Abstract
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) have rapidly been integrated into the construction industry over the past few years, and their application is continually growing in this domain. The recent development in UAS regulations and technical capabilities have played a significant role in their popularity and wide deployment in various stages of the construction lifecycle. UASs could be used as a platform to enhance the construction practices in general; however, little is known about how construction professionals are adopting this technology in specific construction practices and the barriers they are facing for their successful implementation. The purpose of this study is to explore the current state-of-practice of UAS integration in construction from the industry professionals’ viewpoint. A comprehensive survey study was conducted in the United States to identify the practical construction UAS application areas, their adopted technologies, as well as the benefits and barriers encountered during their implementation. Responses (n=56) showed that most common UAS applications include progress monitoring, site planning, and site surveying/mapping. Rotary-wing vehicles and visual and thermal cameras were the most used platforms and onboard sensors, respectively. Saving time, improving accessibility to compromised spaces, and reducing cost while accomplishing construction tasks were highly regarded as UAS implementation benefits in construction. Participants also considered flying in various weather conditions, within confined or congested areas, as well as the advanced technical know-how requirements, and the increased liability and legal challenges as barriers to using UASs in construction-related tasks. By understanding UAS adoption in construction, this study provides a roadmap to better identify the industry needs and guide researchers and professionals in investigating application areas and barriers that might have maximum benefits for the construction industry in the United States.
Highlights
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), known as drones or UAVs, are remotely piloted aerial platforms equipped with several onboard sensors (Hassanalian and Abdelkefi 2017)
This study addresses the following research questions: (1) What are the current application trends of UASs in the construction industry? (2) What are the technology trends of UAS integration in construction? (3) What are the benefits of UAS integration in construction? and (4) What are the barriers to UAS integration in construction? The analysis was achieved at first by exhaustively reviewing current literature to identify recent construction-related UAS application areas and technology use
It is worth noting that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules prohibit UAS operations during nighttime and out of visual line-of-sight which might currently limit its deployment as a security surveillance tool on construction jobsites
Summary
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), known as drones or UAVs, are remotely piloted aerial platforms equipped with several onboard sensors (Hassanalian and Abdelkefi 2017). Martinez et al (2021a) conducted comparative analyses between a commercially available UAS and another dual-frequency GPS platform with post-processing kinematic (PPK) georeferencing capabilities for site surveying types of applications. After evaluating the effects of different technical configurations (i.e., dual-frequency GPSs, PPK GPS correction) and flight parameters (i.e., image combinations, camera angle) on the accuracy and visual quality of the derived point clouds, the authors advocated the usage of UAS technology for site surveying and proposed a matrix summarizing the levels of point cloud accuracies with respect to the processing time and adopted technical configurations. Based on several layout plans generated using a specific algorithm, the authors recommended an optimized and weighted site plan to improve hoisting operations’ safety and efficiency
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