The rising trend for using drones has layed foot on the construction industry. Construction Drones have become a new tool. These types of Construction Drones that are used as tools are revolutionizing the industry from many views. Drones can improve safety and communication, and give different services as advantages that can increase productivity and efficiency. One of the biggest advantages of drones is that they can be operated remotely, perhaps the most useful strength in the construction industry.
Drones Increasing Safety on Construction Sites
The Construction industry is famous for it’s casualties on site. According to Safety + Health the chances to get injured on a construction field are more than 75%, with 1 in 200 injuries proving to be fatal. All of the injuries and casualties on the field are costing the industry billions of dollars per year. Drones as tools can change this problem and lower the chance of risk while saving money.
Because they are remotely controlled, drones are able to access locations that may otherwise put workers at risk. The use of Construction Drones as a tool to inspect hard to access parts of a building can eliminate the risk of injuries to construction workers.
Drones Track Progress and Predict Potential Job-site Risks
Construction Drones can be programmed to do daily tasks, such as keeping track of changes on the construction field. Every day these Programmed Drones can fly the same route and collect data about progress. People involved in the processes can have access to this data and better communication with it.
Drones are able to take aerial images of construction sites, helping workers to better understand their environment and view otherwise unseen risks. With the collected data engineers can now see the possible jobsite risks and avoid them on time.
Virtual Reality: The Future of Work site Safety Inspections
UAV’s can be connected with VR glases that allow engineers to inspect high-risk parts of the building. Many drone manufacturers produce drones that can be used with VR glasess. The most famous is the new Mavic from DJI, that can gives an image quality of 1920×1080 resolution size. With this equipment, drones open the new work site in the construction industry.
Construction Drones Improve On-site Communication
Keeping Projects on Schedule
The construction process can be very long and expensive if lack of data becomes a problem. Drones can collect that data and help solve these problems within short time.
One of the most famous App’s for Drones data collecting is Drone Deploy. With its services like accurate survey, project monitoring, instant measurements collecting, BIM integration, and Shared Insights. As a wel of fact besides this App there are many others, such as MapsMadeEasy, Pix4D, and SkyCatch.
The biggest benefit of the collected data is that it makes communication easier. This data can be processed into 3D models, diagrammatic maps and many other medias that engineers and land developers can reed and understand.
Drones have been used in many situations to keep a record of the linear foot of material being installed, as a way to maintain a record of the equipment being used in conjunction with GPS tools. Also, some companies have been used drones to enhance safety at construction sites, as they can have real-time data of safety violations or situations that might have a negative impact during the construction process.
Komatsu, the construction equipment maker, has been developing a program to overcome a shortage of construction workers. The drones will scan job sites from the air and send images to computers to build three-dimensional models of the terrain.
Komatsu’s unmanned bulldozers and excavators would then use those models to carry out design plans, digging holes and moving earth.
As the machinery dig holes and levels land, there will also use on-board sensors to collect data on how the site’s layout is changing.
Drones Provide Services that Humans Can’t
The proof of this topic is the resent order of more than 1,000 DJI drones in Japan. According to the Verge, one of the biggest Japanese construction companies, Komatsu, is trying to exchange human labor with UAV’s. Japan has been using drones to do human work for quite a while, but this was the biggest commercial deal.
Drones collect data and transmit that data to cloud base servers where they processes it. This is very important for time management and the money that can be saved per project.
For example, drones can go to the roof of a building and scan the entire surface within a few minutes. Or drones attached with thermal cameras can collect data for loss of energy. Than this collected data can be converted into 3D thermal models and engineers can see whether there is a problem or not.
Recently, land surveys with drones have become more popular. Construction Drones can fly and scan the entire region in automatic mode while those controlling the drone are able to sit back.