Engineering Efficiency Utilizing Drones

Drones are not new to the design and construction industry. For several years now, architects, engineers, and contractors have been utilizing drones for several purposes. The primary purpose of drones is to create efficiencies that save the client time and money.

I recently sat down with Allgeier, Martin and Associates’ (AMA) Land Surveyors and Drone Pilots, Darin Carpenter, RLS, and John Birner, RLS to learn more about how drones are advancing our industry. Darin and John started flying drones in 2014 to execute a topographic survey of two (2) square miles. A loyal client required a large area topo that had many obstacles to traditional “boots on the ground” surveying.

“We were looking at flying the site traditionally with an airplane. But we were aware of drones and started looking into using drones instead, “ says Darin.

John added, “a traditional physical topo of that size would have taken us three (3) months. Because we used drones with a sub-contractor, the job took one (1) week. If we did the same job today, now that we know better what we are doing, the job would take us three (3) days.”

Not only does utilizing drones for large topographic surveys save time, but the data gathering is quicker than traditional topo surveying. Because of this efficiency, engineers can deliver designs quicker with more efficient data collection from which to make design decisions. This benefits clients by reducing their project schedule, sometimes significantly, and provides greater confidence in the design plans due to quicker field data.

The data gathered by drone flights also produces better imagery than traditional aerial imagery. The orthomosaic imagery is stitched together in drone photographs and creates a higher definition image.

Additional Drone Applications

Once Darin and John realized the value of using drones, they both earned their Federal Aviation Administration license to commercially fly unmanned aerial vehicles, a.k.a. drones. Now Darin and John fly AMA-owned drones for multiple purposes.

“We can do gravel pile quantities, engineering inspection, and marketing video,” says Darin. “Engineers use our drone services for inspecting electric poles, communication towers, roadways, bridges.”

John adds, “Instead of having 35 still pictures of roadway inspection, we can now deliver 35 minutes of video inspection.”

Lazar Imaging Detection and Ranging or LIDAR is used to make 3-D representations or point clouds of targeted spaces, whether outside or inside. Attaching LIDAR equipment to drones allows surveyors to capture an immense amount of data to create a 3-D model or map from which engineers make design decisions. Utilizing LIDAR with drones provides the ability to capture data for measuring vegetation and tree cover, among other things. While AMA does not own LIDAR equipment, we are increasingly sub-contracting LIDAR data collection and post-processing for multiple clients and applications.

The Future of Drone Services

There are more avenues of discovery for A/E/C firms to utilize drones. In talking with Darin and John, we realized drones can be useful for water tower inspections, wetlands delineations, hazardous land area inspections, floodplain surveying, and active flooding data, among others. Using drones is not only efficient for surveyors and engineers but is a means of protecting life by capturing data in difficult and dangerous places that once required the proximity of an inspector.

What applications can you imagine for drones in the A/E/C industry? We would love to hear from you.