Unmanned air vehicles have wide possible applications outside of military uses. Balfour Beatty is considering how they might be used in construction projects. Construction sites are one of those areas where it's hard to apply robotics. Robots are easy to apply to stable, well understood environments (factories, offices), but in the constantly changing landscape of construction they face challenges. That's why construction projects have relied on heavy machines like cranes and backhoes to do the heavy labour. But if you could free robots from the ground? What new approaches become possible?
The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to permit commercial use of drones, but that is likely to change. From a systems engineering perspective, use of drones opens new possibilities for new tools and new systems that go far beyond a simple camera in the air.
The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to permit commercial use of drones, but that is likely to change. From a systems engineering perspective, use of drones opens new possibilities for new tools and new systems that go far beyond a simple camera in the air.