The use of drone technology is becoming increasingly common in construction, and the industry benefits from this technology in a number of ways. Drone inspections are fast, accurate, and allow the inspector to see hard-to-reach areas without putting himself or herself in harm’s way.
Some of the most common applications of drone construction inspection include:
Safety Management Improvements
While working on a job site is often an exciting and rewarding experience, it can also be dangerous. There are power tools, heavy machinery, confined spaces, and hazardous conditions like ladders, scaffolding, and trenches to consider. While drones can’t replace a safety officer or coordinator, they are an invaluable tool for conducting hazard inspections on work sites and identifying issues that need to be addressed.
Drones are often used to track progress on a project drone construction inspection and compare it against blueprints and models, making them an excellent choice for monitoring building projects. They can also help identify and document areas of a project that may need additional attention and support, which can save companies time and money in the long run. In addition, a drone can provide detailed information about the quality of work that’s been performed on a jobsite and can be used to determine labor hours and productivity rates for tracking and reporting purposes.
The ability to perform maintenance on containers that store oil, gasoline, and other materials created by the Oil & Gas industry is critical to the safety of the environment and the people working in it. Drones can be used to inspect the interior of a container to identify the status of its contents and to ensure that any necessary maintenance has been conducted. This allows companies to avoid having to build scaffolding to send someone into the container and it can also save them thousands of dollars in maintenance costs over time by only performing maintenance on those containers that are deemed to be necessary.
In the aftermath of the fatal incident in New York City where a chunk of facade fell and struck a woman, city officials began looking for ways to make building inspections faster and safer. In a test program, drones were used to conduct visual inspections of the exterior of buildings in the area and found that while they could access angles not easily accessible by human inspection, physical examinations still needed to be performed to determine the state of the façade.
Although standards organizations and formal inspection bodies are still reviewing the use of drones for facade inspections, they can be an effective tool if used correctly. As with any inspection tool, a qualified professional should be responsible for the operation of the drone and must always keep safety in mind.
Beyond these general applications, a drone can also be used to survey the location of various assets on a construction site. This can be useful in locating the right equipment or materials that are needed to complete a task and can also be helpful for calculating stockpile inventories. This information is valuable for ensuring that enough of the right materials are available to continue construction on time and on budget.