Applications of multirotor drone technologies in construction management

TLDR

Multirotor drones, a novel technology, are gaining traction across sectors such as mining and transportation, yet construction has been slow to adopt them despite their potential to enhance various construction processes. This study seeks to systematically examine the current applications of multirotor drones in construction engineering and management and assess their future roles. The authors review key domains—land surveying, logistics, on‑site construction, maintenance, and demolition—to evaluate how drones are employed in each area. Results indicate that drones improve work safety, reduce costs and carbon emissions, though current limitations pose risks, and their utility is expected to grow, offering construction managers and researchers a roadmap for adoption.

Abstract

Multirotor drones are considered a new and innovative technology. Therefore, many fields are showing increasing interest in utilizing multirotor drones, such as mapping in mining and surveillance in transportation. The construction industry has been a slow adopter of novel technologies. However, multirotor drones have potential to facilitate construction in many aspects. There is, therefore, a need to extensively research their applications and analyze their roles in construction engineering and management. This paper aims to comprehensively investigate the current applications of multirotor drones, analyze their benefits and explore their potential in the future of the construction industry. Several main aspects are reviewed and discussed, namely land surveying, logistics, on-site construction, maintenance and demolition. The results reveal that the main contributions are work safety, cost-effectiveness and carbon emission reduction, while there are possible adverse impacts on the basis of current limitations of multirotor drones. However, it can be predicted that the usefulness of drones will continue to increase in the future of the construction industry. Thus, this study will benefit construction managers in raising awareness of the use of these emerging technologies and researchers in further exploring applications of multirotor drones in construction projects.