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Drones for existing condition/site photos?

toasteroven

Has anyone started using these things for site/building documentation?  any recommendations and/or experiences they'd like to share?

thanks in advance.

 
Nov 19, 14 12:22 pm
null pointer

We have clients that feed us drone photographs as a way of figuring out what the most ideal views are at the top floors of the building.

We have been surprised a few times (Google Earth does not tell a full story, even in NYC).

Nov 19, 14 12:49 pm  · 
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LITS4FormZ

I started and manage our "drone program." We share 4 drones across our different jobsites.

We use them for weekly flyovers to track progress, material delivery, jobsite cleanliness, etc. It's completely autonomous, we send the drone with a pre-programmed flight path to make it completely idiot-proof. They set it on the "X," turn the drone on, hit "take-off" on their ipad and record the flight. Upload the video to the project folder and the video goes out to the owner every Sunday evening. 

Here's an example below of what you can do...

Nov 19, 14 2:16 pm  · 
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Veuxx

So you work for Morphosis?

Nov 19, 14 2:57 pm  · 
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LITS4FormZ

If you look closely there are Morphosis, Eisenman, Tschumi, Pei and Graves projects in the background...

Nov 19, 14 3:12 pm  · 
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JonathanLivingston

I have a hobby multirotor I have used a couple of times to scout views that could be obtained by building up. and a couple of times for aerial view rendering backgrounds. but it is a hobby built from the ground up as just a fun side project that has come in handy a few times. 

Lits4formz: DJI Phantoms? How do you deal with liability for crashes? Particularly if there is no one flying to take over in the event of a malfunction or bad weather? 

Also not to be a wet blanket but isn't currently a legal grey area for the commercial use of drones in the US? I know the FAA has been trying to regulate it even though they seem to lack the explicit authority. 

anyways sounds like a cool program I'm totally jealous I would have a lot of fun putting something like that together. 

Nov 19, 14 4:00 pm  · 
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LITS4FormZ

@JonathanLivingston - Phantom 2's , autonomous flight add-on and ios streaming...incredibly easy to fly and user friendly. If we have a site in an urban/populated area then it's flown manually and by a "skilled" pilot. However, most of the jobs tend to be greenfield or away from urban areas and anyone who operates the drone goes through training. It's a definite add to scope but owners are pretty excited about it. 

So far no crashes on site...the problem arises when the superintendent takes it duck hunting and crashes it in a lake. Then they owe the project $2,000+ plus lost time and word gets out pretty quick that they are not toys...We've also ran off contractors for throwing rocks at it since it caught them the previous week working unsafely. 

In terms of legality, we operate one in Texas which has outlawed most private drone use. However, the law states you can operate on private land with permission of the owner which we have, so no issues. By flying autonomously you set a ceiling to fall within FAA guidelines. Definitely a lot of fun as they getting cheaper and cheaper as well.

Nov 19, 14 4:25 pm  · 
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SneakyPete

UC! That campus has come SUCH a long way from its rock bottom (in the 80s, I believe...). Keep up the good work.

Nov 19, 14 5:07 pm  · 
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JonathanLivingston

@LITS4formZ: Cool beans. Yikes cowboy contractors chucking rocks would scare me. Have you ever used any of the footage with autodesk recap 360 to make rendered environments for models? Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lQVH3hSh0c

I'm working on building a custom folding X8 at the moment that I will hopefully fly with FPV goggle set up. I really enjoy the hobby. I have learned so much about basic electrical engineering and programming playing with these things. i hope to do something similar to the video above some day. I would love to do CA site visits with it inspecting flashing installations from the exterior 30 stories up. 

Nov 19, 14 5:51 pm  · 
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toasteroven

@LITS - wow - that sounds and looks amazing.  impressive.

 

@Jon - that's mostly what I had in mind - site survey for 3D imaging... that skate park vid is great stuff.  CA seems like a better use for this tech to justify the expense, though...  It's pretty amazing how cheap these things are - the DJI's are about as expensive as digital cameras used to be.

Nov 20, 14 2:28 pm  · 
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LITS4FormZ

@JonathanLivingston - That is really powerful, I will definitely look into it. So far I've been using matchmover for basic augmented reality demos

Nov 24, 14 2:22 pm  · 
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JonathanLivingston

Or go beyond photography and actually building with them? http://vimeo.com/33713231 

Nov 24, 14 4:02 pm  · 
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ReddishEgret

Heard a talk given by Cristophe Girot a couple weeks ago. His team uses drones to create incredibly precise point cloud models. http://dirt.asla.org/2014/11/19/visualizing-topology-with-point-cloud-modelling/

Nov 24, 14 6:54 pm  · 
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