{"id":37673,"date":"2018-01-12T11:43:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T11:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=37673"},"modified":"2018-01-12T11:44:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T11:44:48","slug":"drones-in-the-construction-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/digital-construction-news\/bim-news\/drones-in-the-construction-industry\/37673\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones in the construction industry: Ready for take-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

The growing adoption of BIM and demand for digital data are fuelling the take-up of drones in the construction industry. Ian Tansey of ProDroneWorx discusses this growing technology and its potential to transform the sector<\/h2>\n

The construction industry is moving towards to a world where digital information is an essential part of conducting business due to the many benefits it brings. Within this industry, its commercial adoption is being accelerated by the shift towards more and more companies using BIM (Building Information Modelling).<\/p>\n

Drone technology<\/a> is one of the tools a company can use to produce digital data, other methods include ground-based scanning. Drone technology can be deployed very quickly, safely and cost-effectively on any job that requires digital information.<\/p>\n

Here are some interesting facts about drone technology:<\/p>\n

1. Drones are going to be a major disruptor in the construction industry now and in the coming years. Early and effective implementation of the technology will give companies a significant edge in a very competitive market.<\/p>\n

2. According to PwC, drone technologies will upend and reshape construction-related business models. Of all industries, construction has the best prospects for leveraging drone technology.<\/p>\n

3. Balfour Beatty<\/a> is also predicting that drones in the construction industry will play a key part in the digital transformation.<\/p>\n

These forecasts and adoption of the technology were confirmed in a recent survey by my own company, ProDroneWorx<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A third of the respondents, which included construction firms, surveyors, architects and engineers, were already using drone technology and, of those that did not, almost 70% of them planned to do so in the near future.<\/p>\n

Of the third of respondents that were already using drone technology, the majority (60%) had been using it for less than a year. But an important sub-group of this set (11%) had been using the technology for three to five years \u2013 making them very early adaptors indeed.<\/p>\n

ProDroneWorx believes that drone technology will transform traditional business models and help digitalise the construction industry. Indeed, early adopters are already starting to see a positive impact on their operational processes from the way projects are understood and monitored to the inspection of assets.<\/p>\n

Drones in the construction industry have a wide variety of uses, from 3D modelling (point clouds and textured models), topographical surveys and volume measurement to progress monitoring. Indeed, at nearly every stage of the construction process drones can be of huge benefit, from the planning stage to final construction.<\/p>\n

Drone technology and BIM<\/h3>\n

Although drone technology has many applications within the construction industry, currently its primary use is in photography and video, surveying, asset inspection and progress monitoring.<\/p>\n

The technology also has many uses within BIM, for example:<\/p>\n