Dive Brief:
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Joseph Louis, a recent graduate of Purdue University’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering has taken his doctoral research into the market, co-founding SAMCRO Technologies (Simulation Analysis Monitoring and ContRol of Operations), according to Construction Equipment. The company investigates the use of existing construction-related sensor technology to power a business intelligence platform.
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The system intends to leverage internet-networked equipment to collect real-time telematics and usage data for optimizing on-site operations to better manage timelines and reduce costs.
- SAMCRO has received assistance from the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization and the Purdue Foundry, an accelerator for entrepreneurs with ties to the university.
Dive Insight:
Heavy equipment manufacturers have been promoting telematics for several years as a better way to assess the operational status of machinery on the job site. Three years ago, major OEMs even agreed to standardize models for data transmission and third-party storage based on the findings of a joint Association of Equipment Manufacturers and Association of Equipment Management Professionals task force.
While SAMCRO project takes telematics and other job site sensor data further by incorporating it into a real-time platform, the researchers make an optimistic — though not necessarily unlikely — assumption that their system will have access to sensor data streams. Data ownership device access and privacy remains a hot-button issue in the Internet of Things arena, even in the consumer electronics sector where IoT products are proliferating.
As entrepreneurial groups like SAMCRO push the boundaries of full IoT integration for job site software, the ultimate development may lie in hardware. Construction companies like Mortenson anticipate the use of augmented reality to emerge as the primary job site reporting, operational and process improvement technology within the next five years.
