Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is using drones, 3-D scanning and artificial intelligence to gauge construction process on a new building — components of digital engineering technology that could eventually help build nuclear reactors. “65% of mega projects” — anything over $1 billion — fail,” said Christopher Ritter, director of the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence (DICE), in Idaho Falls. That means they either don’t meet their costs, don’t make their schedule or don’t meet performance objectives. “The odds are against you. I think this digital engineering thing could be the secret ingredient so we’re not one of the failed mega projects.” Checking with drones “What we’re doing is we’re flying drones about the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL), which is under construction,” Ritter said. The project performs high-level image analysis to take data captured by drones and match it to the Building Information Management (BIM) model of the facility. The BIM is more than just a