Photo: Leica Geosystems
The Leica BLK2FLY has been named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022.
The BLK2FLY, recognized for its productivity and innovation, is a fully integrated autonomous flying laser scanner. It’s part of Hexagon’s BLK suite of autonomous reality capture sensors designed for speed, portability, ease-of-use and mobility.
To compile the list, TIME solicited nominations from TIME’s editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process, paying special attention to growing fields — such as the electric vehicle industry, green energy and the metaverse. TIME then evaluated each contender on key factors including originality, efficacy, ambition and impact.
“Having our reality capture technology recognized by TIME as one of the year’s best inventions is both humbling and inspiring. It validates our mission to build Smart Digital Realities that empower an autonomous, sustainable future,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “Our technologies aim to change the world for the better, turning concepts that were once thought impossible into real solutions that benefit everyone. By optimizing quality, productivity, efficiency and safety — profitably — we can help industry achieve sustainability through mitigated risk, less waste and reduced cost.”
As a lidar-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the BLK2FLY addresses costly and complex issues, quickly and accurately capturing everything from large outdoor spaces to complex structures and environments.
For example, when renovating building structures, it can easily capture the exterior dimensions of previously inaccessible or difficult-to-reach areas such as rooftops and facades. The resulting colorized 3D point clouds are instrumental in building information modeling (BIM) processes, documenting site conditions and improving an asset’s operation, from infrastructure to utilities to industrial facilities.