Top 4 Uses of Drones for Computer Vision in Construction
Unmanned aerial vehicles; better known as Drones are largely associated with the military. This is rightly justified, as for a long time drones were used by the military to carry out tasks that either didn’t require human assistance or were too dangerous to be carried out directly by humans. They started becoming more accessible by the twenty-first century and transformed into an intrinsic part of the military arsenal. Over the years, drones started to carry out more varied functions, like policing, topographical estimations, and emergency aid. Drones now have even started to cater to civilian recreational needs. Here, we explore ways to integrate drones and computer vision in assisting construction.
Land Survey & Identification
Any construction project requires extensive site identification and analysis. This includes understanding land contours, vegetation, and so on. Traditionally this is performed manually, with little technology involved. However, introducing a Computer Vision equipped drone can turn out to have multiple benefits compared to manual surveying.
A drone can ariel views of the concerned land from micro and macro perspectives. This visual and spatial input from the multiple sensors and cameras of the drone can be analyzed by computer vision to determine multiple parameters required in completing a survey.
From an architectural standpoint, Computer Vision equipped drones can be used to identify land textures, contours, and elevation of a concerning piece of land. Computer vision can help analyze the input to understand the multiple parameters of the land and compare it with desired parameters.
From a commercial standpoint, Drones can be used to assess the architectural context of the land. This involves understanding the nature of surrounding structures, assessing accessibility to the proposed building, and understanding any potentially unfavorable structures to the proposed project.
Computer vision can further help compare these real-time parameters with favorable parameters to determine the feasibility of undertaking a project on this land. Such AI-assisted surveying saves time, and human and economic resources required for the project while minimizing any potential for error.
Real-time Inspection and Management
Continues and a comprehensive inspection are required to ensure maximum standards of the structure being constructed. Traditionally, these inspections were carried out by individual human supervisors. Introducing drones into this process could supplement humans and at times even replace them.
Using Drone assisted supervision provides you with multiple perspectives while enabling remote inspection. In addition, has the capability to include multiple individuals in the inspection process without any one of them accessing the said site in person. This is useful when dealing with structures and sites that are comparatively hard to access.
In addition, it helps to expand the inspection beyond the visible surface. X-Ray vision-equipped drones can help provide visuals of the inner layers of a structure and hence help assess the integrity of the structure. This prevents higher maintenance in the future due to shoddy work during construction. The inputs from the drones can be instantly analyzed by computer vision to provide real-time data to responsible personnel.
Accessibility
Large-scale construction sites have difficult-to-access areas. Accessing those areas may be a potential hazard, which may endanger individual safety. Here is where UAVs come in.
Drones can improve general accessibility on construction sites and help access hard-to-reach places like the roof. Accessing such places would require constructing extra structures like scaffolding which would require more time and resources.
Using drones would give you better images, however, integrating computer vision would help analyze these images in real-time which would again save time and resources.
The accessibility that Drones provide can also be used to enforce safety restrictions. It can be used to check for safety compliance by workers working in areas that are difficult to cover by conventional CCTV cameras.
Management
All structures require proper management and maintenance post-construction. However, accessibility to certain areas in a structure reduces once the scaffoldings and other structures used during construction are removed. Drones can be used to access such locations without rebuilding such support structures, which will save time and resources. Computer Vision Equipped Drones can identify any damages that require maintenance in the future.
Conclusion
Unmanned Arial Vehicles, or more commonly drone has immense potential when integrated with computer vision. Primarily drones enhance accessibility and offer a unique ariel perspective that is otherwise difficult to get. This is not to say that drones are a one-stop solution, but rather to say that investing in drones equipped with computer vision is a long-term resource-saving measure.
This is where we come in. We at Revca aim to assist and provide automated Computer Vision solutions to the world. If you are looking towards building an efficient and safer world, contact us and join our mission to make Computer Vision more accessible, one solution at a time.
Blog Author: Fathah bin Nazar — Content Writer at Revca
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