Can Drones Make Construction Safer?

Posted on by John Howard, MD; Vladimir Murashov, PhD; and Christine Branche, PhD, FACE

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) often called drones are increasingly used for military, recreational, public, and commercial purposes. UAVs have the potential to prevent injury and death in the construction industry where nearly 1,000 workers died in 2015. Advancements in UAV technology could help reduce construction-related injury and death from falls, toxic chemical exposures, electrical hazards, or traumatic injury from vehicle and equipment collisions.

As is the case with other emerging technologies, occupational safety assessments of UAVs lag behind technological advancements. UAVs may create new workplace hazards that need to be evaluated and managed to ensure their safe operation around human workers. A recent paper from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Construction and Worker Safety describes the four major uses of UAVs, including their use in construction, the potential risks of their use to workers, approaches for risk mitigation, and the important role that safety and health professionals can play in ensuring safe approaches to their use in the workplace.

While the article provides a wealth of information on the major uses of UAVs, this blog focuses on UAV use in construction. The commercial segment of the $100 billion UAV market is predicted to be the fastest growing between 2016 and 2020, with the construction industry accounting for the largest share of the growth.1 By 2025, the U.S. commercial UAV sector is forecast to surpass five billion dollars in investments.2

The emerging uses of UAVs in the construction industry range from aiding with construction project planning by aerial mapping of the construction site3 to extending to the actual building of structures.4,5 The most common UAV uses in construction are described below.

Monitoring: Monitoring a large construction site is a challenge for construction management. A UAV can be deployed to send video footage of site conditions to construction management faster and more efficiently than can on-the-ground personnel.  Video can be converted into a three-dimensional picture of the site and then compared to computerized architectural plans to show how accurately the project is progressing.6 Monitoring information obtained by a UAV also serves as a useful input in the preparation of periodic construction progress reports. UAVs can be equipped with far and near infrared cameras, radar or laser-based range finders which can greatly enhance their surveillance and monitoring capabilities at a construction site.7 In addition, tracking moving objects on construction sites such as people, equipment, and material are being developed,8 as well as equipping UAVs with the capability of mapping indoor construction environments.9

Inspection: Often, UAVs can inspect a large worksite more efficiently through aerial photography than on-the-ground personnel can. UAV detection of hazardous conditions, materials and dangerous structures can aid in construction site hazard identification without placing a worker at risk.10,11  Real-time UAV systems performing remote site inspections and violation detection at construction sites may be more efficient, safer and less costly than present construction site inspection methods.7,12 UAV inspection of awkward locations on and under bridges and along highway can not only reduce the cost of personnel inspecting the entire expanse of a highway road or structure, but also reduce the risk of working along a busy highway or erecting equipment close to the flow of traffic. Government inspections of construction sites could also be performed by a UAV. Because inspection of the site would be quicker than an individual government inspector walking an extensive construction site, UAVs could increase the scope and frequency of inspections of construction projects by federal, state and local government agencies.13 Once potential violations were identified by aerial imaging, then inspectors could focus their investigation on sites where the potential violations were imaged.

Maintenance: Using UAVs in carrying out planned or reactive maintenance inspections of tall structures, such as skyscrapers, bridges, and towers where access can be costly and pose a risk to workers of falling from a great height, appears to be a clear benefit for construction workers and managers.14 New FAA rules permitting the commercial use of UAVs has prompted new guidelines for operating UAVs around vertical communications infrastructure.15

Other Uses: UAVs have been proposed as material handling vehicles, transporting tools, equipment and materials at construction sites16 or used to spray paint or waterproof a structural component.17 UAVs can also be used to capture unique views of a structure for promotional photographic purposes.14

Safety

While there are many benefits to using UAVs in construction, the potential risks must be carefully studied. The presence of a UAV flying in close proximity to a human worker can create new hazards at a construction site, although data supporting the hazard potential of UAVs for workers are scarce. Safety professionals need to be aware of these new hazards, assess the risks arising from them, and apply controls to reduce the risks. There has been little published about the safety and health risks associated with the public or commercial use of UAVs.  The military has begun to assess the adverse health effects among remote pilots operating UAVs over conflict areas and has reported stress reactions in military personnel arising from their work as UAV operators.18,19

About 30 incidents of near-misses or crashes leading to human injury have been reported associated with the use of recreational UAVs.20 Unstable flying conditions, operator errors, and faulty equipment may represent potential hazards to nearby workers from the commercial use of UAVs. Adding to the uncertainty about the hazards to workers from the emerging use of UAVs in construction and other industries, the arrival of autonomous or semi-autonomous UAVs may introduce new hazards arising from the absence of human control.

It is important to develop hazard identification, risk characterization and mitigation approaches to ensure the safe operation of commercial UAVs as the use of UAVs promises significant benefits for industry. These approaches might incorporate prevention-through design concepts such as lightweight manipulators, passive compliant systems, safe actuators, and passive robotic systems. Navigation and collision avoidance systems can be included in the design of commercial UAVs as a proactive safety measure. Collision avoidance in the three-dimensional environment is a main area of UAV design research.21 Structural designs should consider stiffness and pliability factors that can reduce the impact force during collisions. Tools for the evaluation of UAV safety during the design22 and certification stages23 are being developed.

Adequate training of operators is essential to ensure the safe operation of the UAV. A competent UAV operator is a person capable of identifying any potential hazard of operating a UAV in the particular construction site surroundings, especially any UAV operating condition that poses a hazard to workers on the ground. The competent UAV operator should be authorized by the construction manager to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate any hazard associated with operation of the UAV.

Next Steps

As the use of public and commercial UAVs gain in popularity, it will be important to review their uses to ensure that hazards and risks to workers are identified and controlled. Collecting and analyzing objective data about negative safety outcomes in the future will also be important. There are several potential sources of information about injuries to workers from UAVs that may be useful including:

  • The FAA database of injuries caused by commercial UAVs, collected under Part 107 requirements,
  • The BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) modified to facilitate identification of injuries caused by UAVs,
  • Accident investigations by OSHA and Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (FACE) investigations by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Occupational safety and health professional organizations should invite speakers on UAV workplace applications to further increase awareness among their members. Safety professionals, organizations and government should adopt a proactive approach to the integration of UAV technology and work collaboratively to develop best safety practices that can promote the beneficial use of this promising new technology in construction and other industries while at the same time ensuring the safety and health of workers working with, nearby, and “below” these new workplace tools.

If you are using UAVs in your workplace, please share your experiences in the comment section below.

John Howard, MD; Vladimir Murashov, PhD; and Christine Branche, PhD, FACE

Dr. Howard is the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Dr. Murashov is a Senior Scientist in the NIOSH Office of the Director.

Dr. Branche is the Principal Associate Director of NIOSH and the Director of the Office of Construction Safety and Health.

 

 

Related blogs:

A Robot May Not Injure a Worker: Working safely with robots

Exoskeletons in Construction: Will they reduce or create hazards?

 

References

[1] Goldman Sachs. Drones reporting for work. 2016. Goldman Sachs. Drones reporting for work. 2016. http://www.goldmansachs.com/ourthinking/technology-driving-innovation/drones/. Accessed July 8, 2017.

[2] McCarthy N. The commercial drone sector is set to contribute billions to the U.S. economy. Forbes. October 19, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/10/19/the-commercial-dronesector-is-set-to-contribute-billions-to-the-u-s-economy-infographic/#343f12632bdd. Accessed July 6, 2017.

[3] Jenkins D, Vasigh B. 2013. The economic impact of unmanned aircraft systems integration in the United States. Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/AUVSI/958c920a-7f9b-4ad2-9807-f9a4e95d1ef1/UploadedImages/New_Economic%20Report%202013%20Full.pdf. Accessed June 30, 2017.

[4] Molitch-Hou M. Ai build to bring artificial intelligence to additive construction. Engineering.com. October 26, 2016. http://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/13512/Ai-Build-to-Bring-Artificial-Intelligence-to-Additive-Construction.aspx. Accessed July 8, 2017.

[5] Borgobello B. Flying robots to build a 6-meter tower. New Atlas. November 28, 2011. http://newatlas.com/flying-robots-to-build-6-meter-tower/20639/. Accessed June 30, 2017.

[6] Knight W. New boss on construction sites is a drone. MIT Technology Review. August 25, 2015. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/540836/new-boss-on-construction-sites-is-a-drone/. Accessed July 4, 2017.

[7] Irizarry J, Costa DB. Exploratory study of potential applications of unmanned aerial systems for construction management tasks. J Manage Eng. 2016;32:05016001.

[8] Fang Y, Chen J, Cho YK, Zhang P. A point cloud-vision hybrid approach for 3D location tracking of mobile construction assets. 33rd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2016). Proceedings of the International Symposiumon Automation and Robotics in Construction 2016 (Jan);33:1–7. http://rical.ce.gatech.edu/Papers/ISARC2016-Paper115.pdf. Accessed July 5, 2017.

[9] Chirtel E, Knoll R, Le C, Mason B, Peck N, Robarge J, Lewin GC. Designing a spatially aware, autonomous quadcopter using the android control sensor system. In Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium (SIEDS), April, 2015 (pp. 35–40). IEEE. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7117003/. Accessed June 30, 2017.

[10] Irizarry J,Gheisari M,Walker BN.Usability assessment of drone technology as safety inspection tools. J Inform Technol Construct 2012;17:194–212.

[11] Gheisari M, Esmaeili B. 2016. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for construction safety applications. Construction Research Congress 2016: Old and New Construction Technologies Converge in Historic San Juan − Proceedings of the 2016 Construction Research Congress,CRC 2016, pp. 2642-2650. http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784479827.263. Accessed July 5, 2017.

[12] Ashour R, Taha T, Mohamed F, Habeel E, Abu Kheil Y, Elsalamouny M,et al. Site inspection drone: A solution for inspecting and regulating construction sites. In Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2016 IEEE 59th International Midwest Symposium (pp. 1-4). IEEE. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7870116/? reload = true. Accessed June 30, 2017.

[13] Hosier F. Could OSHA use drones for safety inspections? Safety News Alert. August 3, 2015. http://www.safetynewsalert.com/could-oshause-drones-for-safety-inspections/. Accessed July 8, 2017.

[14] Watson M. 10 ways to use drones in construction! BIM News. June 28, 2016. http://construct-digital.uk/latest/10-ways-use-dronesconstruction/. Accessed July 3, 2017.

[15] National Association of Tower Erectors. National Association of Tower Erectors. 2017 January. Unmanned aerial systems operations around vertical communications infrastructure. 2nd Edition. https://natehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/UAS-Operations-Document-2nd-Edition-Jan-2017-E-FILE.pdf.Accessed July 9, 2017.

[16] Kumar VRP, Balasubramanian M, Raj SJ. Robotics in construction industry. Ind J Sci Tech. 2016 9:1–12.

[17] Dahlstrom RL, inventor; Working Drones, Inc., assignee. 2015 June 3. United States patent US 9,611,038. Mobile computing device-based guidance navigation and control for unmanned aerial vehicles and robotic systems. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9611038. Accessed July 8, 2017.

[18] Jaffe G. The watchers: Airmen who surveil the Islamic State never get to look away. Washington Post. July 6, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-watchers-airmenwho-surveil-the-islamic-state-never-get-to-look-away/2017/07/06/d80c37de-585f-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html?utm_term=.0acda2a1c075. Accessed July 7, 2017.

[19] Bumiller E. Air Force done operators report high levels of stress. New York Times. December 18, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/asia/air-force-drone-operators-show-high-levels-ofstress.html. Accessed June 30, 2017.

[20] Michel AH, Gettinger D. Drone incidents: A survey of legal cases. Annandale-on-the-Hudson, NY: Bard College Center for Study of the Drone; April, 2017. http://dronecenter.bard.edu/drone-incidents/. Accessed July 4, 1027.

[21] Budiyono A, Lee G, Kim GB, Park J, Kang T, Yoon KJ. Control system design of a quad-rotor with collision detection. Aircr Eng Aerosp Tec.2015;87:59–66.

[22] Uhlig D, Bhamidipati K, Neogi N. 2006. Safety and reliability within UAV construction. Proceedings of the 2006 AIAA/IEEE 25th Digital Avionics Systems Conference: 5B2-1-5B2-9. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4106317. Accessed July 8,2017

[23] Denney E, Pai G. Automating the assembly of aviation safety cases. IEEE Trans Reliab. 2014;63:830–849.

Posted on by John Howard, MD; Vladimir Murashov, PhD; and Christine Branche, PhD, FACE

35 comments on “Can Drones Make Construction Safer?”

Comments listed below are posted by individuals not associated with CDC, unless otherwise stated. These comments do not represent the official views of CDC, and CDC does not guarantee that any information posted by individuals on this site is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. Read more about our comment policy ».

    By far essentially the most succinct and also up-to-date information I found about this topic matter. Certain pleased that I stumbled upon your write-up by opportunity. I will likely be signing up on your rss feed so as I’ll receive the newest posts.

    Thank you for the article, it is of interest to me as drones are rapidly entering my work environment.

    Respectfully,

    Gregg W. Tulley

    Thank you for reading the article. I am glad it is useful to you.

    This information is quite interesting. I would like to have the article mentioned in the post for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation Library.

    Very informative article about drones. I got training to operate drones from [name removed] which also provided me with these things like safety, how to do an inspection, monitoring etc.

    Thanks for your comment. Good to read you got safety training before operating a drone.

    With the increasing rate of accidents in construction, if contractors start to use drones , it is a great possibility that these hazards could be controlled but here the question arises about efficiency of remote control drones. If they are to pick loads and to transfer them from one place to another, it should be made sure that they are precise with their landing location.
    Jacquelynn Thomas

    Thank you for your comment. Control of drones around human workers is the challenge.

    Terrific article. Drones certainly have terrific uses for all types of construction and site surveying work. They can also use Lidar and ToF sensors to measure stock piles of raw materials such as sand and gravel for estimations.

    Thanks for the additional information about the capabilities of drones to use sensors to measure stock piles of various materials.”

    This is a very informative article. Health, safety, environmental professionals must remain aware of developments and increasing adoption of unmanned aerial systems for purposes related to their respective discipline(s). An earlier review article that I recommend as a useful adjunct to this blog post (and accompanying AJIM article) is one I coauthored with Bob Johnson from Argonne National Laboratory. It is titled “Unmanned Aerial Systems in Occupational Hygiene—Learning from Allied Disciplines” and available (open access) from the Annals of Work Exposures and Health (formerly Annals of Occupational Hygiene), 1 Oct 2015. Thanks to the authors of this paper for bringing additional light to this topic.

    Thank you for your comments and pointing readers to your own excellent article on UAVs and their use in occupational hygiene.

    Nice content in the above post is actually and I agree with this. Thanks for providing us with such wonderful information about the relation of drones and construction. That’s really nice and informative.

    Thank you for reading our Blog post and thank you for your comment.

    very informational article. I appreciated your work. I think, yes drones will make construction safe because we saw all the area with a drone. If anything goes wrong, We can handle it perfectly.

    I think this blog is on the top of for showing the real importance of drones. Drones have become now major safety equipment in many fields. Thanks for sharing this valuable information with us.

    And thank you for reading our blog and for your comment.

    As per the running pandemic situation drones are very usefull to check the social distancing rules being followed or not by individuals in some cases..Its a good instrument for saving lives by watching peoples. Thanks

    Drones are a very useful technology but for security purposes, I prefer construction site video monitoring because it has so many benefits, by using this technology we can keep an eye on every activity.

    Thank you for your comment. Indeed, construction site video monitoring can complement the use of video-enabled drone technology at construction sites.

    I am currently writing a dissertation on sustainability of drones in construction and this article has been great to put me a step in the right direction thankyou!

    Drones can video monitoring the site, drones will see if any workers are injured or doing their work properly. It’s a very good investment if you will buy a drone for a construction site.

    Thank you for your comment. Yes, the capabilities of unmanned aerial devices (drones) is being used throughout the construction industry, especially on large construction sites.

    Drone are very useful at construction site it capture whole site inspect issues that are away from human eye and give detail report

    Yes indeed drones can make construction safer, It eliminates the risk of making workers climb large scaffoldings or walk across unsafe structures. Drone building inspections also require less labor and less time. Using UAV technologies like aerial imaging and inexpensive thermal inspections, one can inspect construction structures swiftly and risk-free.

    Thank you for your comment noting the benefits of unmanned aerial devices in construction.

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