b'For the past three years, Siemens has been using drones to conduct surveying work above the Aspern Vienna Urban Lakeside project in Austria, one the largest urban development projects in Europe (Photo: Siemens)How drones are poised to help build the cities of tomorrowby Nick LavarsGizmag copyrightGizmag 2016O ver time we have gotten used toJapans void of a fit young workforce withRight now, drone technology is providing machines assuming certain roles incutting edge information and communicationa competitive edge to the companies whove society, but even at the dawn of thetechnologies. The service includes a a platformsuccessfully adopted it, he says. They use the age of robotics, some types of skilled laborcalled KomConnect that will connect machinerytheir equipment and resources more efficiently, still seem beyond their reach. After all, how doesand workers to the cloud to improve overallcommunicate better through accurate maps a machine wield a hammer and overcome theefficiency, artificial intelligence-assisted controland data, and now have highly quantitative perpetual problem-solving involved in puttingfor operating machinery and, of course, drones. means of measuring their progress against their together a house or a high-rise? While we mightKomatsu has turned to San Francisco-basedschedule. In the future, the construction industry be some ways off from watching buildings sproutwill realize aggregate benefits such as a much out of the ground at the push of a button, flyingbetter safety record and fewer projects that are robots are already carrying out surveying andcompletely late and off budget.mapping tasks on construction sites from the USThough Komatsu prides itself on a history to Japan. But leading researchers are adamantof technological innovation, it is far from the that when it comes to automating the buildingonly construction company enlisting armies of industry, these machines have more to offer. flying robots. In all corners of the globe, firms The value of drones in construction, at leastare recognizing the aerial surveying potential of for the time being, is more or less tied to theirdrones (a capability that has seen them used in ability to venture where humans and heavyapplications as diverse as the hunting invasive machinery cannot. This dictates that the vehiclesPhoto: Komatsu plant species in Australia and warding off rhino remain small, agile and with minimal payload,poachers in Kenya.)zipping around with onboard high-res camerasdrone service provider Skycatch to put UAVs toFor the past three years, Siemens has been and relaying progress shots and aerial surveysuse in its Smart Construction venture. Skycatchsusing drones to conduct surveying work above to construction teams on the ground. Thisvehicles will be deployed to conduct surveys might sound like little more than a negligibleand produce 3D models, culminating in live cost-cutting, but drones are already forming aninteractive maps of the job sites.integral part of business operations for innovativeThe map comes to life on our dashboard, so construction firms the world over. to speak, and clients can do things like impose In Japan, an aging population has theoverlays of plans onto whats actually been built, construction industry turning to new technologycalculate volumetric measurements, and make to help build the infrastructure of the future.annotations for themselves or to share with Leading the charge is the multinationalco-workers, Skycatch CEO Christian Sanz tells machinery maker Komatsu which has justGizmag.announced the launch of a new service calledIn the view of Sanz, the potential of drones inPhoto: SkycatchSmart Construction, aimed at helping fillconstruction is becoming too great to ignore.22 www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer'