Wearable Drones- Do They Have a Future in Construction?

Wearable drones; the lesser talked about concept compared to its twin technology, wearables. While wearable technology has lit up an entirely new market of consumerism, from fitness wearables to wearable fashion statements and more, the wearable market has been limited to either leisure or sport. Enter wearable drones, an extension of an already thriving market, and the future of wearables might just see an expansion into other industries, namely, construction.

Although the idea of the wearable drone and its longevity is tentative, we’re already starting to see wearable drone concepts, and if these wearable drone technologies have potential to be applied domestically, we’re eager to invent a place for wearable drones in construction. Here’s just a short list of what people are imagining for the technologies now:

1. Breathe- A drone that sits stationary on the wearer’s shoulder when inoperative, the Breathe drone monitors pollution levels in the air and helicopters over a person’s face when those levels get too high to filter the air they breathe.
2. Parasol- This weather drone takes the shape of a sleek pen that dangles from the wearer’s pocket when not in use. Outfitted with humidity and temperature sensors, the drone hovers over the person’s head to form a large disk that shields the user from rain.
3. Flare- This drone is like a totally teched out compass. A small circular device that straps to your hand, Flare can physically be deployed by the owner and guides you by flight towards whatever you want to find.

With wearable drone concepts already gaining popularity, its possibilities to adapt to a professional industry, like the construction industry, become limitless and exciting. If wearable drones can fly, detect, locate, and protect consumers in an everyday setting, why couldn’t they also be applied to a field of work that would vastly benefit from technological savvy?

Taking the concept of the domestic wearable drone and building upon it to suit the needs of the construction industry, here’s a few applications ZBRELLA has imagined for wearable drones.

Wearable Drones in Construction

The Inspector’s Aid

• With the inspector constantly reviewing project sites and the health and sustainability of the components that make up the site, having a wearable drone that could survey the perimeters would be a great deal of help to inspectors in the industry. And while aerial drones already exist that do a large majority of this type of work, finding a way to make the technology wearable would help make it more accessible, practical, and symbiotic with the actual inspector on the ground, offering an advantageous double view of the project site. By retaining the human inspector onsite but allowing him or her to deploy a wearable drone for a moving aerial view of the same site they are already surveying, the industry could yield a total 360 degree, comprehensive overview of a project site with computer and cognizant analyses, allowing man and machine to work together.

The Supervisor’s Aid

• Supervisors, superintendents, managers, and other positions of authority can sometimes find it challenging or daunting to equally disperse their time where it is needed. Having the ability to directly send the wearable drone to certain onsite locations to oversee and manage the progress of workers (and then have that data sent back in real-time to the PM/Super/etc. via a connecting smart watch) would eliminate the necessity of managers and superintendents to physically be present at the scene, allowing them to more quickly and efficiently touch base with all parts of a project. If the drone detects an issue, the PM can quickly move throughout the site to inspect all problem areas as it’s happening. These drones could transmit important project data straight to a connecting wearable on the project supervisors, perform quick check-ups, give real-time progress reports, and relay any and all necessary information to the wearer of the portable drone.

The Builder’s Aid

• Wearable drones outfitted to actual onsite workers could also be a huge industry booster. Many times in construction, workers are forced to waste menial time going back and forth to retrieve tools and plans. Having a wearable drone that could easily be deployed by the worker to retrieve certain tools based on information input would help speed up the construction process by wasting less time. Having a wearable that can always be deployed at any time would also benefit actual construction time by allowing the drones to participate in the construction of buildings, creating less work for builders and essentially becoming a builder’s aid. And with construction often times being a hazardous occupation, having a drone that could deploy at a moment’s notice to become a shield or, in other words, protect workers from surface damage would be a huge advantage in an otherwise risky profession.

Wearable drones have a real possibility for future application in the field of construction. What’s your take on it? What would you want a personal wearable drone to do for you?