36% of Contractors Utilizing Drones on Job Sites
A report from Associated Builders and Contractors, a nationwide construction industry trade association, found that 36.1% of its contractor members are flying drones at their job sites but that regulatory hurdles and training challenges are limiting broader adoption.
Drones are most often used for site progress monitoring (80.8%), marketing and media (77.5%) and inspections and mapping (50%), according to the ABC report released last week.
Others reported using drones for aerial mapping or photogrammetry (37.5%), volumetric analysis (22.5%), land surveying (20.8%), safety monitoring (17.5%), environmental monitoring (12.5%), and security (7.5%).
High-resolution RGB cameras were the most common accessory used by 81.3% of the contractors surveyed, followed by RTK and PPK high-precision GPS/GNSS positioning systems used for surveying (21.9%).
Investment levels in drones vary widely, but 62% report investing between $1,000 and $10,000 for their drones. The overwhelming majority (82.6%) of contractors surveyed said they had purchased their drones from the Chinese manufacturer DJI.
The biggest challenges in adopting drone technology include regulatory and compliance issues (53.5%), training and staffing (43.4%), and limited use cases (37.4%). Other challenges cited were integration with existing workflows (16.2%) and high equipment costs (12.1%).