Connecting Asset Owners and Drone Operators: Fireside Chat with ARPAS-UK

‍

David Thurston (ARPAS-UK): Hi everybody. I'm David Thurston, ARPAS-UK, and welcome to this fireside chat. I'm really pleased to welcome Mitch and Alana from Trendspek all the way from Australia, who we're very lucky to have join us to talk about their product. Mitch, if you'd like to give us a bit of background to your product, please.

Mitch Deam (Trendspek): No worries, Dave. Thanks for having us, and good day to our mates over there at ARPAS-UK. My name is Mitch Deam. I'm one of the co-founders and directors at Trendspek. We're a structural lifecycle management software that specialises in the operate and maintain phase of a physical asset's lifecycle.

What we do best is digitise workflows and become a digital system of record for any physical asset that exists. Our typical clients include energy, ports, infrastructure, universities, and critical assets such as bridges and warehouses, as well as working with engineering partners.

One of the critical components of Trendspek is the ultra-high-resolution 3D model that exists at the heart of the platform. That provides the fidelity for asset inspectors, engineers, and asset owners to understand the exact state of their physical asset, how they intend to inspect it, how they remediate it, and how they report against the resilience of that structure and the capital planning involved moving forward.

With me today is Alana Flack, our Head of Delivery and Services Manager, who engages with members from ARPAS-UK to capture that data for us. We use a range of different data ingestion techniques—be they drone or other forms of robotics—but typically that ultra-high-resolution model is first captured by a drone. That's where organisations like ARPAS-UK help us gain reach into the UK to establish that network and capture that data. Alana, if you could introduce yourself.

Alana Flack (Trendspek): Hey everyone, I'm Alana. As Mitch said, I coordinate captures for our clients. Generally, that is understanding the outcomes that a client is after. What is it in particular that they are looking at on their asset? Is it windows? Is it roofs? From there, I work with our capture providers to ensure that we are getting the correct data for our customers. Along the way, we can help provide capture assistance. If we have clients with in-house drone teams, we can create capture guides. We also have free resources that help with photogrammetry and best practice.

David Thurston: That's brilliant. Thank you both. Perhaps we can talk through what the workflow would be like from a drone operator's point of view?

Alana Flack: What we generally do is start the journey quite early. We always want to make sure that we have drone service providers available in areas where our clients are. The first steps would generally be an onboarding process with myself. I'd like to know a bit about your company and the equipment that you have. We need to ensure that the drones being used are RTK-based and are using the right megapixel cameras and a higher resolution.

From there, we generally go through a data set upload where I get to see where you're at as far as photogrammetry is concerned. I usually get feedback from our processing team as well just to see if there were any issues with the capture—maybe there wasn't enough overlap or enough transitional imagery between the roof and elevations, as we call them in the UK.

Generally, I will work alongside the drone service providers to ensure they're upskilled enough for what our clients need. From that point, we work closely together and any opportunities that arise we offer to our preferred capture provider network. We don't dictate pricing; it's generally connecting clients with people that we know are great at captures, can do the service, and speak the same language as we do. Once the data is collected, we go through a feedback loop at the end, giving any feedback from the client or from a processing point of view.

David Thurston: Would it be fair to say the reporting software is owned by the property or infrastructure manager, and then the drone operator feeds that information into the software?

Alana Flack: Correct. We do have drone service providers that come to us who have clients looking for a structural lifecycle management platform. Sometimes there are drone service providers looking for a solution for their clients, and we can help them through that journey as well.

David Thurston: ARPAS has membership in the end user and asset owner space as well as drone operators. What does the final output look like?

Alana Flack: It always goes down to what capture has happened. Generally, for anything that I am managing, we are looking for an inspection-grade model. We're looking at a resolution of a 1.5mm GSD. What you get is a beautiful model where you can measure cracks, see defects, bolts—you name it.

David Thurston: And then the asset owner can use that for directing remedial work or preemptive work. Is there anything else you wanted to say about Trendspek?

Alana Flack: I think Trendspek is a really great platform. I probably say that because I'm biased, but from the feedback we've had, even from a drone service provider point of view, they see the platform and realise it solves a lot of problems their clients have.

Mitch Deam: We work specifically with ARPAS members to help expand our network. We contract to them to conduct those ultra-high-resolution inspections that our clients need. It's not so much selling software to drone organisations; it's working with them to help enable our clients and their clients as well. We typically work with our drone partners to work into these large enterprise organisations rather than sell directly to them.

David Thurston: I think that's the advantage you offer to drone operators—the ability to work with them to talk to asset owners about using Trendspek.

Mitch Deam: Absolutely. They are a key enabler, just like an engineering firm. We engage engineering firms to conduct the inspection phase or the remediation phase of the asset management lifecycle equally. We can work together on a joint sales proposition. It really just depends on the client that we're mutually servicing.

David Thurston: If anybody's interested in talking to you, how do they get in contact?

Mitch Deam: The best place to start is via our website. We're prolific on social media and LinkedIn. We're also members at ARPAS-UK, so our details are available through the internal networking website. When it comes to our capture partners, you'll immediately be linked up with Alana, and she'll put you through her thorough vetting process before you're allowed on-site with our clients.

David Thurston: Mitch, Alana, thank you very much. It's been very interesting. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Mitch Deam: Thanks for having us.

Alana Flack: Thank you.

‍