Whether you work in surveying, AEC, or reality capture – and, of course, there is considerable overlap between the three areas that could mean one works in all three on a regular basis – it’s almost certain that you are at least aware of colleagues who are using UAVs for their work. Drones are becoming more popular for a variety of use cases, from public safety to agriculture to mining, and now even delivery and potentially as air taxi services. Surveyors, however, were among the earliest adopters of the technology, recognizing the tremendous value they could bring to their work.
Even with the early adoption, though, it’s a rapidly evolving space. Smaller sensors are allowing for more powerful data collection from smaller UAVs, and AI-powered software is making dealing with the raw data – as well as combining said data with that from other collection techniques – more accessible than ever before. As a result, new professionals are utilizing this technology on a regular basis, and veterans are starting to expand their usage into new use cases. With that, comes the need for continued education in a space that is constantly changing.
Luckily, next month marks the start of our sister event, the Commercial UAV Expo. This conference, held September 3-5 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the 10th edition of the conference. They provide conference content and host exhibitors from all of those industries mentioned above that fall into the commercial UAV space, but given the early adoption from surveying and more recent adoption from AEC, each of these industries is heavily represented. For those who are wondering what value this conference could provide for their work, below is a selection of five sessions from the program that could appeal to surveyors and AEC users. You can find the agenda in its entirety here.
Case Studies in Construction
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Although construction has long had a reputation for being relative laggards in technology adoption, the industry has clearly recognized the value in UAV usage on job sites and have started to use them for a number of different use cases and workflows. Most of the conversations around this value happen on a bit of a higher level, with broad claims about what can be improved and the ease of implementing the tools. This session aims to have these conversations in more tangible terms, with actual end users sharing presentations about real-world instances of how UAV usage has aided their construction workflows.
Advancing Critical Infrastructure Inspections
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Inspections for critical infrastructure has become one of the most important use cases for drone technology. This work can often be extremely dangerous, if not outright impossible, for humans to complete, so being able to deploy a UAV to collect imagery or lidar data for inspection has been a huge boon for an industry that is experiencing increasing demand given aging infrastructure around the world. This session will look at some recent advancements on both the hardware and software side that have helped this space continue to evolve.
Honing in on Accuracy in Drone-Based Measurements
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It’s easy to tell a professional that they should be using drones with sensor payloads to complete their projects, but it takes a lot more than that to actually get started in this space. This session will dive into deeper questions about accuracy necessary for different kinds of project. Some projects will certainly require top-of-the-line sensors to provide the most accurate data, but not all of them fall into this category. Industry veterans will give presentations on this topic before coming together for a moderated Q&A session to help shine some light on what qualifies as accurate enough.
Infrastructure: Lessons, Insights and Takeaways
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As noted above, infrastructure inspection is one of the most prominent commercial UAV usages today, and there is an entire track at Commercial UAV dedicated to this at the 2024 event. (There is also a construction track.) For this session, professionals who work with UAVs for these types of inspection projects will present some of the key insights they’ve learned in their time within the industry, and the audience will have a chance to ask questions to these industry veterans.
Safety Standards and Practices for Commercial UAS Pilots
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Up until now, we’ve focused on sessions that will cater to specific professionals and industries, but of course there are insights to be gleaned at this show that can be useful to drone pilots in any industry. This session falls into this category, giving UAV pilots a chance to hear from an industry veteran about best practices around safety standards and practices for drone flying. Attendees for this session will also receive an interactive pre- and post-flight checklist, with training to understand the use of checklists in an aviation environment.
To learn more about the Commercial Expo and to register, follow the link below.
