Drones in Industry

Most building surveys require visibility of the building’s roof to identify its condition and assess any defects. In most instances getting access to a roof can be tricky, time consuming and costly. Using a small drone to perform the survey can save time, money and reduce health and safety risks involved with surveying a roof and accessing tricky or hard to reach areas.

The ability for a drone to carry out a visual inspection of high-risk areas can save time and reduce H&S risks. Drone footage can be recorded from the safety of the site cabin and then sent to project stakeholders in HD quickly and effectively. Site inspections can be undertaken more regularly and cover larger areas more efficiently.

Using a drone to fly over a site can show new site operatives H&S risks in real-time. Enabling site managers to demonstrate moving vehicles, moving cranes, or active excavation areas etc. Each induction would be site specific outlining the risk that are relevant to that site and in return reduce the risk of accident or injury on each site.

Drones can provide a quicker and easier way of carrying out the inspections, feeding back HD real-time footage to the engineer or surveyor from the ground at all times reducing cost but most importantly risk.

A regular drone flight can be a speedy way to record and visualize project progress. Through a series of aerial shots and HD video project stakeholders can gain a better insight into the progress that has been made without actually being on-site and have regular daily or weekly updates.

The ability to capture impressive 4K HD video and photos from unique angles can provide an interesting insight into a project or building, making it great for marketing material. In particular, this could be a great tool for estate agents looking to demonstrate impressive shots of a property or building they are looking to sell! The drones offer the opportunity to capture the real scale and size of a project in minutes.

When carrying out high risk work on-site it may be necessary for certain professionals to gain real-time updates on what is happening. Utilizing First Person View (FPV) technology, a drone camera can stream HD footage to the project team or project stakeholders in real-time. This experience could also be enhanced by the use of VR glasses.

Drones can provide a real-time update of what is going on around the site. Carrying out a speedy flight around the site can give a good overview of potential issues to be aware of. For instance moving vehicles, machinery or cranes etc. again reducing risk and allowing key decision makers to make up to the minute, informed decisions on ever changing developing sites.

Often for a surveyor it can be hard to gain access to a suitable location to laser scan high up areas of a building, meaning the point cloud is returned missing vital information. Laser scanning from drones has become a recognized method of capturing the exact detail of topography, buildings and cityscapes and can provide the missing piece of information.

Similar to laser scanning, drones can be used to take aerial thermal imaging recordings which can be used to assess potential cold spots in buildings or even heat spots in areas holding electrical components. This can give engineers and surveyors essential information when trying to identify and rectify building defects.

Grand Rapids Community College is West Michigan's resource for training in the use of drones and drone technology. 

The number of industries that are using drones increases daily. The ability to SEE an aerial view is truly saving companies thousands of dollars annually.