HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — At InTerra, AI is helping engineers spend less time on routine work and more time creating.

Precision Through Photogrammetry 

InTerra’s technology helps engineers and surveyors create highly accurate 3D models using drones, GPS receivers, and sophisticated photogrammetry software.

A construction company can survey an entire job site in a single day. Mining companies can measure stockpiles with remarkable precision. Engineers can monitor projects as they evolve, comparing one week’s terrain to the next.

InTerra’s SmarTarget ground control points use GPS to record precise positions automatically, reducing the need for manual surveying in the field. The company has also partnered with platforms like gNext to help customers further increase survey accuracy.

InTerra runs significant computing power to build these models. Hundreds, and even thousands, of drone photographs must be stitched together into a single digital reconstruction.

“We’ll spin up a machine that could run 44 to 88 cores,” Peter Funk, CTO of InTerra, explained, describing computers equipped with hundreds of gigabytes of memory dedicated to processing imagery. 

AI in the Engineering Workflow 

Yet the company’s newest productivity gains are happening on engineers’ desktops.

Funk now spends much of his day working alongside AI coding assistants such as Claude and Copilot. He sketches the architecture of new software, reviews each iteration, and lets AI handle much of the repetitive programming.

“I’m really doing less coding and more designing and checking,” he said.

The technology writes documentation, updates user interfaces, organizes software repositories, generates tutorials, reviews older code, and even proposes improvements that human developers might overlook.

At one point, while translating software from one programming language to another, AI pointed out flaws in the original code before rewriting it.

“AI looked at it,” Funk recalled, “and said, ‘I see what you’re doing… there are four things that were not quite right before, and two things that could really cause problems. Would you like me to fix those?” The interaction resembles collaboration as they iterate together. 

Small Company, Global Supply Chain

Although headquartered in Huntsville, InTerra’s products reflect an increasingly international manufacturing ecosystem.

Its custom circuit boards and antennas are produced in Texas. GPS receivers come from Switzerland. Components are sourced from Taiwan and Eastern Europe before final assembly.

“We’ve been very conscious,” Funk said, “where the manufacturing of all these parts were. It has paid off.”

That careful sourcing has helped the company avoid some of the supply chain disruptions that have challenged manufacturers in recent years.

A Different Story About AI

How can a small company compete with much larger engineering organizations?

For Funk, AI is helping answer that question by amplifying their unique expertise.

Tasks once postponed because they seemed too tedious can now be completed. Ideas that might have remained sketches become working prototypes.

For a small manufacturer competing in a digital economy, AI’s contribution is in enabling the creativity of those who use it.