The Scope of Drones in the Construction Sector

Glenford D’Souza, Senior General Manager, Lynx – Lawrence & Mayo   The demand for drones has increased tremendously in the past decade both in B2B and B2C space, with the global commercial market growth at a CAGR between 16-17% from 2017 to 2023, estimated to reach USD 21.47 billion by 2021, making it the fastest-growing industry.   Progress of drone technology in India Initially perceived as a leisure game product, drones soon turned into an engineering marvel. Disrupting homeland security, disaster management, healthcare, logistics, agriculture, and construction sectors, a ECI-PwC report estimates the country's drone market to reach USD 885.7 million in five years, as the full economic potential of drones is likely to be manifold in the future.   Current absorption of drone technology in the construction sector The construction sector is the fastest-growing adopter of commercial drones and is likely to require 2.5 lakh people with UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operating skills. The success of drone technology in complementing the construction sector lies in it’s innovative applications:

• Site surveying for project planning: Simplifying the most complex component of construction projects, aerial 3D modelling and mapping by drones assists project planners to provide accurate surveys.
• Project progress monitoring: Real-time images and video of construction sites assists in resource optimization. Furthermore, it allows matching available resources with the needs of the organization to achieve the established goals.
• Asset inspection: The inspection of every component on the construction site to ensure proper functioning is facilitated by drones. As it reduces the needed time and labor, drones have also minimized costs by 50%.
• Site security and surveillance: Drones use HD and thermal cameras to provide security and surveillance at the construction site. Overlooking the implementation at the construction site, drones ensure absolute safety.

  Challenges In August 2018, the Ministry of Civil Aviation implemented the National Drone Policy, 1.0 which legalized flying drones. Although this landmark decision paved the way for a wider application of drone technology, certain challenges must be overcome to adopt them fully in the real estate and construction industry. Stepping up the technical expertise and training operative experts is the primary concern. Further awareness is required to mitigate concerns regarding costs, ROI and maintenance of the drones. Legislative challenges include developing a holistic regulatory framework by addressing BVLOS, drone corridors, privacy, etc. Apart from these, incorporation of AI, ML for autonomous learning capability in different scenarios is needed, too.   The Way Forward Exploration of drones with AI, AR/VR, and IoT are still at infancy in India, but advancing gradually. Currently, the government is surveying India with a fleet of 300 drones, gathered to capture aerial footage, combined with other data sources, and subsequently converted into detailed maps using AI. As drones are a key component in the construction project process, its applicability will grow exponentially with time in the Indian construction sector.