Driving innovation in Engineering & Construction – The opportunity in Drones
Across the Middle East , clients are increasingly looking for innovative solutions that can help them to deliver their construction projects in a safer , quicker , and more cost-effective way than ever before . Embracing technology and new ways of working is the only way to meet this challenge . One area where we see huge potential to disrupt some of the more traditional construction processes , is through the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ( UAV ), or drones as they ’ re more commonly known .
In Qatar , the regulatory environment has recently changed and this has opened up opportunities to use drones for commercial purposes , including within the construction industry . At Arcadis , we ’ re already using UAV solutions on several client commissions including transport infrastructure schemes , real estate developments and water and utility projects .
What benefits can drones bring to construction projects ?
We find that drones can help to address a wide range of challenges that clients typically face on large-scale construction projects . Some of the key benefits that we ’ ve seen delivered on real-life projects include the following :
1 . IMPROVING THE ACCURACY AND QUALITY OF DESIGN WORK
The quality of the scans and aerial imagery that drones can provide is absolutely firstclass . By exporting these into software packages like CAD or Autodesk Cloud , we can develop 3D models that are within 2cm accuracy of real-life conditions . This complements the results that can be achieved through more traditional methods ( in a much shorter timeframe ), and helps to reduce the risk of incorrect decisions being made on a project .
2 . DELIVERING SIGNIFICANT COST SAVINGS
Using a drone to carry out standard survey and inspection activities is a much more cost efficient approach as it removes the need to erect scaffolding or mobile platform equipment . As an example , for a typical topographic survey , the use of a drone can help to reduce costs by approximately 50 %. Furthermore , the quality of the information provided also means that less rework is required . By overlaying imagery collected from the drone with the original design , errors and mistakes can be spotted before they ’ re submitted to a client and long before they become costly to fix .
3 . COMPLETING WORK FASTER THAN BEFORE
The use of drones can reduce the length of time needed to carry out basic surveying and scan work , as there ’ s no need to build
14 Construction Leaders • May 2017