How Smart Technology is Helping Build the Construction Industry
The new technological advancements that are helping make construction safer and more efficent
Construction is all around you everywhere you go even if you don’t notice it, but it effects all of our daily lives as a community. Everyday new technology is introduced into the world. The construction industry is one of the most dangerous fields to work in but with the help of these new technologies such as, drones, Virtual reality and Augmented reality we are making construction work safer for the workers and more efficient for the community.
Drone Technology
In the pass decade Drone Technology has becoming increasingly popular for it’s many uses such as photography and new uses like delivering a package right to your doorstep, but drones also have a huge daily impact on the construction industry, especially when it comes to safety but as well as efficiency.
“In 2015 close to 1000 workers within the construction industry were killed on the job and drones have the capability of preventing death and injury”(2017, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
When it comes to efficiency drones are a huge asset. Why pay to send one or two safety inspectors to insepct a large job site when you can send one or two drones to complete that same task at a fraction of the time? Drones are used to automatically fly across job sites and can conduct safety inspections. They can identify and safety hazards and can get into hard to reach places for inspection as well and even bu used for the transportation of tools and small equipment.
Drones can also be used to fly across jobs and take pictures and videos throughout the project to show the progress from all different kinds of angles and sent back to the contractors and the people paying for the project.
As much as they help with efficiency the main purpose of drones in construction is safety.
As a construction worker myself I know that all risks and dangers on a job site are not visible until it is to late such as falling debris or a distracted machine operator.
The use of drones have to capability to protect all workers from all kinds of dangers. They can eliminate the need for a worker to scale up the side of a wall or the need to a worker to risk themselves in any situation. With the use of computer software they can catch things a person may miss.
Imagine be afraid of heights but you are required to inspect a roof of a tall building. With drones you can sit comfortably on the ground floor while the drone flies up and you see what is see and yo can inspect everything from the safety on the bottom of the building.
I strongly believe that drones can make not only workers but the community safer when it comes to construction work and they still have a long way to go in changing the way we look at construction.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
In today’s society our lives revolve around technology, everyone wants to have the latest new gadgets. One of these relatively new technologies that have many purposes especially in the video gaming world is Virtual and Augmented reality, but this technology is not only used for gaming but also widely used in the construction industry.
Virtual and Augmented reality is a tool that allows the user to bring thier imagination to life. In construction, it allows workers, supervisors, contractors and engineers to carefully and accurately go through each and every stage of a project and make sure everything is in order and up to code before the project is anywhere close to complete
‘We can visualize problems that would not be able to be seen from a computer screen […] The rendering is not merely a fancy 3D illustration, which could have been produced years ago, but a dynamic stand-in for what has or hasn't been completed on site” (Chen, 2019, The NewYork Times)
VR and AR are used mainly when it comes to the efficiency or cost effectiveness of a project. With this technology projects can remain on schedule without delays and stay below budget and especially with it comes to public projects such as schools this is a big bonus for the community and taxpayers
If you were to visit a construction site of a new residential building where the foundation is still being poured, simply putting on a pair of Virtual Reality googles you can see how the whole project would look when it’s completed almost as if you were actually standing in the building.
VR and AR combine safety and efficiency wrapped up in one. The user can find hazards before they occur and alert the user, protecting the workers and the community.
The tech can also be used to train workers in realistic simulations of things that could occur on a job site and teach them how to safely and properly do their jobs.
“VR can be used to put workers in a certain environment and put them through scenarios where they can learn safety and security protocols, it is a great and efficient way of training people as well as cost effective” (expert panel reported by Forbes.com)
With Virtual and Augmented Reality the possibilities are endless. You can sit in a room full of people designing a building and they can all simultaneously input their ideas and see them realistically in real time. VR and AR are on track to being used on every major job site across the globe with the capability of keeping projects on time, on budget and safe it is a huge benefit to the construction industry.
These are 2 out of hundreds of forms of technology slowly emerging in the construction industry and personally I am excited to see what’s next out there for the world of construction.
