Caterpillar Ventures has invested in Airware, which develops systems that use drones to gather information for business use. Airwave says that the investment will allow it to accelerate programmes that enable dealers to offer solutions and services within the construction, mining, and quarrying industries.
“This investment is a continuation of Caterpillar’s commitment to help our customers be more productive and make improved business decisions,” said George Taylor, Caterpillar chief marketing officer and vice president of the marketing and digital division. “In collaboration with Airware, we are better positioned to offer drone services through industry-leading technology that helps digitise and optimise operations.”
Caterpillar dealers will be able to offer their customers drone services and analytics, including a core set of photogrammetry, mapping, and volumetrics tools, and a suite of analysis and reporting modules. Caterpillar dealer Bergerat Monnoyeur to be among the first dealers.
Bergerat Monnoyeur’s Greg Arranz said: “We are committed to bringing cutting-edge technology and world-class services to our customers. Airware is an established leader in putting drones to work for mining, construction, and quarrying. They understand the needs of our customers, what it takes to scale operations, and the importance of offering industry-specific analytics to drive better decision making. We’re proud to bring Airware to our customers.”
In September 2016, Airware acquired drone analytics specialist Redbird to bring to market a system that is used to monitor day-to-day progress of sites.
“Commercial drone technology is becoming a necessity for construction, mining and quarrying organizations looking to increase overall productivity while cutting costs,” said Jonathan Downey, founder and CEO of Airware. “Airware provides customers the combined power of an enterprise-focused workflow and industry-specific data analytics with the compliance and security features needed to scale drone operations.”
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