by Joe Eder
Worker Safety
Construction Safety is a Priority
- There were 1,102 work-related fatalities in the construction industry in 2019. The most important asset in every company is the people they have working for them. Losing a valuable member of a team can lead to decreased morale, concerns about safety, coworkers quitting because of concerns with safety and a huge financial impact of possible lawsuits and replacing valuable members of your team.
- Drones in construction can help reduce the risk of accidents and increase the level of safety and accountability around a construction site. Drones can be used to photograph, map and 3D model a construction site to help monitor potential hazards and identify equipment in hazard locations.
- A key safety element of using drones is the operators themselves. Drone teams consist of licensed and insured pilots as well as skilled visual observers. Together, drone pilot led teams help to minimize cost, increase safety and reduce the overall time to convey critical real-time data.
Saving Money
Drone Building Facade Inspection
- Drones can save a construction company millions of dollars on a construction site through multiple drone use cases. These include site photos, 2D orthophotos and 3D models, LIDAR Maps, time-lapse videos, promotional videos, visual timelines. These can all be done at a fraction of the cost just 10 years ago, thanks to the extensive array of tools drones can carry to help the construction industry.
- Construction companies have found that a 2 –3-week process and several tens of thousands of dollars cost has become a 1 day process when working with a licensed and certified drone service provider. When you’re looking at dramatic 75 percent or greater cost and time improvement, it’s really powerful,” said Hunter Cole, Brasfield and Gorrie General Contractors.
Improvement to Infrastructure
An orthomosaic is a great way to capture close to real time construction progress updates
- When civil engineers are tasked with improving the value and infrastructure of a certain property, they need to survey the property several times. This is where drones can help by surveying the land quickly and precisely and at a much lower cost than traditional surveying techniques.
- When construction companies look at large projects that are floated by government organizations of public institutions, using drones to survey and understand the complexities beforehand can provide intelligence that can help create and submit the most comprehensive and competitive bid.
Audits and Inspections
Construction Workers Face Dangerous Situations
- Drones are unique in where they can be operated with or without human interaction. Drones can be operated by humans when they need to help with audits – where a qualified drone inspector or professional can survey the land or property as per guidelines, standards or requirements set out by a governing body.
- Drones can also be programed to fly from a sheltered home-base and fly the same routes, the same time of day or week. This can help to make sure that the property isn’t being tampered with and that the project is progressing to scope. This can save a construction company hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially in reduced theft, phase audits and work certification costs.
- In summary, construction companies have been using drones for construction progress monitoring, planning and marketing for years now, but with continued advancement in drone capabilities, the impact of drones to the construction industry continue to streamline time and cost as well as worker safety issues factors.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on matters pertaining to the safe, professional, and ethical operation of drones. Please check our website at and watch this space as we expand on the above topics and more over the coming weeks and months. If you like this post, feel free to click the share button at the top of the page. We appreciate you helping us by spreading the content we share on our blog.
Joe graduated with B.S. in Business Management and spent 13 years at IKEA as a manager building and maintaining one of the food service departments in North America. He has always wanted to run his own company and founded Carbon Flight in 2022 after flying drones and racing quadcopters for 8 years. He has a passion of photography, drones and the outdoors and wants to use this to help others.
Joe was born and grew up in Saint Cloud, Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis along with most of his extended family.
When not at work, Joe spends time with his daughters, family, running, biking, swimming, camping or flying drones for fun. He has run 9 marathons, an Ironman and hundreds of other races and challenges ranging from 20 minute 5K's to 15 hour GoRuck Challenges.
Joe was born and grew up in Saint Cloud, Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis along with most of his extended family.
When not at work, Joe spends time with his daughters, family, running, biking, swimming, camping or flying drones for fun. He has run 9 marathons, an Ironman and hundreds of other races and challenges ranging from 20 minute 5K's to 15 hour GoRuck Challenges.
Latest posts by Joe Eder (see all)
- 4 Ways Drones Impact the Construction Industry - August 21, 2022