BUILDING CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS MONITORING USING UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEM (UAS), LOW-COST PHOTOGRAMMETRY, AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)

Abstract. Monitoring the progress of building’s construction is critical in construction management. However, measuring the building construction’s progress are still manual, time consuming, error prone, and impose tedious process of analysis leading to delays, additional costings and effort. The main goal of this research is to develop a methodology for building construction progress monitoring based on 3D as-built model of the building from unmanned aerial system (UAS) images, 4D as-planned model (with construction schedule integrated) and, GIS analysis. Monitoring was done by capturing videos of the building with a camera-equipped UAS. Still images were extracted, filtered, bundle-adjusted, and 3D as-built model was generated using open source photogrammetric software. The as-planned model was generated from digitized CAD drawings using GIS. The 3D as-built model was aligned with the 4D as-planned model of building formed from extrusion of building elements, and integration of the construction’s planned schedule. The construction progress is visualized via color-coding the building elements in the 3D model. The developed methodology was conducted and applied from the data obtained from an actual construction site. Accuracy in detecting ‘built’ or ‘not built’ building elements ranges from 82–84 % and precision of 50–72 %. Quantified progress in terms of the number of building elements are 21.31% (November 2016), 26.84 % (January 2017) and 44.19 % (March 2017). The results can be used as an input for progress monitoring performance of construction projects and improving related decision-making process.