How to get drones off the ground

From conducting inspections at height to traffic monitoring, from moisture mapping to 3D modelling, drones have become a valuable tool for building surveyors. However, the profession could still be lagging behind many other UK sectors by failing to realise the potential of a revolutionary technology.

Undoubtedly, deliveries, transport and the emergency services stand to gain significantly from drone use. But the way we manage and maintain our built environment could also be completely reimagined.

With most of the situations where they would use drones being in built-up or congested environments, building surveyors typically have two options under the regulations.

One is a drone of up to 250g under the open category, for which an A2 certificate of competence is sufficient qualification to fly and CAA authorisation is not necessary. However, with no practical test or experience required, the certificate has confused the matter of what constitutes safe and legal drone operation while prompting an influx of novice, part-time service providers.

Alternatively, a drone of more than 250g could be deployed under the specific category of the regulations. These require the pilot to hold a general visual-line-of-sight certificate by passing theory and practical tests alike, while they or their employer must submit a risk assessment to the CAA for operational authorisation – a significantly more costly and time-consuming option than the open category.

Both scenarios require that the operator keep the drone in sight, and fly only one at a time. Flights that are not within the line of sight are generally only allowed in segregated airspace where no other traffic is permitted to fly, and are authorised on a case-by-case basis by the CAA.

Although drones are difficult to regulate, given the seemingly constant development of next-generation devices and ever-growing list of sensor payloads, the technology itself is more of an enabler than a challenge. Mapping and modelling surveys are already heavily automated, so the role of the pilot is akin to that of an observer. Drones commercially available now, such as the Skydio 2+ and the Elios 3, can map their environment in real time and navigate dynamically without pilot input.

It would appear, therefore, that the current regulations are no longer adequate.

The businesses that will benefit most will be those that are able to adopt and capitalise on the savings associated with drones. PwC's research estimates that costs for inspection and similar activities may fall by around 34%, and savings to the built environment sector estimate could be anywhere between £3bn and £5.5bn.

Routine operation in the built environment beyond line of sight would further improve the economics of the use case for inspection and survey. This was demonstrated, for instance, in the socio-economic study for UK Research and Innovation's Future flight challenge  – cited in PwC's research – which suggested that inspections of power lines in Scotland by this method were 34% cheaper than current approaches.

This investment has already begun. UK Research and Innovation is providing £125m of government grants to support the Future flight challenge between 2020 and 2024, matched by £175m from industry partners collaborating in new electrification, flight and automation services.

Simultaneously, the CAA's innovation hub is running a so-called sandbox, which aims to enable and test means of detecting aircraft that are in breach of complying with their flying permissions, as well as improving drone electronic conspicuity and air traffic management.

Although the technology for autonomous drone flight beyond line of sight already exists, they must be able to detect and avoid crewed and uncrewed aircraft if they are to operate in unsegregated airspace and not have to rely on temporary danger areas. The ecosystem of autonomous drones operating with electronic conspicuity in the same airspace as other drones and crewed aircraft is often referred to as unified traffic management.

Robotics and systems engineering company Herotech8 and its consortium partners were recently awarded funding for three such innovation projects.

Today, drone-in-a-box systems are being installed and operated remotely across the UK, to conduct tasks from site visits to security patrols. For instance, the consultancy Gleeds has deployed a Herotech8 system for planned predictive maintenance of clients' assets.

In email communication, Scott Kenna, Gleeds' head of building surveying, said: 'Gleeds are investing in new ways of working and developing next generation digital products and services. We strongly believe automated drone infrastructure will enable many of these new digital methods and our ability to continue managing and maintaining the built environment going forward.'

Systems, like the one employed by Gleeds, have allowed surveyors to observe inspections remotely in real time, ensuring data quality while removing the costs of travel and site time. But perhaps most significantly, drones enable routine and reactive surveys alike to be conducted autonomously without any pilot or surveyor input.

There is no doubt drones will become integral to the way we manage and maintain our built environments. I foresee a time where – combined with other evolving technology such as artificial intelligence, non-destructive testing, advanced robotics and 3D printing – automated drones will not only detect and predict defects but be capable of fixing and even preventing them.