SkySkills feat. Roxanne Gross - Bird Construction

When surveying potential and current construction sites around Manitoba, drones can go just about anywhere most people cannot. That’s according to Bird Construction’s Roxanne Gross, Virtual Design & Construction Coordinator. Part of her role is to use drones to capture important data and provide visual progress updates about construction projects. Busy at work at a construction site in Neepawa, Gross took a few minutes out of her schedule to explain why drone technology is the future of the construction industry.
“Drones become useful to capture a job site where the human eye cannot see the progress,” explains Gross. “Drones allow us to be able to capture the entire site very quickly and efficiently - with one device.” The drone is controlled by a radio transmitter controller, which has a screen that displays and records everything it’s seeing in real time. This information allows construction crews to understand everything that's going on a fast-moving and active construction site.
The drone recording facilitates many useful features, including a process called photogrammetry. That’s where a special software plots out a specific flightpath to capture images with consistent overlap, then compiles the images and uses them to triangulate points. These points are then plotted in a 3D environment to provide analysis on what might be the most efficient strategies to develop a site.
Citing the project in Neepawa, Gross explains further, “On a large project like this, where the land used to be a farm field and was undeveloped, we’re able to do cut and fill analysis and calculations and review any excavation for the project.” And that’s just one example of drone technology application in construction says Gross, “Projects that are inaccessible by foot, such as power dams or bridges, can really benefit from this technology. Being able to capture any project with this tool is very beneficial because you get to go in areas typically difficult to get to without a drone.”