The construction industry has become an area that is calling for tremendous attention and invention. This has been fuelled by the inevitable need of civilisation for the construction of spacious, sophisticated buildings most of which are now going vertical. The history of putting up structures by human beings dates as back as 2600BC. Today the activity is intense and so to say construction is here to stay.
Aspects of construction
Erecting a building is a long process. It requires planning, surveying the build and capturing all sorts of data. In the olden days, these processes were done manually which proved not only tedious but also time consuming. Today, the construction industry has all reasons to smile thanks to the introduction of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the industry. These devices have revolutionised, shaped and elevated the industry to a higher level.
The Drones in construction
Commercial and large scale construction have made drones their indispensable work tool. The logic behind the embrace of the drone is that of saving time, money as well as hard labour. Normally, these ingredients of construction proved hectic and slowed down the process. Currently, with an aerial view captured by a drone allows constructors accomplish numerous activities faster and in a convenient manner. These include coming up with plans, tracking progress as well as monitoring and checking for problems during construction. This article outlines some of the benefits of employing drones in a construction site.
Mapping a construction Site
Ideally every constructor wants minimum input to lead to maximum output. To achieve this, he or she needs to understand the maths as well as be imaginative. One sure way of cutting down on the labour, time and resources needed to map a construction site is using drones. Before the era of drones, manned aircrafts such as jets and helicopters were used to obtain the necessary details about the site and map it. Any experienced constructor will tell you this costs a fortune and slows down the process. Now, a drone can be flown over the site, take photos and collect any relevant information. Previously this information would be very hard to process and organise, now this has been automated with drone inspection software.
Building Surveys
Image how cumbersome and dangerous it is as well as how long it will take for one to reach the roof of a twenty-story building by the means of ladders or scaffolds! Although this is a significant time investment it is necessary for a building’s condition to be assessed. The use of drones has made things easier, safer and faster. All that is required is an experienced drone operator to fly the drone over and around the building. The drone examines the entire building by taking numerous photos or an extended video. By the inspection of the images collected, the defects and faults about the building are noticed and can be consequently repaired. Hence, thanks to the use of drones, there is less need for significant investment in manpower heavy machinery or expensive tools to conduct the survey.
Project Progress Reports
One of the important aspects of construction is the compiling of a progress report. This report is then compared to the projected plan by stakeholders to avoid any deviations. The core part of the compiling process is taking photos of the parts of the build. This is where the drone comes in handy as it can be done without the operator’s physical presence at the site.
Site logistics
Construction sites are busy places with heavy machinery at work, intense safety standards and often have many things happening at the same time. It is thus unpractical to say one can manage all of these at the same time and not lose or miss some crucial details and deviate from the plan. The use of drones, however, has made this nearly if not entirely possible. They offer real-time updates of events around every corner of the site. This has reduced the cost of surveying construction by eliminating the need for an overseer at every station on the site.
Conclusion
The use and adoption of drones by the construction industry is extremely remarkable. This is backed by the recent study which shows that not less than twenty six percent of construction professionals are using drones in making their constructions careers succeed. Also, there have been incredible technical advances in the drone industry that are now meeting ever growing needs in building and construction sector. It is certain that every construction site will soon be using a drone in one way or the other.