Drone Technology in the Construction Industry

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are a rising trend among many industries. Today, the impact of drone technology on the digital transformation of the construction industry is undeniable. What started as a recreational hobby, or a novelty camera has quickly become a competitive advantage for those willing to deploy it to their benefit.

The presence of drones and UAVs in the construction industry has already produced significant changes. The old days of requiring a helicopter with a cameraman is now replaced by a single drone. Imagine how much cost that is saved!

How Drone Technology Progressed in the Construction Industry?

Drone technology has already begun changing the many traditional ways the construction industry operates. Those changes have lasting effects and are expected to continue as the industry develops. Over the years, drones have become one of the most advantageous construction trends. The industry experienced a 235% growth due to drone utilization for the past few years, which is surprisingly high compared to other commercial sectors.

Who are the people that are taking advantage of drone technology? Project managers, construction managers, superintendents, and contractors are the top user groups benefiting from drone technology. For instance, project managers are usually the ones leading the charge in utilizing drones for job sites. Construction projects usually run over budget and fall behind schedule. By using drones, it is easier to close the gap between project budget and schedule.

What can Drones do?

Drones can do so much more than just taking high-resolution pictures from a bird’s-eye view. Scanning with drones can yield many kinds of useful data. These drones can use add-on equipment with infrared, geo-locating, and thermal sensors technology to assist in mapping construction sites and modeling construction projects. The footage captured can be converted into 3D models with real-world conditions incorporated, allowing for better iteration, higher feasibility, and more accurate bids during the pre-construction phase.

With the integration of image processing engineering and artificial intelligence, the image or video can be further processed to tell you what the camera is seeing. This technology has been widely applied to take over human inspection work such as façade inspection, roofing inspection, confine space inspection, etc.

How is Drone Technology Creating Impact on Construction Industry?

Specifically, drones have impacted the construction industry by:

• Enabling better construction site monitoring
• Calculating stockpile volume and material types for inventory
• Calculating length, width, and elevation for roads and structures
• Annotating images and maps for easier communication
• Calculating overburden to plan for an efficient removal
• Replace human inspection work

Drones are taking an essential place in the construction process and are only increasing in popularity and functionality. Creative site managers are continuously finding new applications for drone technology on construction sites. What about you?

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