24th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Boston, Massachusetts, USA - 2016

Evaluating the Performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Safety Inspection

Dayana B. Costa1, Roseneia R. S. de Melo2, Juliana S. Álvares3 & Angelo A. Bello4

1Associate Professor, Engineering School, Department of Structural and Construction Engineering, Graduate Program in Civil Engineering (PPEC), Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), BA, Brazil, [email protected]
2Civil Engineer, MSc Student, PPEC, UFBA, Brazil, [email protected].
3BSc Student, BSC in Civil Engineering, UFBA, Brazil, [email protected]
4BSc Student, BSC in Civil Engineering, UFBA, Brazil, [email protected]

Abstract

The potential use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAS) has come to the attention of the construction industry. However, its use still demands investigations for a better understanding of how this technology can be fitted to construction management tasks. This paper aims to evaluate the application of UAS for safety inspection on site, focus on its utility, equipment performance and risks associated with the use of that technology. For this, two case studies were performed in Brazil. Data was collected from flight tests on site for visual assets gathering and regular meetings with project personnel for feedback were held. The safety inspection analysis was based on the visualization of the safety requirements in the visual assets collected. Document analysis and interviews with project personnel and workers were performed for supporting the performance evaluation. As a result, the application of UAV could provide the visualization of 87.2% (Project A) and 58% (Project B) of the safety inspections items selected, providing detailed information for safety monitoring on jobsites. Barriers such as meteorological factors and pilot training influence the technology use for safety inspection. Further studies are under development in order to evaluate the impact of the safety inspection with the support of UAV in a systematic way.

Keywords

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Systems (UAV/UAS); Safety inspection; Visual assets; Construction management.

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Reference

Costa, D. B. , Melo, R. R. S. , Álvares, J. S. & Bello, A. A. 2016. Evaluating the Performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Safety Inspection, 24th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , -. doi.org/

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