call. But for the requisite wireless in drone fleets? Autonomous municipal buses? Industrial robot crews? That could spell disaster.
So the National Science Foundation is funding its hopeful prevention, eyeing AI and digital twins
The recipients and executors are a co-op of researchers from Virginia Tech University, and the Institute of Science, Tokyo. In hot pursuit of their self-coined “internet of federated twins,” they’re currently focused on autonomous cars, but have prosperous visions of multi-industry applications.
Virginia Tech’s six-minute read below elaborates on these, but not before touching on communication networks, NextG, latency, edge computing, industrial investment, and data processing & management.
Coral reefs comprise less than 1% of the ocean floor. But they’re 100% vital, as a billion people and a quarter of all marine life rely on them for survival.
They’re also, like, 90% in trouble, experiencing more bleach than a rugby team’s laundry day. But the problem isn’t so much what to do for the reefs; it’s scaling it.
That’s where Seatrees, Samsung, and researchers from the University of California San Diego come in.
This sea trio triumph leverages photogrammetry and a Samsung-specific app to streamline evaluation of underwater imagery, as coral bleaching continues its rampage. The subsequent efficiency – and scalability – are simply without precedent for coral restoration researchers.
The accessible photogrammetry tools have already empowered communities in Fiji, Indonesia, and Florida to monitor coral growth, track restoration progress, and document the long-term impact of their efforts. It’s a joyous leap forward in marine conservation technology, which Deeper Blue covers below, off of Seatrees’ press release here.
It’s 19 degrees. Backcountry. You’re unsure whether hunger or thirst is more prominent. Depending on how many hours or days you’re into the hunt, maybe you’re frustrated. Lips hallucinate chapstick, fingers for feeling.
Then, you spot the perfect one, perfectly placed at the perfect distance at the perfect lack of wind. You succeed.
Except, the hard work may well have just begun. Because recovery can often be the most mystifying – if not disheartening – part of hunting.
Just not if you consult thermal drones, and one Virginia company that’s seeing dozens of calls – on single opening days – from hunters requesting services.
That’s the skyrocketing of Captured Media and its founder Justin Updyke, who just penned a guest editorial on North American Whitetail. In addition to ensuring expired deer become recovered ones for hunters, thermal drones are enhancing offseason herd analysis for varied parties with varied goals.
Hike into the full article below, where the Chief Drone Operator himself outlines local regulatory interactions, daytime vs. nighttime and dry vs. wet, equipment, deer bedding data, human presumption, and the education obstacle. Note: non-graphic images of expired deer.
TECH HEATS UP, FAILURES COOL DOWN
It’s a frosty January 10 afternoon in 1860, and 800 souls are toiling away in the Pemberton Mill of Lawrence, Massachusetts. The air thrums with the rhythmic clatter of machinery, the floors vibrate beneath their feet – business as usual in this five-story monument to industrial progress.
But at 4:30 PM, the usual becomes the unthinkable; a concerning rumble, a shift of the building, an explosion of bricks, and in mere seconds, the crumpling of the colossal structure. A 50-foot high pyramid of twisted metal lay in the wake, with a 165-year-old lesson in neglect still reverberating.
Because Pemberton Mill was no accident; it was a culmination of corner-cutting, greed, and willful ignorance that every stakeholder should heed. Specifically:
Subpar Materials: The building’s bones were rotten from the start, with faulty iron pillars and mortar that wouldn’t inspire confidence on sandcastle duty, let alone a five-story mill.
Rushed Construction: Because who needs time when there’s money to be made? The builders slapped this death trap together faster than you can say “textile” at 2X speed.
Mindless Overloading: The owners decided to cram in heavy machinery, leaving the weight inside the mill to far exceed its design capacity.
The result? 145 lives lost, and hundreds more injured in what remains the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history. And as if the collapse wasn’t horrific enough, a fire broke out during rescue efforts, rendering the ruins a literal hell on earth.
Almost just as troubling, despite the fatal outcome and magnitude of recklessness, not a single person faced legal consequences.
In AEC, the intersection of human ingenuity and ethical responsibility is profound. Every structure we create stands as a testament to our values, reflecting not only our desire for progress but also our commitment to safeguarding lives. When we overlook the importance of safety in pursuit of profit, we risk not just buildings, but the very foundations of trust and community.
Reality capture and adjacent innovations help, us, not, do, that.
Modern reality capture technologies, along with robotics, digital twins, drones, AI, and Building Information Modeling (BIM), could have played a crucial role in preventing this tragedy – and therefore, myriad tragedies that right now, share the very warning signs that inhabited Pemberton Mill in the years leading up to 1860.
Photogrammetry and aerial/terrestrial LiDAR could have created detailed digital models of the building, allowing the identification of structural weaknesses and deformations over time. Advanced simulation software, combined with accurate 3D models within a BIM environment, could have assessed the impact of machinery placement and weight distribution throughout the structure, preventing dangerous overloading.
Non-destructive testing methods, such as ground-penetrating radar, could have evaluated the quality of mortar and other building materials without compromising the structure, identifying substandard materials before they were used. Integrated sensor systems and robotic inspection, feeding into a digital twin, could have provided continuous data on the building’s movement and stress points, alerting managers to potential issues before they became critical. By creating a digital twin of the mill, engineers could have simulated various scenarios and predicted potential failure points, allowing for targeted maintenance and reinforcement.
So, what’s the takeaway from this 19th-century horror show? Perhaps it’s that when it comes to construction, cutting corners doesn’t just cut costs – it cuts lives. And in the grand ledger of history, no profit margin is worth the price paid at Pemberton Mill.
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