Drone Technology - Thompson Tractor

Drone Technology in the Construction Industry

Construction is one of the world’s biggest industries, worth about $8.5 trillion a year. However, it is far from the most efficient. In , McKinsey & Company reported that large construction projects of all types take longer than scheduled by 20 percent on average and frequently cost almost twice the budgeted amount.

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Effectiveness isn’t getting any better, either. Construction productivity is surprisingly lower than it was even in the s. Inefficiencies and sub-optimal production processes erode profit margins for projects big and small.

The construction industry accounts for 25 to 40 percent of America’s solid-waste stream. Purchasing and scheduling challenges lead to 15 percent of materials ordered by construction sites ultimately ending up in landfills. In comparison, disposable straws only account for one percent of landfill waste.

In , new technology has begun disrupting standards of operations and making construction more efficient and sustainable. Industry leaders are implementing new technology such as aerial drones in construction to reduce costs while improving site efficiency, maximizing the profit potential while decreasing the impact and waste from each project.

Drone Technology in Construction

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), are a rising trend among many industries. Today, the impact of drone technology on the digital transformation of the construction industry is undeniable. What started as a recreational toy or novelty camera has quickly become a competitive advantage for those willing to deploy it to their benefit.

Drones can do much more than produce high definition images. Scanning with drones can yield many kinds of useful data. These tools can use add-on equipment such as infrared, geo-locating and thermal sensors to assist in mapping construction sites and modeling construction projects. The footage captured can be converted into 3D models with real-world conditions incorporated, allowing for better iteration, higher feasibility and more accurate bids during the pre-construction phase.

Some of the significant advantages of incorporating UAV technology include:

• Reduced process and analysis times
• Less risk and consequently lower costs
• More precise digital data to allow for more accurate readings
• Easy accessibility via cloud-based integration
• More seamless jobsite progress monitoring

Specifically, drones have impacted the construction industry by:

• Enabling better construction site monitoring
• Calculating stockpile volume and material types for inventory
• Calculating length, width and elevation for roads and structures
• Annotating images and maps for easier communication
• Calculating overburden to plan for an efficient removal

Drones are taking an essential place in the construction process and are only increasing in popularity and functionality. Creative site managers are continually finding new applications for drone technology on construction sites.

Why Drones Are Being Incorporated so Quickly

Before the use of drone technology in construction, there was a disconnect between viewing a rendering of a job site versus seeing it in reality. Drone technology has revolutionized the way stakeholders view a site and visualize a completed project and allows for much more careful analysis of progress during construction.

1. Drones Make Your Company More Competitive

Drones have gained traction so quickly because of the competitiveness of the construction industry. Companies using UAV technology have a competitive advantage over other companies that are less innovative and sticking to traditional ways of surveying and analyzing job sites. Incorporating drone technology in your projects can be an enticing sales tool that may make the difference between a lead and a customer.

2. Drones Provide Additional Data

They also can add value to the customer during handover. Providing the client with visual data on the as-built condition of the building allows them to better manage and maintain the property after you’ve finished your work. Having this kind of information on file also reduces the chance of litigation and can be used as a defensive tool.

3. Drones Help You Monitor Progress

UAVs help you and the project owner visualize the completed job and see how the work is going every step of the way. Construction can be a time-consuming endeavor, and it’s not always easy to communicate to a client where exactly your time and their money go. Drones negate that uncertainty by allowing careful observation throughout the entire process.

4. Drones Are Cost-Saving

Drones are also a huge cost-saver across many different expense types. As an owner of a construction business, you’re able to monitor a job site live and take note of suspicious activity such as theft or wasted time. You’re also able to invoice more accurately by performing more quality inspections of work completed.

5. Drones Protect Your Crew

Your team can use the surveillance to check locations for assets and materials, rather than moving about the construction site, unsure if equipment and resources are where they are supposed to be. You can also use the drone to check dangerous areas remotely without risking harming the crew.

6. Drones Condense Data

While the drones themselves have been increasing in quality, so has the software that drives them. Advanced fleet management technologies reduce the work it takes to operate a single drone by enabling several fleets to work together throughout a job site and return all relevant information gathered back to the construction team. Software improvements allow for businesses to scale their company’s operations more quickly while being able to manage more drones at once and make use of them in more locations.

Overall, UAVs minimize the amount of needless work and increase efficiency due to more careful monitoring of the construction process. Mistakes will be caught much earlier and can be corrected before they escalate into a more troublesome problem. With all these advantages, it’s obvious why UAV technology has been implemented so quickly.

Some Drawbacks of Current Drone Technology

While drones provide various advantages for your construction company, they aren’t without some drawbacks to consider.

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has implemented a mandatory registration of all UAVs before flight to receive a certification that allows operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in construction legally. Failure to comply can result in penalties of from $27,500 to $250,000 and imprisonment. Specific restrictions may also be in place depending on the state you reside.

Other countries have similar policies in place, and new ones are being developed. If you consider implementing land surveying technology at your construction site, be sure to investigate what restrictions you have in your area.

Although drones are unmanned aircraft, they still require a human to operate, and reckless or amateur control of these aerial vehicles in construction can cause collisions resulting in personal injury and property damage that leaves you liable. An often-overlooked additional cost of UAVs is better insurance to help cover these risks and minimize loss caused by accidents. Ensuring drones are being piloted safety is important to avoid bringing harm to your crew and cost you extra money.

Where Drone Technology Is Going in the Construction Industry

Regulation

As drones become more popular, the question of how to regulate and manage their use will be a topic of debate.

In October of , the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA introduced a plan to better regulate and utilize this new technology. The program intends to get the federal government, local authorities, tribal governments and private companies all working together on drone rules. This collaboration should make it easier for companies to test drones, go beyond the view of operators and fly over people’s heads.

Thermal Imaging

Thermal imaging is a priority in drone development. This advance allows the drone’s camera to detect infrared radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing precise mapping of numerous structures, landscapes and equipment.

Thermal imaging can help examine pipelines, solar panels, power grids and roofs for leaks, overheating, failure and proper insulation. Thermal UAVs also can help in dire situations if you have a worker trapped in heavy smoke or fog who needs assistance. These types of drones can spot living beings through almost any non-physical visibility barrier.

More automation is sure to come as well. Artificial intelligence is growing smarter and being implemented on more devices. But what does AI mean for drones? Drone mapping is going to become more seamless, allowing your drone to spot trends in the behavior to tell it to do, and eventually be able to utilize its abilities without manually scheduling flights.

Streaming

Recording and streaming drone footage to the internet will also become more common and will allow for more transparency within the operations going on throughout any job, which will increase the customer’s trust and prevent roadblocks you may have experienced by correcting your strategy in the future.

We will likely see even more innovative drone applications in the construction industry in the future.

What to Consider When Purchasing a Drone for Your Construction Site

When comparing construction drone technology companies and deciding which model to invest in, you should consider a few different elements:

1. Camera Quality

The higher the resolution of the camera used by a drone, the better the quality of the image you are going to get. High definition images are necessary for some features and software to work correctly, so to get the best utility out of a UAV, you’ll need a good camera.

2. Portability

How easy it is to take your drone from place to place varies in importance depending on its application. If the drone is going to be in one location for extended amounts of time, then portability may not be the most significant factor in your purchasing decision. However, if you think you’ll be continuously cycling your drones through different construction sites, you’ll want to be sure that the drone isn’t too heavy, and you might even want to be able to reduce its size by folding it into a compact form.

3. Durability

Can the drone stay pristine in typical construction site environments that tend to have a lot of dirt and dust being tossed about? If your drone can’t stand up to the elements and inevitable wear and tear, it is not worth the investment no matter how advanced the technology is inside.

4. Stability

Stability deals with wind speed resistance and how well your UAV can stay centered while being operated in rough conditions with a lot of air movement or rain. Consider what kind of hazards you face on your typical job sites and make a drone selection based on what appears to be best equipped to deal with those hazards and still produce a high-quality image no matter what the weather entails.

5. Ease of Use

Link to NEW WING Drone Winch

Find out whether the drone comes ready-to-fly out of the box. If you must buy a modular camera, how easy will it be to install? You’ll also want to know if the drone includes any chargers or what other add-ons you might need. These are all questions that you must ask yourself regarding the ease of using your drone. There are certainly some drones that make the installation and operation easier than others.

Keeping these five aspects in mind when shopping for reputable drone companies and devices will help you make a favorable decision on the best drones for construction sites.

The Value of a Partner in Heavy Equipment

Partnering with someone with niche experience in heavy equipment solutions can help you make smart decisions about the kinds of technology that will be most transformative to your business. Searching for a company that caters specifically to the demands of the building and construction industry can aid your work on multiple fronts while saving you time managing your technological assets.

At Thompson Tractor, we can offer you technology systems that assist with building information modeling, site prep, layout, leveling, grading and more. Purchasing both equipment and services from the same reputable dealer saves time and money on top of great customer service. We can provide a variety of heavy equipment solutions and optimize your business for success.

Identifying and locating drones and their pilots can mitigate threats

Consumer-grade unmanned aerial systems (UAS), also known as drones, promise to enhance lives and operations in significant ways. As with many new technologies, though, safety and privacy concerns abound.

Inexpensive and widely available, drones flown by clueless or careless pilots can create public safety hazards. Criminals or activists can spy on and record video of sensitive sites. They can even drop rogue access points on rooftops over corporate data centers or fly over corporate campuses to gather information from employees’ mobile devices.

And drone-borne terror attacks could threaten sites in the United States. This is not paranoia. Look at the short amount of time it took for airplanes to be weaponized. Less than 10 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, a person flying a plane dropped a brick onto someone’s head.

It seems obvious that a person should have the right to defend against criminal or terroristic drone uses, but the reality is that very few legal remedies are available. In fact, because of the curious complexities of several laws, defenders against drones may find themselves in more legal trouble than the offending drone pilots.

Given that it is illegal for non-federal entities to use kinetic countermeasures against a drone, the next line of defense is detection. And, as with any security threat, the earlier the warning, the better. Early detection of drone threats in the airspace provides more time to respond effectively. Luckily, there are many drone detection systems on the market today, but they all work differently, and each has its strengths. The following 10 questions should be considered when evaluating drone detection systems.

1. What Is a Drone Detection System?

A drone detection system typically consists of two key components:

• Sensors that detect drones in the airspace, which may include both physical sensors and the computers required to process the data that is collected
• A user interface that displays drone detection data hosted on a local server or in the cloud

2. What Are the Different Types of Drone Detection Sensors?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) divides four commonly used sensor types into primary and secondary categories.

Primary Sensors

Primary sensors are able to detect drones with high enough accuracy and low enough false alarm rates to operate as standalone solutions. That is, they do not require data from other sensor types in order to validate their detections. The two types of primary sensors are:

• Radar
• Radio frequency

Secondary Sensors

Secondary sensors need additional data from other sensor types in order to accurately detect drone threats with a low false alarm rate. These additional sensor types can be used to enhance the accuracy of – or provide more detail about – drone threats, but they cannot be used as a standalone system. Examples of secondary sensors include:

• Acoustic
• Camera/infrared

3. How Do Drone Detection Sensors Work?

Radar

A radar system consists of two components, a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter sends a radio signal in a particular direction, and the receiver detects the echoes off any objects in the path of the signal.

Radio Frequency (RF)

An RF system detects the signals transmitted between the drone and the controller. As a result, if a drone and controller are within range of the sensors, it can detect them even before a drone takes flight – which provides very early warning. This also makes RF detection unique because, unlike other systems, it can detect the controller, which means it can identify the location of the pilot.

Acoustic

Acoustic sensors listen for noises in the environment, and the data provided by the sensor helps confirm whether or not a drone is in the area.

Camera/Infrared

Some camera systems can detect movement but require a complementary system to confirm that the movement is a drone and not, say, a bird or a piece of trash blowing in the wind. Other camera systems are used to gather visual evidence, but data from another sensor is needed to tell the camera which way to point.

People often ask if an RF system can detect a drone that is flying autonomously on a pre-programmed path. Typically, the answer is yes, because even in this situation, the drone sends a periodic signal to “check in” with its controller to make sure there are no updated instructions.

4. What Are the Pros and Cons of the Different Sensors?

Each type of sensor has its own advantages and disadvantages. See this chart for details.

SENSOR TYPEProsCons Primary Sensors RadarVery long range
Provides altitudeDetects anything that moves, therefore has a high false positive rate in a busy urban environment
Cannot detect until a drone is in flight
Cannot detect a controller
Actively transmits a signal, which may not be appropriate for all environments Radio FrequencyOnly solution that can detect both drone and controller
Does not require line of sight
Can detect a drone and controller as soon as they are turned on and connected (before flight)System must be configured to filter out ambient RF signals
Location accuracy may vary depending on the environment
Performance degrades in heavy RF environments Secondary Sensors AcousticDoes not require line of sightMust be combined with another detection method
High false positive rate in noisy urban environments
Very short range
Cannot detect a controller Camera/InfraredEasily captures visual evidenceRequires line of sight
Must be combined with another detection method to guide camera angle

5. Should Redundancy Be a Concern?

It is important to consider the impact on a drone detection system if a sensor fails, whether by sabotage or component failure.

A camera-based or acoustic system would simply be “blind” or “deaf” in the failed sensor area.

Depending on the configuration of a radar-based system, the system would be either somewhat degraded in a distributed model or totally down in a centralized model.

Some RF systems require multiple sensors: one to detect and three to locate. If the “detector” goes down, the system may still operate for some drones, but much more slowly. If a “locater” sensor goes down, the location accuracy degrades.

For RF systems that use a single detector/locator sensor type, consider a minimum of four sensors to provide for redundancy in system deployment. Three sensors provide the most accurate location information so, if one is down in a four-sensor deployment, location information can still be provided.

6. How Many Sensors Are Needed to Protect a Facility?

It varies a lot. And there are many considerations, including:

• Facility size: How large is the site? Larger sites require more sensors, not just on the perimeter, but potentially in other areas, too.
• RF environment: Some sensors simply do not work in extremely busy RF environments. For sensors that do work in such areas, detection range is reduced, along with drone flight range, so more sensors will be required.
• Topography: Are there any hills, cliffs or large buildings in the area? Do the structures or traffic change regularly? Buildings, metal structures and hills all affect drone and controller detection and location accuracy. Sensors that require line-of-sight will be defeated. Drone signal distortions caused by environmental elements render some RF-based systems inoperable. Other RF systems continue to function with somewhat degraded location accuracy.

7. What Is the Range of a Drone Detection System?

This is one of the most misunderstood questions. The reason is, most detection range statistics are based on ideal conditions: a clear, sunny day in a flat, open area with no major obstacles, like buildings, hills or other moving objects, or signal transmissions, like Wi-Fi networks, cell phones, metal detectors or dashcams.

So if a facility is located in the desert, a vendor’s statistics can probably be taken at face value. But if not, the vendor should be asked whether they have deployed in an area similar to where the facility is located. Ask them about the detection range in those specific areas. And even then, understand that every environment is unique, so range estimates will be a guide, not a definitive answer.

8. How Do RF Drone Detection Systems Locate a Drone or Controller?

First, it is important to establish that there are RF-based drone detection systems on the market that extract the GPS coordinates of a drone and controller from the signals they send. There is just one problem with this: it is illegal. It requires the system to demodulate and decode the signal, which violates federal wiretapping laws.

With legal systems that use the physical characteristics of a signal to identify location, there are two key methods: triangulation and trilateration.

Triangulation

In triangulation, the sensor uses the angle of the signal to determine the approximate line of approach. Typically, it is accurate to within +/- 5 degrees, so it is best represented by a cone.

The triangulation method, however, cannot tell how far away a drone or controller is from the sensor. The drone could be anywhere along the angle of approach.

The intersection of three cones is required to locate a drone or controller.

Trilateration

In trilateration, the sensor uses the power level of the signal to calculate the distance of the signal from the sensor. A drone or controller could be anywhere at that distance, so this is best represented by a circle.

The intersection of three circles is required to locate a drone or controller.

Pros and Cons of Triangulation

Triangulation provides early warning of the approach path, even if only one sensor is initially detecting, so security personnel immediately know in which direction they need to go. However, because one sensor cannot provide distance information, this can result in a high false positive rate, as a drone may be too far away to be a threat.

RF signals can reflect off of many surfaces, including buildings and vehicles, and this can diminish location accuracy. In the case of a reflection that results in no overlapping cones, it can prevent the system from locating at all. While this may affect drone location accuracy, the greatest impact is to controller location accuracy.

Pros and Cons of Trilateration

Trilateration allows for the setting of a distance threshold for alerts, which can reduce the false alarm rate. However, the system will require data from more than one sensor before security personnel can know where to respond.

RF Location MethodProsCons TriangulationProvides early warning of the approach pathWhen only one sensor is used, may result in a high false positive rate if drones detected are too far away to be a threat
Signal reflections off objects like buildings or vehicles degrade location accuracy (and sometimes the ability to locate at all) TrilaterationCan be configured to only alert to drones within a certain distance of a facility to reduce false alarms
Able to locate even if signals are reflected off buildings or vehiclesDoes not provide early warning of the approach path

Because signal reflections have very little impact on signal power levels, a system that uses trilateration will be able to detect drones and controllers even in busy urban environments.

9. How Should Desired Outcomes Be Defined?

Goals and response tactics drive the type of drone detection system that is right for a given organization and situation.

Drone vs. Pilot

The system may be called drone detection, but the reality is, not much can be done about the drone. Outside of the military and federal government, mitigation is illegal. And even if mitigation were lawful, would an insurance company provide liability coverage if an organization’s security personnel caused a drone to fall from the sky and injure a person or damage property? Maybe not. So the best option to stop a drone from flying is to find the controller.

If the controller can be found, so can the pilot. If the pilot is just a careless or clueless operator, security personnel can ask him or her to land the drone. In the case of a bad actor, local law enforcement can make an arrest.

Accuracy vs. Reliability

Drone detection requests for proposal (RFPs) often contain a lot of technical questions. They ask for details on range, location accuracy, and time to detect, which is not surprising. Organizations are under pressure to use more data to justify decisions. What’s more, hard data feels much easier to compare than lists of features and capabilities.

But what will provide the best outcome? A system that has a long range and provides high location accuracy, but has a high false positive rate, so security tends to ignore the alerts? Or one that provides a good approximate location with a low false alarm rate, so security personnel take detection notifications seriously? It is something to think about.

Lots of Arrests vs. No Drones in the Airspace

How will the success of the drone detection program be measured? What is the goal? Often, when organizations start to plan, their goal is to get the bad guys. Lots of warnings or arrests equal success. But when a drone detection system is deployed, and security staff is empowered to respond quickly and effectively, something else often happens.

The drone threat is reduced as drone operators learn to stay away from facilities where security comes after them. At the end of the day, the best outcome is to eliminate the drone threat altogether.

10. Will Regulations Change to Allow More Active Countermeasures?

Drone technology moves quickly. Regulatory changes do not. Most security personnel regard taking a “wait-and-see” approach as not being a responsible option. Situational awareness of drones in the airspace provides actionable knowledge of a security risk. Pilot detection and location information give a security team a chance to prevent an incident from occurring, and that is an effective form of mitigation.

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