Not so long ago, when someone mentioned drones you either thought about the secretive military drones or you thought of something a bit like a model airplane. But the drone industry is growing with amazing speed and as these €˜gadgets' become more and more sophisticated, the potential uses for them increase at the same rate. One industry already eying up the drone and its uses is the construction industry.
Eyes in the sky
While there seems no imminent danger of drones becoming something from a sci-fi movie where they start building the actual buildings by themselves (then go a little nuts and take over the world!) there is definite uses for the eyes in the sky.
This is namely due to their ability to go where people can't and to get in close in a way that a helicopter is unable to. So you want to see how the building looks from the sky without hiring an entire helicopter crew? You hire a drone and get a knowledgeable operator to take a host of aerial shots. Nor is straight above the only use for the drone's explorative abilities. They can view every angle of a building and allow those on the ground to see how everything is coming along.
Cutting edge
Drones may be just one part of the future of construction and use of modern technology as a part of that. Japanese giant Komatsu are currently working on a project called KomConnect that is aimed to help deal with the declining manpower numbers experienced in the country by having interconnected technology to fill in the gaps. Key to this plan is the use of drones.
To this end, they have employed San Francisco's Skycatch to create drones that can conduct surveys and then produce 3D models from those surveys. These maps can then be used as part of a live interactive map of the job site, allowing everyone working on it to access it, make annotations for their colleagues and overlay plans to see how the project is developing.
Siemens are another big name already using drones in their daily operations. Currently they are working on one of the largest urban development projects in Europe and recently unveiled a pilot project combining aerial data collected by drones with image processing software. The result was the ability to visualise where energy loss occurred across an area as large as a whole neighbourhood using thermal maps did €“ this allows easy decisions about which buildings need improving in the energy efficiency stakes.
Small scale
Nor will the drone be solely limited to massive companies and huge construction projects. Small companies and even homeowners could utilise a drone to do simple checks around the house. For example, you think you have roof tiles off and that your flat roof may be wearing at the point it connects to the house. Rather than climbing up on the roof yourself, you can simply hire a drone to take a series of images and then upload them to your computer where you or a roofer can see what needs doing.
One of the most popular drone for this type of work is DJI Phantom series. These drones are currently popular for anything from a music video, a wildlife project or even a corporate promotion. The beauty of them is that they are easy to use and need little training to operate, produce a high standard of images or videos and come in different specifications, depending on the customer's needs.
Conclusion
So while the drone may be a way off something that would make a horror movie writer proud, there are definitely a host of reasons why they are changing the construction industry and no sign that the changes will be stopping any time soon.
