It may come as no surprise to hear that the construction industry is the fastest growing adopter of commercial drones. According to DroneDeploy, a drone surveying and 3D mapping app, the use of Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) on construction sites increased by 240% in 2018.

In addition, a recent study by ProDroneWorx showed that 52% of companies in the UK and Ireland who took part say that they are now using UAVs – up from 33% in 2017.

So, why is the use of drone technology so much on the increase and what benefits does digitising a construction job bring?

Well, it seems that more and more construction project managers are using drones to see, measure and report on their job site on a weekly basis to save time, improve safety, cut costs and reduce workflow. By tracking progress and providing real-time information over the whole site, they often give a fuller picture than information gleaned on the ground – allowing project managers to make and action decisions there and then.

So, what can you get from using a drone that you couldn’t get before?

• You see the whole of your site in one frame
• You can build orthomosaic maps which offer an accurate representation of the land, can be used to measure true distances and allow you to look at how things are changing over time
• You can create 3D models, allowing you to see things from a 360-degree perspective
• You can create CAD (computer aided design) overlays – taking a picture of the current site and putting design plans on top – enabling you to see how the site is evolving.

When it comes to project management, these things are clearly an advantage as you have a digital record of the progress made and issues that have been, or are yet to be, resolved. With this comes the ability to communicate the information clearly across the team and without the risk of individual interpretation.In terms of on-site safety, drones reduce the need for workers to access dangerous areas on foot as walkthroughs can be undertaken remotely, and hazards can be identified quickly and efficiently, and dealt with before they become any bigger.

Obviously, using drones is far quicker than any ground-based survey making the whole development process more efficient and leading to far quicker completion of a project which is arguably of higher quality. On a 60-acre job site, drones can take an hour to capture the survey data that would take 1-2 weeks using traditional methods.

With these advantages, it’s hard to see how the use of drones on construction sites is set to do anything but increase yet further.