Automation and Robotics in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industry by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030771638
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

6.2.3 Post-construction

During the post-construction phase of a project, drones have been primarily used for performing structure and infrastructure inspections, assessing structures in the post-disaster setting, as well as for marketing purposes.

6.2.3.1 Structure and Infrastructure Inspection

Structure and infrastructure inspection applications are primed for growth in drone technology adoption. In fact, structure and infrastructure inspections are the most common drone applications within the construction industry [1, 3]. These inspections mainly consist of using drones for assessing the condition and structural integrity of structures, including bridges, buildings, cultural monuments, roads, solar panels, dams, and retaining walls. Most traditionally used building and bridge inspection methods include under-bridge inspection vehicles and elevating platforms, scaffolding, as well as rope access [33]. However, these methods have several drawbacks, including: (1) the high equipment and indirect costs; (2) potential safety hazards particularly when accessing hard-to-reach areas and using the rope access and scaffolding methods; as well as (3) the time required for logistics (i.e., mobilization, inspection, and lane closure), factors that encourage the use of more innovative inspection alternatives in this setting [33]. In this context, drone technology emerged as an efficient inspection tool, capable of accessing difficult-to-access areas and minimizing cost, time, and safety hazards associated with conventional inspection tasks.

Structure and infrastructure inspections using drones have been widely explored in the literature. Duque et al. [34] explored drones’ efficacy as a supplementary bridge inspection and damage quantification tool by developing a four-stage damage quantification protocol and testing it on a timber arch bridge. Comparative results with conventional actual onsite field measurements showed that the crack rust stain areas, thicknesses, and lengths quantified using the drone-based protocol were accurate, with minimal differences in values between both methods. More recently, Tomiczek et al. [35] relied upon a custom-designed drone specifically equipped with an upward-directed camera and obstacle avoidance (i.e., optical flow device, laser range finder) sensors and tested its effectiveness by inspecting eight different GNSS-deprived bridges. Despite not providing similar information compared to conventional under-bridge inspection vehicles, drone utilization was recommended for special and damage inspections and as a periodical alternative to conventional vehicles for inspecting bridges in good conditions.

Drones have also inspected buildings for various uses, including damage detection and quantification as well as thermal and energy assessments. For example, Roca et al. [8] conducted comparative analyses between a point cloud of a building facade generated using a drone equipped with a Red-Green-Blue-Depth (RGB-D) camera sensor and an equivalent one acquired using the conventional terrestrial laser scanner method. The authors demonstrated that the drone-generated point cloud compared well with traditional methods, recommending the use of this technology as a standalone building inspection alternative or a complementary solution for traditional inspection methods. The indoor environment of buildings, which is characterized as a challenging environment for drone navigation due to the absence of GNSS, was also inspected using aerial vehicles. A recent study leveraged the use of ultrasonic beacon systems, deep convolutional neural networks, and geo-tagging to autonomously operate drones in GNSS-denied environments and perform indoor building inspection tasks [36].

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