Why Drones?
Drones are becoming increasingly popular on construction sites for mapping and surveying.
One reason for their popularity is that drones shorten the data-collection process significantly: sites that may have taken days or weeks to survey by hand can be surveyed in a matter of hours using this aerial technology. The shortened process makes it financially feasible to survey a site multiple times throughout the construction process, giving users real-time information about progress and possible mistakes.
Additionally, the altitude drones can reach lets them easily collect information that ground surveying might miss, and gives the user a much more holistic picture of their site.
That kind of continuous, bird’s-eye-view information is especially valuable in construction, where mistakes can end up costing contractors both time and money. “On a large construction project, one of the main causes of budget overruns and delays is when you have to do reworks,” said Jan Gasparic, director of Strategic Partnerships at DJI Systems. “The more accurate data you have and the more 360-degree view of the site you’re able to build and then show that change over time, the more control you have over the entire project.”
Essentially, drone mapping fills in the missing piece of the BIM puzzle: how to easily compare the perfect computer model to the result on the ground. In this report, we research drones in construction, mapping best practices, the state of the…