Li, Y and Liu, C (2019) Applications of multirotor drone technologies in construction management. International Journal of Construction Management, 19(5), pp. 401-412. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Multirotor drones are considered a new and innovative technology. Therefore, many fields are showing increasing interest in utilizing multirotor drones, such as mapping in mining and surveillance in transportation. The construction industry has been a slow adopter of novel technologies. However, multirotor drones have potential to facilitate construction in many aspects. There is, therefore, a need to extensively research their applications and analyze their roles in construction engineering and management. This paper aims to comprehensively investigate the current applications of multirotor drones, analyze their benefits and explore their potential in the future of the construction industry. Several main aspects are reviewed and discussed, namely land surveying, logistics, on-site construction, maintenance and demolition. The results reveal that the main contributions are work safety, cost-effectiveness and carbon emission reduction, while there are possible adverse impacts on the basis of current limitations of multirotor drones. However, it can be predicted that the usefulness of drones will continue to increase in the future of the construction industry. Thus, this study will benefit construction managers in raising awareness of the use of these emerging technologies and researchers in further exploring applications of multirotor drones in construction projects.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction technologies; life cycle; multirotor drones; unmanned aerial vehicles |
| Index terms: | carbon emission, life cycle, emerging technology, construction engineering, mining, land surveying, construction industry, unmanned aerial vehicle, construction technology, cost-effectivenes, drone, mapping, construction project, construction manager, surveillance |
| Subjects: | innovation and technology management, profession, digital engineering, value management, climate science, surveying practice, geotechnical engineering, industry analysis, economics, engineering methods, spatial and geospatial analysis, monitoring and control systems, automation and robotics, production management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Project Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Governance, Sustainability, Roles and Professions, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here