Modern jobs need a holistic view of the seen and unseen. No part of a jobsite exists in a silo. When considering infrastructure, the visible portion is just one part of the equation. Whether underground infrastructure, such as utilities, or hard-to-reach portions of a bridge, the inaccessible and out-of-sight portions are just as critical as those in view. Engineers can’t forgo an inspection of a location simply because it is hard to access. Unpiloted systems give teams an advantage, allowing them to navigate underground and otherwise inaccessible infrastructure. Unmanned systems can collect data in smaller spaces, more dangerous areas, or places humans don’t need to go to for safety reasons. Systems such as mobile scanning modules for robotics and other unpiloted systems give teams solutions to capture the data they need to make decisions based on accurate and precise data.
The revolution started with hobby drones. Drones are ubiquitous today; no one thinks twice about seeing them in action—from hobbyists in the local park to Hollywood productions to news articles discussing their potential use in delivering retailers’ packages. Interestingly, the deployment of drones on the construction site began, at least in part, with the proliferation of hobby drones. Many of the powerful unmanned systems, even the higher-end models, work similarly to hobby drones. The key difference is that the professional-grade systems have additional sensors and features that make them even more beneficial and practical for use on the modern jobsite. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, as of February 2024, 781,781 drones were registered in the country, including 375,226 commercial drones. However, the actual number in use is undoubtedly
Eliminate the need for specialized equipment. Consider a bridge inspection. Before unpiloted systems, crews might need specialized rigging and specialized equipment to collect details from multiple points of view, not to mention the potential lane closures and burden placed on the public. This process was complicated, time-consuming, and expensive; crews might have spent as much time setting up and taking down their equipment as inspecting the bridge. If the team missed a detail or needed to verify their data, they would need to return to the site and repeat the process, which would only add time and cost to the project, potentially impacting the bottom line. Using a drone eliminates the need for specialized rigging and specialized equipment. Now, if a crew misses a detail, the team can return and quickly capture new data, but considering the real-time window into captured data, the need to return is often minimal. Users know immediately whether they have captured every bit of information they need.
Over the last couple of years, teams have learned to fully integrate and unify the data from the various unmanned systems they have deployed and leverage this data across an entire project. The process works for indoor and outdoor projects. To give this holistic view of a project, teams could combine an unmanned system flying along the tower and the inner side of a bridge with an unmanned robotic system traversing the inside. Unpiloted systems often use a live camera view to navigate a structure and collect point cloud data.
higher, and it will only increase in the years ahead. The good news is that users are already familiar with drones, making it easier for firms to recruit drone operators. Many operators will say they are familiar with drones because they used a hobbyist version; maybe they used it during their kids’ soccer games or to take pictures for fun. Because they’re already comfortable with the idea of a drone and have played around with the technology, they can quickly understand its practical application on the jobsite for inspections. This also limits some of the time employees need to gain familiarity.
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Summer 2024 csengineermag.com
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