Orbital Net Inc.—providing geospatial solutions using FOSS4G tools and AI technologies

With applications growing relatively well and efficiently in the space of emerging technologies, geospatial technology plays a vital role in our daily activities. It is embedded in most of the systems and applications we use today.

Geospatial technology is used in every activity, from weather forecasting, route mapping, and traffic navigation to online delivery apps for ordering food, goods, and grocery.

Orbital Net Inc. is a Japan-based company that provides geospatial solutions to firms across various industries. OrbitalNet’s business domain is the G-spatial and construction consulting industry. The firm offers unique IT services and solutions by fully using geospatial open source software called FOSS4G and AI technology.

In conversation with Yuji Kobayashi, President, and CEO of Orbital Net, Inc.

Q. Why was Orbital Net set up, and what are its core values?

Orbital Net was founded as a spin-off from the IT department of a local surveying and design company. At the time, the company was tasked with subcontracting work to the parent company while using the profits to fund new developments, which would be returned to the parent company in the future as indigenous technology. However, in the third year of its existence, the parent company changed its management policy. Orbital Net was removed from the ladder and fundamentally had to restructure its business policy. Therefore, a “management buyout” was conducted, and management rights were taken away from the parent company, leaving Orbital Net completely independent. And two years ago, the company made a fresh start as the new Orbital Net.

Orbital Net’s core value is using AI to extract and generate original content from aerial and satellite imagery.

Q. How does Orbital Net promote a culture of innovation within the company?

We do nothing special. At the beginning of the term, each individual states what they want to do, and we give them the time (and cost) to do it. Sometimes we get results. Occasionally, we don’t even get started. It depends on the motivation of the individual.

Also, sometimes projects are driven by my inspiration. “When I have an idea, I take action” is my belief.

Q. In a world that is rapidly pivoting toward remote work, how does Orbital Net face the challenges of fostering an environment of innovation within the organization?

It is Communication between employees. We now effectively use web communication tools such as zoom and slack, which are no longer inconvenient. An accelerated environment has been created to cope with the Corona pandemic.

Q. Innovation drives business. Therefore, how does Orbital Net implement innovation within its product development life cycle?

Orbital Net seeks to realize AI-enabled innovation in four phases.

■phase 1.

Think about what AI can do for our market, implement it and show the output to the market; combine it with GIS technology and use AI embedded as part of the overall process. We do not try to solve everything with AI first, but only if we can introduce it into the process for quantity. Other technologies or artificial tasks can remain.

■phase 2.

AI will be used to undertake tasks that require man-hours and man-days using conventional methods, such as creating large volumes of geographical features or detecting unique geographical characteristics that were not possible in the past. AI possesses overwhelming processing speed and cannot be competed with artificial work, making it a monopolistic market for the time being.

■phase 3.

If other companies start to develop similar businesses, they will compete with AI tools from other companies, and their advantage in the existing market will be lost. Therefore, the company will utilize its expertise in AI utilization to develop AI products specializing in each production task and shift from the AI production business to the AI tool sales business. In contrast, the market introduction of AI requires a PoC; the company’s strength lies in its ability to provide AI that has experienced its own production processes.

■phase 4.

The challenge in selling AI tools is to build an environment for users to accept them, as AI requires a unique environment, such as GPUs, compared to general systems. If suppliers generalize their products, users will have a higher hurdle to adopting them. Therefore, the same functions as those of the product are implemented as a web service to remove barriers to user-building environments and attract more users.

Q. How deeply is innovation intertwined in Orbital’s strategy to find solutions for customers? Can you give a few examples?

Our innovation uses AI and proprietary algorithms to realize potential projects that have never been possible using existing technology. It is truly a revolution in values and a paradigm shift, equivalent to a time saving of tens or hundreds of times when compared simply with conventional construction methods.

For example, millions of rooftop solar panels were detected using AI, and geospatial data was generated from satellite images for all of Japan in just three days. This is a result that human tactics could have never achieved.

Q. In what way does Orbital Net fill the void within the construction and G-spatial consulting industry?

In the construction and g-spatial consulting industry, problems such as a shortage of technicians and skills transfer are becoming increasingly apparent. Orbital Net is using AI to automate data production, not to cut costs or personnel, but producing large volumes of data in a short time, which was previously not possible with human production.

Q. What does the future entail for Orbital Net?

The AI solutions provided by Orbital Net generate something that has never been done before, from aerial and satellite imagery, at high speed and in large volumes. As the content cannot be rendered manually, it naturally generates added value. We want to transmit this content from our website using FOSS4G technology, one of our specialties. We are also working to develop the AI solution itself into a web service so that it can be completed online. We will switch our business model from a contract-based business model to one centered on online map content services and AI applications and services.

We are currently positioned as a geospatial and AI solution vendor, but we hope to develop the market as a provider of AI-generated DATA in the future.

Guiding a revolution in the geospatial and construction consulting industry

Yuji Kobayashi is the President and CEO of Orbital Net, Inc. He was born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in June 1966. Yuji founded Orbital Net, Inc., in Nagoya, Japan, in 2018.

Yuji graduated from Meijo University in 1989.

“Enterprising and bold, simple and robust.”