As technology advances, designers gain access to a growing array of tools that offer more efficient methods for enhancing their workflows and completing projects. One such tool making a rise in usage is drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), providing many new possibilities among the industry. What once seemed like a niche too is now becoming an important asset to completing specialized tasks and executing projects more efficiently. They now help in providing valuable design information in places that would difficult to enter, dangerous, or too expensive to execute. In such fields like architecture, construction, and urban planning, drones are enabling more precise data collection, faster site analysis, and enhanced visualizations. For engineers, drones are improving everything from surveying hard-to-reach areas to conducting detailed inspections, making tasks that were once time-consuming or dangerous much more manageable.
The versatility of drones has sparked innovative uses that push the boundaries of what designers and engineers can accomplish, and as drone technology continues to evolve, they will become a more integrated tool within the work flow. As drones become increasingly integrated into the fields of design and engineering, the range of tasks they can perform is expected to grow, offering even more possibilities in the future. Lets dive a bit deeper into some of these topics and see where they currently take to the skies.
The Current Usage of Drones in the Design Industry
Given the nature of infrastructure in this industry, there are many situations where the use of an unmanned vehicle can significantly improve both efficiency and safety. Before drones became commonplace, these tasks often required people to put themselves in potentially dangerous situations. In areas with restricted access, professionals would need to spend extra time preparing for hazards or, in some cases, find alternative ways to avoid unnecessary entry altogether. The underlying philosophy behind drones reflects this approach: why expose a person to danger when a drone can perform the task more safely and efficiently? One of the key advantages drones offer over traditional human access is their ability to operate aerially, making it easy to reach high-elevation points like the sides of skyscrapers or hard-to-reach ledges.
Outside of safety, there are also tasks that are laborious or difficult to be traditionally completed by people. Gaining a birds eye view of a construction area can be obtained from satellite imagery, or can technically go as extensive as hiring an aerial crew to grab photography of an area. In this example, satellite imagery can be helpful in garnering a basic understanding of the design area, but it is not accurate enough, or in many cases, recent enough to gain accurate and reliable information from. And aerial crews are obviously too expensive and out for the way for it to be reasonable. Drones provide a reasonable solution to this, gaining accurate information from high above, along with tailoring the view of areas that the pilot desires to focus on. Their specific usages to each tasks that they help fulfill are fascinating in each application.
Data Collection, Site Monitoring and Construction Progress
Drones have come a long way and are provided as an essential tool in collecting data from construction sites. Traditionally, inspectors can come onto site and walk around the area gathering photos or taking notes to gain a working timeframe and view changes and view other forms of progress on the site. Drones now are used in this way to fulfill the same role, while gaining a completely new and useful perspective of the area. They are also used to monitor construction sites in real time, tracking progress and ensuring that projects stay on schedule. Aerial views provide an overview of the entire site, allowing project managers and designers to identify any issues or delays that might not be visible from the ground.
Aerial Mapping and Survey
Drones have found their solid footing within the fields of architectural, urban design, and civil engineering among others by their unrivaled aide in Aerial mapping and Surveying. Drones equipped with high-resolution cameras and LiDAR sensors can create detailed 3D models of landscapes, buildings, and construction sites. These models help designers analyze terrain, assess topography, and plan projects with greater precision. Drones can map large areas quickly, reducing the time and cost compared to traditional survey methods. They’re also adapt at surveying land and infrastructure, especially in hard-to-reach areas. Aerial surveys are faster, safer, and provide real-time data, which is especially valuable for large-scale projects like roads, bridges, and utilities.
Scanning, Photogrammetry, and 3D Modelling
Having access to a 3D model of an existing sites conditions is immensely valuable for a design project, providing accurate information to reliable base a design on. This information can be captured by a ground crew moving a 3D scanner around, but a drone can provide similar reliable information with more efficiency. Drones can capture high-quality, panoramic images from multiple angles. The photos captured by the drone are then stitched together in a separate software to generate a 3D model that will have accurate 3D models and digital twins of buildings and landscapes to be used by designers to review current building conditions or environmental context to inform and iterate on their design ideas. Along with design benefits, this also allows for detailed visualizations that help stakeholders better understand a project before it’s built.
Infrastructure Inspections and Maintenance in Dangerous Areas
Rather than having people climb the side of a structure or use another difficult method to get a close up view of a spot for inspection, a drone can be dispatched to the location and capture close-up photos or real-time video footage. Engineers will use drones to inspect structures such as bridges, towers, and dams. Drones can capture high-resolution images or videos of difficult-to-access areas, reducing the need for scaffolding or cranes, which can be costly to install or transport to a site. Drones can offer other technical benefits, such as being equipped with cameras and thermal sensors that can quickly identify wear, cracks, or temperature variations that may indicate maintenance needs, reducing downtime and improving safety. They also find a strong foothold in the energy sector with their use of inspecting solar panels and wind turbines.
Environmental Impact Assessments
For designers and engineers focused on sustainability, drones can be dispatched and used to gather environmental data such as air quality, vegetation health, and topographical features. This data helps inform decisions in projects ranging from urban planning to green building initiatives. Engineers working in environmental engineering or ecological restoration can use drones to monitor wildlife habitats or assess the impact of construction on surrounding ecosystems.
Interior Design and Space Planning
Drones equipped with 3D scanning tools are being used to capture the interiors of large buildings, warehouses, or historic sites. These scans are then used by interior designers to create accurate layouts and identify potential challenges in the design process. These drones are also sometimes used to generate digital models that can be integrated with VR technology, giving clients and designers an immersive experience before any physical work begins.
Possible Drone Applications for Design in the Future (Speculation)
The fun of analyzing promising technology is speculating on how it will become applicable to a specific industry in the future. In the case of drones, their integration into sectors heavily involved with engineering and design has already begun, and is establishing a promising foothold for itself. As drones become more integrated and other technologies continue to evolve, the potential applications for them increasingly grows. Not only would their current applications in design become more efficient and versatile, but advancements in other technologies from unrelated industries could open up new avenues, offering entirely new ways for drones to assist engineers and designers. Currently, drones find the most of their use within specific niches to aide designers, such as photos and inspections, but as more technologies begin to be implemented into what drones can do, they may find their involvement to design projects to expand into many more avenues.
One area that is expected to see significant improvement in the coming years is battery technology. As batteries become more advanced, one of the biggest limitations currently hindering drone use will be greatly reduced, unlocking a wide range of new possibilities. At the time of writing this article, drones used for design and engineering purposes are functional, but their convenience is often compromised by the frequent need to return to the operator for battery changes. Some techniques have been incorporated into drone technology to help mitigate the inconveniences of changing batteries. For example, some of the higher end drones have begun to utilize hot swapping, which allows the operator to change the batteries in the drone without the need to power it off. As for charging depleted batteries on site, external equipment designed for the purpose of quick charging can get them back to full use (practice caution when quick charging batteries, as it comes with its own hazards). Regardless of implementing innovative techniques, the trip made to swap the batteries still remains as an inconvenience. Advancements to the field of battery technology will bring the main benefit of longer flights with smaller batteries, but other pros can arise from this as well. Once maintaining a longer fight is achieved, reserved charge can be distributed to power other supportive electronics on board the drone. For a designer, this brings the possibilities of having access to possible drones that can run more power heavy equipment, thus, being able to use more beneficial technology with it for information gathering.
A valuable prospect that comes with utilizing more powerful and efficient batteries on drones is to provide them with better hoisting capabilities, being able to increase a drones payload. Since engineering and design has many close ties with construction, an enhanced payload to drones may find a unique foothold for future applications. When working from high, or difficult to access locations, construction plans must be put into place to practically move equipment, tools, assembling parts, and other important components into the construction area. Many parts of this construction plan can be made easy and efficient if something free flying could hoist things to another location with little difficulty. This could be another avenue that drones could find themselves in when drone technology allows for greater hoisting capabilities. As great as this seems, It may be unlikely to find a drone air towing a steel girder anytime soon. However, there are drones today capable of carrying heavy loads reaching 60 kg in mass, so imaging a drone flying small equipment in 10 or 20 years can seem to be a possibility when speculating about it.
While having a higher towing capacity is advantageous, maneuvering a heavy payload without assistance can present challenges in safely transporting items, or even simply flying a drone from one location to another. This is where advancements in autonomous flight technology can make a significant difference. Autonomous drones offer a range of benefits, not only for automatically lifting equipment but also for executing basic flight operations with minimal human intervention. For instance, a drone could be equipped with sensory tools to fly autonomously around a structure, using these tools to detect material flaws. Additionally, it could be possible for drones analyze the geometry of a structure to assess whether it is adequately supporting its load or if modifications are necessary. In fact, certain levels of autonomous flight are already being employed in industries like agriculture, suggesting that the technology could possibly expand into other sectors as well. Maybe this form of autonomy can be paired with an operator watching onboard footage of the flight in real time, being able to give minute adjustments to the drone during its operation. This could be a way to have out-of-house designer dispatch a drone to inspect specific location they desire to see. As speculation usually goes, sometimes the estimated future prospects are accurate, but most of the time it serves as a thought experiment in dissecting existing technologies and finding unique ways combine them into new uses that could aide a specific industry. For engineers and designers, it seems that there could be greater possibilities for drone implementation to come.
In Conclusion
The efficiency, versatility, and convenience drones offer to designers and engineers in various aspects of their work are invaluable. As drone usage continues to grow, new opportunities within the industry are emerging, solidifying their role as essential tools. With the potential for even greater integration, the future of drones presents a vast range of possibilities that could be explored endlessly. There is still much more to explore outside of what was discussed in this article, so comment if you would like to see coverage on any topics in more detail!