Augmented Reality and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Assist in Construction Management

This paper presents an ongoing work on using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in construction scenarios. Augmented reality (AR), the technologies integrating the real images and virtual rendering scenes, will also be integrated to enhance the application of UAV. The high viewpoint and the combination of real and virtual scenes provide engineers augmented views to the construction site. They will increase the possibility of discovering the unfound problems. We have designed and prototyped a UAV with features important for the construction management: (1) stabilized image capturer, (2) site level image transmission and (3) telecommunication and viewing interface. The stabilized image capturer includes a 2-axis brushless motor gimbal which can continuously adjust the camera to aim in a specific direction. The image transmission was carried out by using radio frequency transmitters which specifically optimized by considering the size of the construction site. The interface includes a multi-rotor UAV that has reliable telemetry control, a display that can render the mixed scene between virtual and real views using AR technology, and a wireless local area network (WLAN) system that provides access to real time image stream for multiple devices. From preliminary tests, we found the system has the potential for discovering unnoticed detail problems in a real construction site, such as vehicle path planning conflicts and structure spatial dilemmas. In the near future, we plan to test the UAV-AR solution in three common construction scenarios: typical building site, bridge inspection, and urban planning.