Infrastructure Inspection Made Easy through Trimble Access Integration with Infotech

We’ve all seen them, those surveyors working alongside large-scale infrastructure projects, diligently measuring and inspecting while we speed by going about our days. Maybe we have a vague idea of what they are doing, and perhaps we recognize the equipment being used, but do we think about their system of record and how easy it is to complete their job, field-to-finish? Perhaps you do, and if so, that’s exactly the path that our field software team and new integrators, Infotech, followed to uncover a workflow that could benefit from some collaboration.

The desire was simple: Make the infrastructure inspection process easier, using tools that inspectors and surveyors were already deploying in the field today. Ultimately, making inspection measurements more accurate would result in better assessment. And doing so on the same device as the daily work reporting tool would make for faster relay of information. This would also lead to more timely and reliable contractor payment. More inspections completed in a single day would mean that projects would have a better chance of finishing on time and on budget. But what connections needed to be made to connect all these dots?

For the vast majority of survey departments in both government and local public agencies, the collaboration points consisted of the following two solutions:

• Trimble Access General Survey, coupled with a TSC7 controller and GNSS receiver, and
• Mobile Inspector® mobile application paired with Appia construction management software service from Infotech.

There is no doubting the power of these two solutions, but with a couple tweaks they could really become a game-changer by evolving the way inspectors work from the field to the office and back again.

By streamlining the connection between data collected by Trimble GNSS rovers and simultaneously syncing Trimble Access, Infotech Mobile Inspector and Infotech Appia, inspectors can now complete their daily work reports more efficiently in the field for their quantity measurements. This would also reduce errors by removing manual processes. This integration was made possible through leveraging the Trimble Access SDK, which would enable the calculation and measurement capability already in existence, to pass between both mobile software packages on the same device - the TSC7 controller. Mobile Inspector then continues the workflow and applies the collected data to the standardized daily reporting processes required for the back office. In short, each application handles their own areas of expertise to execute a full field-to-finish workflow.

With the massive increase in funding for infrastructure in North America, the demand for renewal and maintenance is higher than ever, and the pressure to maximize field productivity by decreasing the number of steps, is a critical component of digital project delivery. We continue to see increasing pressure to execute projects faster, in more repeatable and reliable ways. This integration is just one piece of a broader goal to streamline the asset management lifecycle of digital as-built models for infrastructure projects. We look forward to keeping you updated with customer feedback as we proceed with more surveyors and inspectors using this solution in the 2022 summer construction season.

Stephanie Michaud
Strategic Marketing Manager, Geospatial Field Solutions
Trimble