Collaboration with HoloBuilder, Inc. on technological development for Japanese construction market - Aiming at productivity enhancement using 360° photos -

Takenaka Corporation (President: Masato Sasaki) is entering into a technological development collaboration arrangement with HoloBuilder, Inc. (President & Co-Founder: Mostafa Akbari-Hochberg), a Silicon Valley-based start-up company for the purpose of further accelerating innovation in the construction industry.

HoloBuilder, Inc. is a start-up company, which has developed and currently provides cloud-based service, “HoloBuilder,” for organizing and sharing 360° photos taken on construction sites. The 360° photos facilitate efficient communication by clarifying site situations through annotations that record the state of a capturing point and its surroundings and also sharing this information with remotely located project stakeholders. In addition, regular taking of such photographs is expected to provide construction records for use in maintaining and operating buildings.

Takenaka Corporation will collaborate with HoloBuilder, Inc. on developing technology to enhance compatibility of “HoloBuilder,” which has already been deployed on construction sites around the world, with Japanese construction industry conditions.

First, we plan to improve the “HoloBuilder” AI image recognition model to adjust its functionality to special requirements of Japanese construction sites and enable its utilization for advancing construction progress management through measures such as estimation of construction types through 360° photos.
In addition, we will develop functions to link with systems developed by our company and systems developed by other start-up companies, such as sharing images taken autonomously by robots and drones operating at construction sites on the “HoloBuilder” cloud.

Furthermore, we aim to help improve productivity on construction sites by jointly developing various technologies, such as linking BIM* models and site photos to streamline construction progress management and inspection work.

※BIM (Building Information Modeling):
Utilizing information in all processes of building, from designing and construction through maintenance/management by adding data such as costs, finishing and management information to a three-dimensional digital model of a building prepared on a PC.

In the construction industry, given the social background of a declining working population due to aging, securing future workers and realizing work style reforms have become urgent issues. Under these circumstances, we are focusing on technologies that support construction work using AI, construction robots, and the IoT.

Takenaka Corporation has been searching the world – but primarily in Silicon Valley, U.S.A. – for potential state-of-the-art technology collaborators, with more than 400 overseas start-up companies having been considered and trial runs having been conducted with some 30 companies with a view to practical introduction of this technology.

Consideration of collaboration with HoloBuilder, Inc. started in March 2018. After trialing similar technologies from other companies, we are now piloting “HoloBuilder” at eight of our sites. Since it has been well received by actual users, we have decided to formalize this collaboration arrangement in order to further develop applications for this software.

Takenaka Corporation seeks to contribute to society by advancing and accelerating technological development through ongoing collaboration with start-up enterprises which are helping to resolve issues in society and in the construction industry.