4D BIM Based Optimal Flight Planning for Construction Monitoring Applications Using Camera-Equipped UAVs

Abstract

Visual data used for progress tracking on job sites require the knowledge of where changes are happening and the as-built state of the construction site. Today’s common methods for capturing visual data only offer (a) manually designed and operated missions; and (2) automated collection using lawn mowing patterns. This paper presents a new method for automated flight planning and visual data collection that takes advantage from the availability of 4D BIM as a priori to create optimal flight missions at locations of expected change. The developed approach simulates the flight path to review flight execution safety and visibility of the camera frames to the in-progress elements while accounting for requirements of baseline among images for 3D reconstruction purposes. Finally, a case study conducted on a construction project reported improvements in visual coverage to the structure and reduction in 3D reconstruction errors obtained by improving the visual quality of the collected frames.