Tracking and Communicating Site Progress with Drones

Michael Lambert is the VDC Manager for Chasco Constructors in Austin, Texas. His hobbyist background of photography and radio-controlled platforms when combined with his professional experience in land surveying, commercial construction and CAD design creates a perfect storm for the use of drones in the construction space. Because of the fact that Chasco self-performs a very high percentage of its own work, the VDC program that Michael is building is not relegated to the usual BIM side of construction. At Chasco VDC truly means everything virtual and digital. Besides overseeing IT and the drone services program, Michael also manages all of the GPS equipment used by Chasco’s surveyors and heavy-equipment machine control.

Andy Putch is currently a Project Manager at DroneDeploy and commercial drone operator experienced in providing mapping services for clients in real estate, survey, construction, and solar industries. He was previously a co-founder of FreeSkies, a DJI mobile applications startup designing 3D autonomous mission planning software. Before FreeSkies, he was an autonomous systems researcher with the University of Illinois Bretl Research Group exploring emerging SLAM and other GPS-denied UAS control systems. He has also worked as an aerospace and defense corporate strategy consultant with Renaissance Strategic Advisors and as a NASA Aeronautics Academy Intern at the Armstrong Flight Research Center. Andy is a private pilot, FAA Section 333 exempt commercial UAS operator, and commonly featured speaker/panelist at drone conferences and trade shows.