Sharper CORE Living Digital Twin for Power Grid Inspection

Sharper Shape is a power-grid inspection software company founded in Helsinki, Finland, and now dual headquartered in Helsinki and Salt Lake City, Utah. It has worked with tier 1 transmission and distribution utilities since 2013, helping them manage wildfire, outage and vegetation risk across long linear networks.

Its Sharper CORE platform builds a Living Digital Twin of the grid from LiDAR, high-definition RGB and infrared data captured by helicopters, piloted drones or automated drones, either by Sharper Shape's own crews with its Heliscope hardware or by partner drone service providers. Built-in AI detects hazards, segments LiDAR, flags vegetation encroachment and asset deterioration, and runs conductor and crossing analyses. Findings are turned into prioritized work orders sent to field crews. Customers include tier 1 utilities such as PG&E.

• Living Digital Twin: grid model updated from drones, helicopters and handheld devices, with offline field use.
• LiDAR Insights: neural-network point cloud classifier with 29 utility classes including 8 wire classes.
• Vegetation Management: tree-level assessment and species identification to flag encroachment risk.
• Predictive Asset Management: AI analysis of asset deterioration, conductor thermodynamics and high-risk crossings.
• Data Collection Services: LiDAR, RGB and infrared capture with Heliscope 2.6 hardware or partners.
• Actionable workflows: prioritized work orders generated, sent and tracked to field stakeholders.

• Transmission companies building a LiDAR-based digital twin of 220-500 kV lines to monitor clearance and vegetation in right-of-way corridors.
• Power distribution companies prioritizing maintenance of poles and components after storm seasons.
• Vietnamese drone service providers using the platform to deliver analytics to utility customers.

• LiDAR Insights classifies point clouds into 29 utility classes with 95-98% accuracy, cutting processing time from months to days or a few weeks.
• One platform combines helicopter, drone and handheld field data, so inspection results stay in a single, current digital twin.
• Risk-based work orders weigh regulation, budget and schedule, helping utilities move from fixed inspection cycles to targeted maintenance.
• Drone service providers can embed the platform in their own offerings to utilities.

Utilities face growing wildfire, storm and vegetation risk while regulators push for risk-based inspection and maintenance. Drone and LiDAR data volumes are rising fast, so grid operators need AI to classify data and turn it into work orders. Southeast Asian grids that are expanding transmission capacity for new renewable generation face the same need for faster corridor inspection.

Founded in Helsinki, Finland; dual headquarters in Helsinki and Salt Lake City, with support across the US, Europe and Asia. Named Data Visualization Solution of the Year at the 2025 AI Breakthrough Awards. Partners include Amazon Web Services and FlytBase; displays ISO 27001 certification.