Roles, Benefits, and Challenges of Using UAVs for Indoor Smart Construction Applications

Abstract

Although construction is often seen as an outdoor activity, much of the work is completed indoors. The indoor environment presents many challenges for the automatic capture of data during progress monitoring, quality control, quantity verification, and overall project documentation. This paper examines the potential of using robots, and more specifically, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS), to monitor indoor construction sites. UAVs have become ubiquitous due to their commercialization as an off-the-shelf tool. However, their potential to facilitate the automation of many mundane and challenging activities in indoor construction is very high. Unfortunately, they also come with some important challenges. This paper explores the potential applications for UAV in indoor construction sites, their benefits, and their challenges. A sample of the benefits of this technology include their in-flight agility, capacity to hold an array of sensors, and automation potential. Challenges include potential safety risks if they distract or interfere with workers, navigation within ever changing surroundings, battery capacity limits, and impacts of automation. Finally, challenges of a multi-sensory smart UAS with respect to emerging technologies such as internet of things (IoT) and possible solutions are discussed.