What the IÖB-Challenge Shows for Geotechnical Laboratory Data
And why the combination of geospatial data and AI is becoming increasingly crucial for geotechnical engineers
On the IÖB Innovation Platform in March 2026, we submitted our MoversSurvey solution as part of the challenge “Digital Future for Geotechnical Laboratory Data: Efficient, Structured, and Secure”. What was outlined as a submission there deserves a more detailed classification – because the question of how geotechnical laboratory data can be structured, spatially referenced, and made usable in the long term is no longer merely academic for our target audience.
Geotechnical documentation is not a peripheral problem – it is fundamental
Geotechnical laboratory data describes the subsurface: soil properties, sample parameters, test results. They form the basis for planning decisions in infrastructure, tunnel, and building construction – and thus for everything that comes after. ÖNORM B 4400 and related standards define how this data must be documented at a minimum. In practice, however, the actual implementation often falls short of this requirement.
What often goes unconsidered in methodological discussions: standards regulate content, not process. Who determines how laboratory data is captured, stored, versioned, and made accessible for later evaluations is largely left to an organization's internal habits.
The gap between sample and planning basis
Geotechnical laboratory reports are often created today in a hybrid process: handwritten notes on paper, Excel spreadsheets as an intermediate step, PDF exports as the final document. The spatial reference – where was this sample taken? Which georeferenced object is affected? – is at best encoded in a filename in these formats, or at worst completely absent.
This has consequences: data required for expert opinions, tenders, or official procedures must be painstakingly reconstructed or manually prepared. Comparability between projects is the exception, not the rule. And the question of what previous investigations at a particular location revealed can often only be answered by searching through physical files.
This problem is not an isolated case. It is a structural characteristic of a field that has so far primarily produced its data for reports – not for reuse.
MoversSurvey: Structured data capture with spatial reference as a starting point
MoversSurvey addresses precisely this gap. The mobile, offline-capable application enables the standardized recording of laboratory reports directly at the georeferenced object and the sample – with configurable templates that ensure ÖNORM-compliant minimum content. Multiple testing procedures per sample, flexible input via text, photo, or audio, GPS referencing: These are not features for a showcase, but requirements from the daily work of laboratories and construction site teams.
The core is the map. Not as an appendix, but as a central organizing principle: Every sample, every georeferenced object, every record is spatially referenced and thus immediately embeddable in a geographical context. What used to exist only in the report becomes input for GIS teams, planning offices, and authorities.
MoversSurvey is not a standardization body. But it is the tool that transfers norm-compliant content into a spatial, digital, and reusable framework – without a system break between field data capture and evaluation. For a full overview of the features, personas, and practical examples of the standard product, see the MoversSurvey MDE product page.
When laboratory data becomes analyzable
The second gap lies at the evaluation level. GIS systems can manage and display geotechnical data – but the question of what this data means in a specific planning context requires expertise, experience, and usually a person who has both and is currently available.
Kermit GeoAI addresses this level: As a QGIS-native plugin, for example, it enables the natural language analysis of geospatial data – without prior GIS knowledge, directly in the familiar working environment. In the context of geotechnical projects, this is relevant because site data, sample results, and spatial planning information increasingly require the same analysis framework: comparing site alternatives, incorporating results from previous investigations, identifying spatial patterns in soil classifications.
Kermit does not replace a GIS system or a laboratory system – it is an analysis layer that builds on what is already available and opens up the use of this data to people who previously depended on evaluations from others.
What this means in practice
The combination of both products describes a complete data path: structured field data capture and laboratory documentation with MoversSurvey, analysis and decision support with Kermit GeoAI, embedded in existing GIS environments. For geotechnical offices and laboratories that are under pressure to professionalize documentation processes and at the same time make the knowledge from their data usable, this is a comprehensible argument – without system changes, without large implementation projects.
The IÖB-Challenge was the occasion for us to sharpen this approach in a public context. The jury evaluation of our submission runs until the end of May 2026. Regardless of the outcome: the question of how geotechnical laboratory data can be structured, spatially referenced, and made accessible in the long term remains open – and increasingly urgent.
If you are interested in the detailed applications, you can find specific use cases and case studies on this page. We are happy to discuss your specific context.
→ Discover MoversSurvey MDE→ Arrange initial consultation
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