USING UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS FOR CONSTRUCTION VERIFICATION, VOLUME CALCULATIONS, AND FIELD INSPECTION

Abstract

The construction field is one of the most variable industries due to continuous technological advances impacting this industry. Innovative research is currently being applied to construction disciplines such as surveying and design in order to optimize labor, costs, and time. However, there remains a need to improve productivity and safety for construction projects. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have been implemented as a means to offer a new alternative for onsite data collection, due to the limitations of traditional surveying methods such as GPS and total station, which are usually an exhausting manual process. The main goal of this research was to use UAS technologies to improve the efficiency of construction surveying and inspection activities. Different UAS flights were performed to verify a variety of measurements obtained from building plans. The comparison of volume calculations for an aggregate pile was determined using full point cloud data to generate a 3D model, which was compared with the 3D models obtained using GPS point and extracted point cloud. The model obtained using the full point cloud data showed greater accuracy as compared with the traditional surveying models since its generated surface was more similar to the actual surface of the pile. Field inspection of a bridge’s typical structures was accomplished by using a point cloud model, as well as photogrammetric models under daylight and twilight conditions. The highest linear measurement variation for field inspection was almost 1/3 foot in a 33-foot length. This outcome yielded a generally acceptable degree of accuracy for inspection tasks. In addition, photogrammetric models can provide high-quality pictures for visual inspection of other bridge components, such as the assessment of the Rip Rap located at the beginning of the bridge selected for this research.