Bauwirtschaft

Drones in Construction

Advances in technology have made drones an affordable tool in the construction industry. In fact, construction is the fastest growing industry using drones. Drones can save thousands of euros over the lifecycle of a project by quickly, safely and accurately collecting valuable data that benefits many areas of the construction project.

Construction projects require a wide-range of expertise and techniques in order to be completed successfully. Drones can be used in many of the workflow components of a construction projects, namely surveying and documentation. It is understandable that many in the industry are hesitant to jump aboard the drone-ship as high accuracy and reliability of results is critical. At Epotronic, we regularly test new products and measure their accuracy (relative accuracy, absolute accuracy and precision) so that we can correctly inform our customers on whether drones will meet their project requirements.

Topographic Surveys

Topographic surveys are a key area in the construction industry where we believe drones would provide great benefits. As topographic surveys generally require lower accuracies than engineering and as-built surveys, these are easier to acquire with drones without having to fork out for the highest spec models and processing software. The nature of drones being able to seamlessly fly over the survey area and capture millions of data points in a few minutes, drastically increases the efficiency of undertaking a topographic survey.

As-built Surveys

In addition to topographic surveys, drones can also be used to undertake as-built surveys, that is, surveys of infrastructure being built or recently completed buildings, to check whether they are in within the design accuracy tolerances. The accuracy requirements are therefore higher than topographic surveys, meaning higher spec drones and sensors are required. With these, such as the Zenmuse P1, or Riegl MiniVux-3, accuracies of up to 2 cm can be achieved*. As with topographic surveys, data can be captured at incredible efficiency, cutting costs for the construction project.

*Dependent on flight parameters and processing techniques.

High accuracy Surveys

Surveys requiring the highest accuracy measurements such as establishing control, setting-out, and also the topographic and as-built surveys of projects for high accuracy civil engineering projects cannot usually be undertaken using drones alone. However, they can be used in addition to higher accuracy traditional equipment. For example, data captured by drone can be used to provide context when creating a CAD drawing from measurements determined by traditional methods.

Solutions

The ideal solution will depend on many factors, such as accuracy, time limitations, and regulation considerations. At the following link we highlight some of our key recommendations.

Click here to see our recommended solutions

From drone to CAD in a few clicks

Using drones represents a big difference in the type of data used traditionally by surveyors. Virtual Surveyor incorporates traditional methods and deliverables to provide an intuitive experience for surveyors with little or no drone expereince.