3D Robotics (3DR) has announced a new partnership with one of Japan’s largest distributors of information and communications technology, SoftBank C&S, which will result in 3DR providing its Site Scan UAS data platform to AEC professionals in Japan.

Site Scan will be the only commercial UAS software offered by SoftBank, which will open up the power of UAS data to Softbank’s customers across Japan.

“Aerial data software like Site Scan is already driving productivity for our customers in Japan,” says Matt Harrison, Head of Sales at 3DR.

“The partnership with SoftBank will allow 3DR to meet the demand for drone data across the country.”

Recently, the 3DR sales team joined SoftBank C&S on its national Site Scan roadshow. During the roadshow, demonstrations of Site Scan were conducted across Japan, in collaboration with Autodesk and 3DR’s authorized distributor in Japan, Shibamoto & Co.

“SoftBank is an established, innovative firm with a strong track record of success, and it’s great to see their initial traction with the Site Scan roadshow,” says 3DR CEO Chris Anderson.

“We look forward to continuing to develop our partnership with them to help drive productivity on construction projects across Japan.”

According to 3DR, the timing of this partnership is perfect, since Japan will host the 2020 Olympics. The country has been experiencing a building boom, but there is a significant labor shortage within the construction industry.

To confront this issue, the Japanese government launched an initiative known as “i-Construction” in 2015, to help increase worker productivity by 50% within the understaffed industry. UAS play an important role in this initiative.