In recent weeks, Esri has forge strategic partnerships and collaboration allowing GIS to work with other technologies and extend its the power into BIM, cloud location-based services and pedestrian safety.
Esri-Autodesk (or GIS-BIM)
First is the Esri-Autodesk partnership which brings Esri’s ArcGIS and Autodesk’s Building Information Modelling (BIM) together. With this partnership, Esri and Autodesk are now committed to the development of more seamless exchange of spatial and attribute data typically capture in Esri’s ArcGIS platform and the information from 3D BIM models in Autodesk’s design software.
Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk CEO said “partnering with Esri is intended to combine the power of BIM and GIS mapping which will enable out shared customers to build anything, anywhere. Our goals are to provide industry and city planners the ability to design in the context of the real world. This will allow communities to build more connected, resilient cities, and infrastructure with a focused eye on sustainability.”
Who benefits most in this partnership? Owner/operators, such as city and provincial/city/municipal planners and executives, AEC firms who plan, design, and carry out capital projects for the owners/operators will benefit most. The partnership will greatly benefit infrastructure owners around the world since BIM and GIS will now seamlessly work together to optimize users their ability to plan, design, build and operate infrastructure assets, minimize data loss, decrease workflow times thereby saving precious time and money. Other benefits include unprecedented reductions in permitting though improved stakeholder engagement, more sustainable and resilient design through enhanced project insight, and reduced risk via improved end-to-end flow of materials, resource availability and scheduling during construction.
Eric van Rees, freelance writer and editor wrote that “with this new Esri/Autodesk alliance, we’ll get to see more examples of these applications (i.e., landscape modeling but with a larger focus on cities. 3D models have become not only richer in detail, but also more performant and realistic. The moment when a city can be monitored as a modeling real-time may be far away, but it something that will come one step closer as part of this alliance.”
To learn more about the Esri-Autodesk partnership, go here and here.
Esri-Microsoft’s Azure Location Based Services
More recently, Esri joined long-time partner Microsoft in its recently launched Azure Location Based Services to provide business customers with a complete set of location data
management, digital mapping and geographic analytics through Esri’s ArcGIS suite and developer APIs. Among the capabilities in Azure LBS are mapping, search, routing, traffic and time zones which are designed to be used for everything from asset tracking for transportation fleets as well as autonomous driving. These new location capabilities will provide cloud developers with critical geographical data to power a multitude of use cases, including IoT asset tracking, fleet management, logistics, automotive, urban planning, retail and more. Go here to learn more about Microsoft’s Azure Location Based Service.
Christopher Cappelli, Esri Vice President of Global Business Development and Sales said, “we are excited to partner with Microsoft on its Azure Location Based Services. . . . Our joint customers have already benefitted from incorporating their existing Esri ArcGIS systems using our GeoEvent Server with Microsoft’s Azure cloud and Azure IoT solutions. Others interested in incorporating location services into their apps and systems can also immediately take advantage of our complete array of capabilities for mapping and analytics.”
Sam George, director, Microsoft Azure IoT said “. . . a department of transportation can now use Azure Location Based Services to analyze and improve traffic in congested cities, freight companies can provide improved fleet management and logistics, and all businesses can track the location of assets and be notified when their location changes.”
Esri-Mobileye (for pedestrian safety)
And in an effort to improve pedestrian safety by bringing real-time sensor data to public transit, Esri partnered with Mobileye recently. Mobileye, an Intel Company, is a leading provider of advanced driver-assistance systems software. Go here to learn more about the Esri-Mobileye collaboration.
Under the partnership, Mobileye will integrate Esri mapping, analysis, and visualization with its Shield+™ product. Mobileye’s Shield+™ will stream road safety data retrieved from city fleets into Esri ArcGIS platform. The information, such as pedestrian and cyclist detection in blindspots, can be viewed on the Mobileye Smart Mobility Dashboard. Shield+™ alerts will be updated to the dashboard in real time, providing a city-wide view of pedestrian and cyclist safety. Likewise, it will allow users such as bus drivers to then receive alerts about imminent hazards seconds before a potential collision, and to have a better, safer awareness of the roads they travel.
The Esri-Mobileye collaboration will provide cities with the ability to visualize and analyze real-time location data form Shield+™, improving safety for all road users in urban environments.
Nisso Moyal, Mobileye director of business development and big data said “through this collaboration with Esri, we are able to provide a game-changing product to cities and mobility providers. By enabling direct uploading of geospatial events from Shield+™ fitter to municipal buses and the like to the Mobileye Smart Mobility Dashboard, cities will be able to anticipate and help prevent the next collision, while in general managing all of their assets much more efficiently.”