Construction industry is one of the oldest and the most challenging industries, as they require consistent control on daily activities, Cost and Resources. With increase in technology, the modern methods have been integrated with the conventional methods, leading to the invention of UAVs or Drones.  Drones have proved to be very effective in controlling different construction  activities, such as monitoring projects, improving communication and many more, which were previously the challenging parts of the project.

Companies building and managing large infrastructure such as roads, railways, bridges, dams, water reservoirs, airports , industrial complexes, oil and gas operations, and power complexes have considerable potential to use drone data to optimise their operations. The complexity and scale of such projects exposes them to many challenges this technology can help solve, including long and costly surveys, early identification of construction mistakes, penalties for missing deadlines, miscommunication between stakeholders and contractors, and volumetric assessment. It can also help stakeholders efficiently survey to avoid financial liabilities post-construction due to lack of maintenance and resultant damage to the environment.

In this industry drones are usually used for surveying and inspection purposes. They are equipped with downward-facing sensors, such as RGB, multispectral, thermal or lidar and hence can capture a great deal of aerial data in a very short time. Taking the technology another step further, photogrammetry, is a software that can generate geo-referenced 2D maps, elevations as well as 3D models. These maps can be used to extract information such as precise distances, surface and volumetric measurements.

Though drones don’t help in actual construction but it helps in an important part of the project, that is growth. The first and most obvious benefit of drones in the construction industry is the ability to obtain precise visual data of a site faster and cheaper than with terrestrial techniques or manned aircrafts. However, there are yet other benefits of using Drones in this industry. Some have been listed below 

1. Pre Planning

Even before the launch of many construction projects, a topographic survey of the site is required to get a good understanding of the environment in which the project will take place. DTMs and DSMs of a site generated with drone data can show possible drainage points, changes in elevation and other factors that can assist in selecting the best locations for building, digging or storing materials.

2. Fast & On-Demand Image Acquisition

Drones provide a complete picture of the construction site on-demand and within a short period of time. The sharp, detailed images produced by drones enable site managers to track work progress and make accurate decisions based on up-to-date data and comprehensive reconstructed site maps instead of relying on plans or incomplete data that may not reflect reality.

3. Accurate & Comprehensive Data

In addition to having detailed aerial photographs, the same data collected by a drone in a single flight provides a complete map having accurate measurements of distances, surfaces, elevations and volumes of the site with GPS points, in 2D and 3D. 

4. Cost & Time Savings

Survey is one of the costliest as well as critical works for infrastructure projects, requiring heavy costly tools and resources. Aerial photography using drones is a much cheaper option. Drone survey not only saves costs but also saves time, by significantly capturing time-intensive data from the field. During the construction phase, site managers have to control and validate completed work in order to permit continued work. The faster the current task gets checked and validated, the faster you can move on to the next task, saving time along the overall construction process.

5. Documentation

Documentation is yet another important factor in the infrastructure industry. Taking real time video and images is one of the best ways to maintain the work progress. Drone data provides clear, accurate and retrievable documentation at frequent points in the construction process, allowing stakeholders to review and pinpoint the occurred mistakes and settle these disputes out of court since the evidence is clearer.  

Another benefit of better documentation is that the data collected can be analyzed to draw lessons from it and compare it for benchmarking purposes.

6. Remote Access to Construction Sites

Contractors are dependent on supervisors or engineers for daily updates of work. But by using Drones, contractors can view the progress of the work on construction sites, without totally depending on the employees. Just a drone operator, controlling the drone on the construction site will make this work much easier. This will provide contractors, clear aspects of the site, directly on their computer. This way the contractors can handle even more than one site at one time.

7. Increase Safety

Being able to monitor and inspect hard-to-reach areas in the middle of machinery without entering them, reduces the workers’ exposure to accidents. Drone imagery can help to locate a breach in a site more quickly, preventing accidents.

Apart from this, the greatest improvements in safety can be found in maintenance work. Drone technology gives ease to collect data from inaccessible areas like bottom of bridges, top of buildings, busy highways etc. without additional safety risks to personnel. 

8. Inspection of Work

Some infrastructure projects, like Bridges, Highways, Dams and Railways are difficult to inspect. Also inspecting this daily needs a lot of time. Here drones play a vital role, by inspecting the sites and sending data which is easily accessible, and can be viewed from anywhere

Conclusion

Construction industry is one of the fastest growing industries. Also it contributes to a major part of the economy of the nation. With time, many technologies are updating the way of construction work, Drone technology being one of them. From the above study we can conclude that,  

• Drone can be used in pre-construction, during construction as well as for post construction works.

• Drone technology is one of the fastest growing technologies in the construction industry.

•  Drone Technology has given a new shape to the conventional methods of reporting and documentation.

•  Drone has made monitoring and control processes easy and effective. Also this will help to mitigate safety related risk.

• Use of drone technology in planning and daily inspection will reduce risk of delay of project.