Research Paper on Drones: Reducing Accidents, Enhancing Real-Time Data & More

Introduction

Drones have been in use for many years, and major companies have adopted their use mainly for other reasons apart from monitoring the safety of the workers. Notably, drones are made of the movement and the control systems; both of which play an integral role in how the device operates to offer the real-time information required by the users. As discussed earlier in the study, among the factors that led to the use of the drones are inclusive of reducing the number of accidents, having real-time surveillance of accident causes, reducing non-compliance delays and additional expenses in projects, helping in data analysis and presentation, and dimension mapping in sites, among others (Hubbard, Wang, Leasure, Ropp, Lofton, Hubbard, and Lin, 2015). Therefore, in the construction industry, drones can efficiently be utilized towards managing construction projects to reduce safety risks and enhancing performance among the employees.

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The study found that majority of the participants agree to the use of drones within Abu Dhabi ; citing the aspect of improved safety, reduced costs and enhanced performance as the main reasons for its adoption. It is clear that Abu Dhabi is encountered by issues such as lack of proper supervision of the employees, minimal adherence to statutory regulations such that some construction organizations request their employees to work for more than 10 hours a day, which increases safety risks owing to large buildings. Despite Abu Dhabi's integrating measures such as training and awareness programs provided to better foster the working techniques and to leverage the level of safety and health awareness among the construction employees, there are still risks that are pertinent in the organization.

Abu Dhabi has also initiated measures to help in involving the OSHAD regulations for better working environments, which is helpful and well appreciated by the employees. The participants in this research study, however, suggest that the idea of using drones should also be implemented to help in further improving the overall health and safety of the workers and security of projects under construction. As a result, the idea is highly appreciated, with challenges such as regulations by the state government on where and when the drones can be used; distractions caused by the drones to the construction process and need for training being cited. Regardless of these challenges, the workers noted that many benefits would be gained by using the drones, and they will be integral for improving project performance and enhancing the oversight on the health and safety of the construction teams.

The outcome of the study has shown enormous effects on the future of construction industry. The research found that the drones are ideal for monitoring constructions sites, and this is because of many reasons discussed earlier. The future of technology, however, is dynamic, and shifts in the same can develop either to the benefit or demerit of the drones themselves. Firstly, the drones have no design for oversight in construction, and this means their usage in the industry is a customization to fit the construction's needs (Chan, Anstice, Pettigrew, and Saul, 2017). As a result of that, future changes may be done to these devices to either remove various features or advance them such that they are not suitable or are more expensive for the industry. For instance, drones operate on radio frequencies that are transmitted wirelessly. Meaning, in a site with a variation of these frequencies and which is surrounded by many buildings, the drones may not be suitable due to interference that will hinder constant communication with the remote controls. As a result of that, while the drones offer a more substantial approach towards mitigating the issues of oversight and health and safety checks, they still have technological constraints that may hinder their usage, especially on a large scale or high-rise projects.

Questions remain within the field, particularly on the aspect of changes in technology and how they will affect the use of the drones within the construction industry. One of the pertinent issues is whether the drones can offer validated information that is not hampered by external forces such as hacking. Considering that the gadget is reliant on radio waves technologies, the aspect of hacking is integral as the radio waves can get intercepted, thus giving false information to the contractors (Li, and Liu, 2019). The outcome is questioning the integrity of the data received through the drones, primarily if they are operated from a remote location far from the site itself. Additionally, the drones can be hacked and routed to other directions, which may lead to losses for the construction project.

Implementing the idea of using the drones within the construction sites has potential benefits for Abu Dhabi. One of the advantages is that there will be sufficient and consistent monitoring of the employees to help in raising their performance. Through the drones, the workers will understand that their activities get remotely monitored, and this will lead those employees strongly engaged to their tasks in the best way. As a result, higher performance will get recorded, hence prompt completion of the construction projects and thus fewer costs in the same. Additionally, the drones can monitor any cases of risks associated with cracks along the walls, fire, earthquakes, and other disasters that may pull out safety hazards in the construction site. Such would be integral as the process can get called off until the identified risk is resolved, thus reducing any safety and health issues that may be pertinent if the risk occurred. Also, through the use of Artificial intelligence and advancements in technologies, drones can be customized and further advanced to identify hazardous substances such as toxic gases and informing the management about the same to help in evacuating the site until clarification occurs. Such can help eliminate insurance costs for the workers if they are affected by such substances or put in similar situations.

Implementation of drones system in the construction industry can occur in three phases. The first phase would be to conduct a survey analysis on the construction site and validate whether the height of the building is appropriate for the use of drones. Drones can monitor large sites or those spread out over several locations, often more quickly and efficiently than on-the-ground construction supervision personnel (LHSFNA, 2018).Furthermore, the survey will also determine the aspect of interference by analyzing the heights of the neighboring buildings and where the remote location for the survey using the drones could be setup.

The second phase in the implementation process is to identify the number of drones that can be used within the construction process. This can be done by examining the number of employees who will be undertaking the construction process, the size of the construction site, and the design of the building. Analyzing these factors will help in understanding if less than three drones can be used or there will be a need for an additional one.

The third stage is determining how the drones will be acquired. The project management consultant can first identify if they will have to purchase the drones all together or hire them from a third part. Hiring can be done if the project is relatively small, and there are fewer chances of the same drones being reused in the future, but if there are continuous projects, the drones can be purchased.

Recommendations

For effective use of drones in improving construction site performance in Abu Dhabi, UAE, through the reduction of accidents and injuries, by means of promoting the use of industry 4.0 technologies, particularly drone's technology on a project level, the recommendations below need to be adopted.

Projects are supposed to be carried with full compliance of the stipulated health and safety standards. Compliance will enhance the use of drones images and videos for onsite planning from pre-operational stage to completion as well as offering real-time tracking of employees. But with the live recording capability of the drone system, the site manager can deterrent the workplace blind spots, maintain operations at high standards and maintain a safe working environment for all workers.

The structure of the drone must be designed with maximum lightweight materials to enhance its buoyancy in air. Usually, the drones with many arms are more stable than those with fewer arms which eventually determine the application range of the drone. Therefore, the construction of the drone usually with four arms and four motors referred makes them stable to be balanced in extreme environments thus enhancing imaging and video taking for maximum data collection at high standards.

Since the drones move in the air, they require a power supply unit to power the motors to enhance its movement. Since a major setback of all the drones is that they use a battery power supply that lasts for only 15 minutes to which it then lands to the ground, there is a need for using the batteries that can be renewable which are rechargeable and non-renewable.

There should be the development of wireless communication technology fitted on the drone system to help in enhanced the performance of the device as workers are provided with gadgets to inform them; as such, warnings are communicated early enough. Unlike monitoring using manual system, operations by the use of wireless communication technology help in efficiency to achieving the safety of all workers.

It is also recommendable to combine the drones' laser scanning, imagery, and GPS scanning to help in the documentation of land survey data through photo-scan geo-referencing. This kind of combination will help in the documentation and prediction of probable risks thus saving the potential damages that likely to occur if the inspection was to be done manually. The overlying drones scanning and photography will as well ensure that construction teams progress as intended hence enabling the safety managers and the regulatory authority find baseline information for risk assessment and impacts mitigation at the workplace.

Lastly, the project management consultant ought to examine market prices for the drones, quality of photographs and videos they would like from the feed given by the drone, range of control over the wireless transmissions and the size of the actual drone, among other factors. After careful classification, the drones must be purchased within the budget of the construction process and integrated to offer oversight in the construction project. Considerations of other construction projects that have implemented the use of drones also need to be assessed to understand the various specifications that can work for the p...