Last week, Sundt employee-owners Dean Miller, Dominic Daughtrey and Mark Epstein joined fellow industry leaders at the annual DroneDeploy Conference in San Francisco. The conference host, drone software maker DroneDeploy, is widely known for its platform that enables automated flights and photo/data capture, which can be used for a host of practical—and profitable—construction purposes. Among the different speakers and topics that took center stage, Sundt employee-owner Dean Miller presented on current uses of drones and their future potential.
Sundt Virtual Construction Technician and Master Drone Pilot Dean Miller (far right) served on a panel discussing new, safer inspection techniques using drones.
“It used to be that drones on jobsites were seen as a surveillance measure,” said Dean, “but people’s opinions are rapidly changing. Project teams are starting to see drones for what they really are—which is just another tool to make projects safer and more efficient.”
Sundt currently uses drone imagery for project progress updates, volumetric analysis (i.e. measuring dirt work with .01-inch accuracy), utility placement inspections, measuring thermal energy loss, and much more. Sundt Continuous Improvement Program Manager Dominic Daughtrey has partnered with DroneDeploy on case studies for several of these uses, which have now become common practice on Sundt jobsites. “Using drones, we’re able to save our clients money by self-performing these tasks in a couple of hours rather than a couple of days,” Dominic said.
The construction uses, and subsequent business cases, for drones will only multiply as the industry progresses. “In the future, I see every jobsite having either a tethered drone or a licensed pilot on staff,” said Dean. “Drones could be used to paint building facades at high elevations or difficult access points. They could identify hazards automatically and generate safety reports.” It’s also worth noting that drone imagery has already been used for Sundt’s “relentless housekeeping” safety initiative on some larger jobsites—as the saying goes, a clean worksite is a safe worksite, is a productive worksite.
Senior Virtual Construction Engineer, Mark Epstein, based out of Sundt’s San Antonio office, emphasized the conference attendees’ creativity surrounding drone use, which is gaining ground across the construction industry. “All the boats rise with the tide with this kind of innovation and exchange of ideas,” Mark said. “Twenty, 15, even 10 years ago, these things might have sounded really futuristic and far off. Now they’re here, or at least very near possible. And the industry only stands to benefit.”