HBR's 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age (with bonus article "Why Every Company Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy" by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann)

Drones Go to Work

by Chris Anderson

EVERY MORNING AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE down the street from my office, the day starts with a familiar hum. It’s the sound of the regular drone scan, when a small black quadcopter flies itself over the site in perfect lines, as if on rails. The buzz overhead is now so familiar that workers no longer look up as the aircraft does its work. It’s just part of the job, as unremarkable as the crane that shares the air above the site. In the sheer normalness of this—a flying robot turned into just another piece of construction equipment—lies the real revolution.

“Reality capture”—the process of digitizing the physical world by scanning it inside and out, from the ground and the air—has finally matured into a technology ...