Every day at Geo Week News, we publish the most important press releases from the industry to keep those within the industry up-to-date with all of the news they need to know. Of course, we know it can be difficult to keep up with everything coming in, so we’re going to look back at the week that was in the news every Friday to recap the biggest happenings of the last five days. Today, we have news about new strategies at Hexagon, a new localization product, announcements from Esri, and more.
Hexagon Announces New Directions
It’s been a busy six months or so for Hexagon, especially at the top of the company. In the back half of 2024, it was announced that former CEO Paulo Guglielmini would be stepping down, and in January of this year, they announced their new permanent CEO, Anders Svensson, who will be taking over officially by July 20 of this year. Given this movement at the top of the company, it should come as no surprise that there are some new directions being taken at the company in addition to the many markets they already serve. This week, we saw a couple of announcements from Hexagon that indicate their belief of where their technology could fit in future workflows, and their first steps in addressing them.
First, it was announced on Monday that they will be launching an entirely new division around robotics, which will be led by Arnaud Robert. This new division is going to focus on the advancement of humanoid robotics, a fast-growing sector that some in industries like manufacturing and logistics think could revolutionize their workflows. Hexagon’s place as a top company in the world of measurements and precision puts it in a great position to make an impact in the growing robotics market. Whether that’s actually building the robots themselves, which appears to be the initial goal, or supporting companies who do so, Hexagon has a path forward in this area.
Additionally, the company also announced this week a new service, which they are deeming a “digital factory as-a-service” solution. Here, they are taking advantage of their expertise in another rapidly growing field, the digitalization of facilities. More and more companies are looking to create digital twins of their facilities for things like simulation, space optimization, training, and more, but the actual process of creating these models can be a difficult hurdle to pass. With this service, companies will be able to call upon Hexagon experts in the world of scanning and modeling to provide this service and give the basis for these digital twins. While not every organization will want to utilize this kind of business model, to be sure, this unique offering has the potential to open up the technology to smaller, and more tech-averse, facilities.
Stepping Up Localization
Recently, OxTS announced its latest product offering, WayFinder. With this release, the company is building off of its established expertise in the world of localization and inertial navigation systems, and extending it to support more robust workflows. WayFiner combines its typical GNSS and IMU-based inertial navigation, adding lidar and camera systems to give a visual compotential and enable accurate localization within challenging GNSS conditions.
Geo Week News will have more on this release in the coming weeks, but we’ll leave you with this, from the company’s Head of Product, Paris Austin: “WayFinder is one of the most technologically exciting products we’ve produced in recent years. Anyone who has attempted sensor fusion before will know how complex it can be; the fact that WayFinder and LiDAR Boost take all that pain away from a project is something that I think many engineers will be very happy about.”
Other News
This week also featured a pair of announcements from Esri. First, they announced an expanded edition GIS dictionary, an attempt to keep up with the shifting landscape around the technology. The book, entitled A to Z GIS: An Illustrated Dictionary of Geographic Information Systems, is in its third edition and includes insights from more than 200 subject matter experts.
Additionally, the company also announced this week a new enhancement to their Community Maps Program, making it easier to share road closures. People increasingly rely on mapping apps for real-time navigation, so keeping these tools updated regularly is crucial for people to move around as simply as possible. This new enhancement makes it easier for officials to share this data with the public through providers like Apple Maps and TomTom.
In the world of aerial mapping, Vexcel Imaging this week announced the release of their new UltraCam Osprey 4.2 system. The new system features the 247 MP Sony IMX811 CMOS sensor, along with custom Vexcel lenses, delivering “precise measurements for superior feature extraction.”
- Finally, in Australia, DAS (Digital Agricultural Services) launched a new 3D mapping solution this week. This solution is designed for use by the property management, financial, agricultural, and real estate sectors, and provides visualizations of topography over hectares of land. Generally, this work had been done manually, so this offering provides an opportunity for significantly streamlining work.
