By Cotney Construction Law.
There’s an unfortunate stereotype about the work being done on construction sites. Well, perhaps we should say the work not being done. The cliché is that a construction site is a place where workers are standing around doing nothing. Although anyone in the construction industry knows that this is simply untrue, the fact remains that the vast majority of projects end up running past their deadline and over budget. Construction companies are always open to looking for ways to avoid this dilemma.
The Penalties That Stem from a Delay
When deadlines are missed, this can result in financial penalties for contractors. Delays can also compromise a contract, affect the bidding process on other jobs, and, in extreme cases, ruin a professional’s reputation.
This two-part article discusses the future of construction site surveillance and how technology may speed up and finely tune the building process. If new processes can lessen delays by closely monitoring the work being performed at construction sites, everyone in the construction industry will prosper.
Groundbreaking Invention
Future projects within the construction sector may be supervised by robotic devices like drones and rovers. As you probably already know, most construction sites already use various types of drones for aerial shots. This footage can provide valuable intel for the exterior of construction projects; however, the interior area of construction sites have lacked advanced autonomous technology that can record, analyze, or inspect the building process of a site. That is until emerging tech company Doxel unveiled its newest, groundbreaking invention.
LiDAR-Equipped Technology
After recently receiving $4.5 million in funding, Doxel’s artificial intelligent rovers can provide construction sites with measured data that is much more precise than your standard inspector with a tape measure. Although the rover looks like an adorable and more sophisticated version of the robotic vacuums homeowners invest in to aimlessly move around their living space, these Doxel rovers are capable of a much more advanced level of technology and can roam pre-coordinated paths that encompass an entire construction site.
These LiDAR-equipped robots can be let loose at the end of a workday and scan entire sites and determine the progress of the whole project.
Digitizing the Industry
The term LiDAR may not be a household name yet, but it will be in the next decade. LiDAR technology is the integral force behind autonomous vehicles’ vision. As digitaltrends.com explains it, LiDAR technology is a “laser-based surveying method” that creates a “depth-based image of the world by shining out laser lights and then measuring how long it takes for the reflected pulse to be bounced back to the sensor.” In non-techy talk, this means that the Doxel rovers possess a LiDAR scanner that allows them to digitize all of a construction site by scanning it. This initiates the process of sending this data to cloud technology and allows the information to be immediately analyzed.
The Deep-Learning Process
The surveying rover is the medium used on the construction site to collect the data via the high-tech laser scanning process known as LiDAR technology. However, once this information is collected it’s immediately uploaded to a deep-learning process that analyzes the measurable results that the surveying rover collected. Utilizing advanced 3D technology, the cloud system algorithmically analyzes the data and determines the overall quality and progress of the work being performed on location. This highly accurate information verifies that the construction work was completed correctly and remained on schedule.
Note: This article first published on Cotney Construction Law’s website and can be viewed here.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.