An Israeli startup has partnered with Shapir-Ashtrom to survey the construction of Haifa’s new $1 billion seaport, Gulf Port, intended to further develop Israel’s coastline areas and increase maritime traffic and international commerce.
With this collaboration, Airobotics, which claims to have built the world’s first fully automated drone, is implementing the first technology of its kind for industrial spaces and is working closely with Israel’s top construction and civil engineering companies, Shapir Civil and Marine Engineering Ltd., and Ashtrom Properties Ltd., which created a joint venture Shapir-Ashtrom specifically for this new Haifa seaport initiative, valued at 4 billion Israeli Shekels (approximately $1 billion).
Shapir-Ashtrom, along with The Israel Ports Company, are building the Gulf Port, including the construction of breakwaters and piers, as well as dredging and reclamation. The port will be 810 acres and be able to contain 1.1 million containers per year.
Airobotics has applied its drone missions to assist in surveying reclamation areas, monitoring breakwater construction and stockpile measurements, which increases construction accuracy and accessibility, while reducing production costs and adhering to project timelines.
“We’re proud to take part in the largest port construction project in Israel, and continue to reach more complex industrial environments,” said Ran Krauss, CEO and Co-Founder at Airobotics. “This partnership is another step on our way to leverage the automation technology we’ve created to benefit any industrial site around the world.”
Airobotics’ automated drones have been used for the past eight months for surveying the construction progress, and surveying the area daily. The seaport’s project introduces smart planning, characterized by safely documenting and evaluating project development, providing engineers, and contractors with an accurate depiction of project development, and timeline expectations. Within eight hours of drone mission completion, Airobotics delivers orthophotos to the customer, on a daily basis. Airobotics produces high resolution aerial visuals from data that’s automatically collected, and measured using hundreds of thousands of surface points to create an accurate visual model, instead of traditional humanly operated surveying techniques that measure only hundreds of points.
Since Airobotics’ automated drones do not require human pilots for operation, users are given accurate and rapid results, which streamline workflows, eliminate logistical overhead, increase response times and data acquisition pace. Airobotics’ full automation overcomes limitations posed by manually operated drones, by having the capability to fly at high altitudes, without maintaining a line of sight, and interfering with construction infrastructure, including cranes and large equipment. Furthermore, Airobotics’ drones can efficiently, and accurately survey large areas, of up to 5 km radius around the Airbase docking station, in short mission times of under 45 minutes, which is not possible through ground based surveying. Additionally, the company’s automated drones can plan survey routes in advance.
“Drones are the future. Utilizing Airobotics’ automated drones in this project proved to be an efficient choice, and I’m certain that this valuable tool is innovating the way we operate in construction sites,” said Ofir Uzana, Senior Project Manager at Shapir Civil and Marine Engineering. “We managed to build a very reliable working mechanism using Airobotics’ system, that shows results in almost real time, which is a huge achievement.”
