June 7, 2018
Commercial drone use on the job site is skyrocketing. The latest drone trends and statistics from DroneDeploy explain why.
This past year, more than 30,000 users put DroneDeploy to work creating the largest drone data repository — now with over 400,000 maps of job sites, farms, and structures. Our growth is a testament to the growing community of commercial drone users.
While dozens of industries use drones, the fastest growing commercial adopter is the construction industry. Drone use on the job site has skyrocketed in the last year — surging 239% — and construction is now the leading sector using DroneDeploy.
With growth like that, you probably have some questions. How are companies putting drones to work? Who exactly is benefiting from drone data? And what are the results?
In this post, we share some recent insights uncovered from analyzing the latest DroneDeploy user data. Read on to get the most recent trends and statistics from drone data captured on 400,000 job sites in 180 countries.
Who’s Using Drones on the Job Site?
We talk a lot about what’s possible with drones on our blog, but who is actually taking advantage of the technology?Project managers, technology managers, and superintendents are the top roles benefiting from drone data to date.
It’s no surprise that project managers are leading the charge to bring drones to the job site. The typical project runs over budget, behind schedule. Drones help close the gap.
How are Drones Put to Work in Construction?
Builders use drones to collect real-time data about projects and understand what’s happening on site. Aerial insights improve progress tracking and help catch problems early — before they become costly or add weeks to a project’s timeline.
But progress tracking is far from the only way construction companies use drones. By spending less than an hour each week mapping a job site, contractors gain access to an unprecedented amount of knowledge about nearly every aspect of their project. With this data in hand, DroneDeploy’s software makes it easy to plan, communicate, and keep projects on schedule.
How are Construction Companies Benefitting from Drones and Aerial Data?
Drones do more than improve communication and help keep projects on track. They also increase safety, save time and resources, fast-track surveying, and deliver accurate measurements. We surveyed our construction customers to see exactly how use drones on the job site. Here are the top results.
We reached out to our construction customers earlier this year, and they reported a wide range of benefits from using drones. Explore the infographic below for the complete breakdown of the results.
What Software Tools are Construction Pros Using with Drone Data?
While thousands of construction customers use DroneDeploy on a weekly basis to collect, process, and analyze drone data, added value comes from incorporating maps and 3D models into existing planning, design, and management workflows.
How Accurate is Drone Data Captured on the Job Site?
As construction companies turn to drones for aerial data collection, we’ve seen a rise in the demand for higher data accuracy. Today, companies are using ground control points (GCPs) — ground markers measured with GPS to calculate absolute global positioning — more than ever before with DroneDeploy. The number of maps processed with GCPs grew 5X in 2017 and is currently increasing at a rate of 20% each month.
Measurements are also more common with construction customers. Construction companies use DroneDeploy’s built-in analysis and annotation tools to calculate area, volume, and distance accurately. Exactly how accurate are drone measurements? Using GCPs, customers achieve 99% accuracy. Learn more in our white paper: Linear Measurement Accuracy of DJI Drone Platforms and Photogrammetry.
What are companies measuring? Stockpiles are some of the most common things measured with drones on the job site. In 2017, DroneDeploy users measured more than 300,000 stockpiles to estimate value and track volume changes over time.
DJM Aerial Solutions discuss the 10 main reasons you should be considering high level drone inspection to compliment your current routines.
Drone Inspection
Drone Inspection using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as we know are fast becoming the preferred method of visual survey across a wide range of industries. Drone inspection is the safest alternative to any manned visual survey method and blue-chip companies are beginning to realise and understand the benefits of including drone inspection within their annual maintenance and repair budgets. Essentially drone inspection is reducing heavy costs related to erecting traditional methods of access but also has a heavy impact on the risks associated with manned working at height.
Drones continue to improve processes across industry reaching into the realms of science fiction in some cases. Drone inspection methods can range from standard outputs through to 3D models with high definition mesh overlays allowing the end user to evaluate an asset from the comfort of his or her desk.
Drone manufacturers and developers breach the norm on a day to day basis with continuous funding pots available to develop services they can offer such as drone inspection, aerial survey, autonomous flight paths, remote sensing, search and rescue and many other highly charged areas that were once difficult or risky to approach using the traditional methods.
We are now certain that drones are here to stay and will provide a positive outcome to all industries that they serve be it drone inspection, Geospatial analysis or medical supply delivery. As a drone service company, we are excited to be involved in this high growth industry and look forward to what is around the corner.
Drone inspection can offer a multitude of assistance to those that adopt the technology, providing numerous remedies to what were once pain points within the inspection and survey market and this blog post aims to alleviate any concerns surrounding the use of drones for inspection purposes.
Author: David Fowkes
28/07/2020
Geospatial technology can play an important role in the expansion of hospital capacity in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In this feature, David Fowkes, sales director at 3D mapping and monitoring specialist GeoSLAM, explains how the rapid surveying capabilities of SLAM technology can enable health officials across the globe to quickly and safely assess potential hospital buildings.
Around the world we have seen unprecedented efforts to increase capacity in stretched health systems as a result of the spread of coronavirus. In Wuhan, China, the epicentre for the virus, the 269,000 sq ft, thousand-bed Huoshenshan Hospital, was built from scratch in just over a week in January as authorities attempted to contain the spread.
In the UK the ExCel London, a 100,000 sqm event centre was rapidly repurposed to create the 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale Hospital designed to increase intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. In addition, six further projects to repurpose existing buildings into temporary hospitals are planned across the country.
This type of project would have been considered complex even prior to the pandemic, so with added urgency and safety concerns, assessing the suitability for temporary hospitals is a significant challenge.
The need for rapid surveying
When surveying these potential hospital sites, accessibility and speed is more important than ever, so teams on the ground can complete assessments quickly and safety. Traditionally, public health officials may have relied on hiring an expert to operate a static scanner, taking time to set up and then map out the site.
The circumstances we face today, however, require a faster solution. Social distancing advice and travel restrictions also mean that a scan may need to be carried out by someone close to the site without any previous surveying experience. A handheld mobile mapping device using SLAM technology therefore comes into its own in these situations, as it does not require GPS.
First developed in the robotics industry, tools using SLAM are capable of scanning indoors or other difficult-to-reach, enclosed spaces. Using information from sensors, normally LiDAR and imagery, digital 3D maps can then be created based on the location of the device, without the need for GPS.
SLAM-enabled lightweight scanners, such as GeoSLAM’s ZEB-REVO or ZEB-HORIZON, can allow surveying teams to map and monitor sites on foot or with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Mobile mapping in practice
The GeoSLAM team recently worked with Microgeo operator Ventimiglia Mattia for Tecnoin Naples, who was tasked with scanning a five-floor hospital building near Naples who was tasked with capturing data to create 3D models to assess floorplans and building measurements.
Requiring a precise scan but delivered at speed, GeoSLAM’s ZEB-HORIZON was chosen as the scanning tool, given its ability to capture distant elements at a range of 100 metres. The device is able to capture 300,000 points per second, ticking the requirement for a rapid mobile scanning solution. It also has a ‘walk and scan’ method of data collection, with minimal training required for any operators.
All five floors of the hospital were scanned in under an hour, utilising the ZEB-HORIZON’s UAV capabilities and capturing data on foot. Reference points were used to merge the scans and geo reference the data – enabling the surveying team to create accurate 3D models for analysis.
To prove that point, when compared to a terrestrial scanner, the scan’s results were within 2mm, a highly impressive accuracy when you consider the difference in time taken for data collection. This level of accuracy would enable surveyors to identify key features of the building, not only showing potential space utilization for beds but also providing all important details such as the number and location of power outlets for ventilators or other machines.
Added to this, by pairing the walk-through data collection with a camera, the ZEB Cam for example, surveyors can create a colorized video. This can be vital to provide context to key decision makers who may not be able to get to visit the site in person.
Keeping workers safe
In these challenging circumstances time is important, but staff safety is of far greater significance. It is critical to limit potential exposure to vectors of the virus, and in a hospital setting this is obviously of paramount importance. Using a terrestrial scanner, setting up the device every one or two metres, it could take a surveyor days or even weeks to scan a substantial building potentially exposing them and the people they encounter to infection.
Using a handheld scanner, by comparison, offers rapid surveying, reducing data collection to minutes or hours and allowing the surveyor to walk through the building at a consistent pace and observe social distancing guidance.
We are increasingly reliant on innovation to continue to work and socialize in these challenging times. From accessing files stored on the cloud and holding video calls rather than meetings, to keeping in touch with friends or family via Zoom, technology is playing an even more vital role in society.
While the economy must continue to function and we should keep in regular communication with our loved ones, there is no doubt that the wider health of our communities is the ultimate priority. We all hope that these new or repurposed hospitals are used as little as possible over the coming weeks and months but, if they are, SLAM technology could have a huge role to play in helping officials to quickly and easily check the safety and viability of each venue.