Surveyor Drone

An aerial surveying robot known as CivDrone is poised to disrupt the construction market by replacing survey crews with an automated platform. Its developer envisions a digital construction organization that combines high-definition surveying and geolocation with digital collaboration and advanced analytics to improve productivity, accuracy and reliability.

CivDrone uses a heavy-lifting drone platform with landing gear that has been adapted for its survey-staking mechanism. Onboard software ensures accurate positioning of marking locations to within one inch. The stakes themselves contain readable tags that link to cloud-based blueprints. And while a traditional survey crew can mark about 100 points a day, the autonomous drone-based system is capable of marking 500 locations in the same period of time, with a single operator.

As federal, state and municipal governments continue to push for upgrading our aging infrastructure, smart construction systems could not only improve results and shorten project timelines but also create millions of new opportunities for workers to upgrade their skills for the future.