The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry has always embraced innovation, but drones are elevating this to new heights—literally. By merging advanced aerial imagery with data analytics, drone technology is reshaping everything from project planning to on-site safety.
As AEC firms seek faster, more efficient solutions, drones are leading a transformation that’s redefining how we build our world.
How to Choose the Right Drone for Your AEC Needs
When aligning AEC industry requirements with drone equipment, a key factor to consider is matching the capabilities of the drone system with the specific demands of the project. From pre-construction planning to post-construction maintenance, here are a few ways to ensure that the drone solution you choose delivers maximum value:
1. Payload Flexibility for Multisensor Needs
Different stages of a project may call for a variety of sensors—high-resolution cameras, thermal imaging, LiDAR, or multispectral. Drones with flexible payloads let teams switch sensors as needed for tasks like structural inspections, thermal scans, and material tracking.
In early project stages, detailed data is essential. Drones with high-resolution cameras and LiDAR sensors can capture accurate topographical details, create 3D models, and offer real-time aerial imagery. For small to medium area surveying or BIM modeling, a camera with a minimum of 20 megapixels is often sufficient. Larger or more distant surveys may benefit from full-frame, high-resolution cameras with 40+ megapixels.
For LIDAR equipment, specifications vary much more, and it’s more for hardware manufacturers to claim a general accuracy of their system. You will also find a much wider variance of claimed accuracy, noise, and positional error in LIDAR systems than in photogrammetry.
It’s important to understand that manufacturers’ claimed accuracies are usually tested under laboratory conditions and often don’t represent true measurement error of objects in the real world.
We strongly recommend requesting sample data or a demo from a LIDAR manufacturer and comparing sensor data against known points to see if the final output meets your accuracy needs. In general, errors in drone-mounted LIDAR systems can be around 0.1 ft vertically or higher – but this error is well within ASPRS accuracy standards for generating 1-foot contours.
2. Thermal Imagery for Structural and Efficiency Inspections
Thermal imagery is incredibly useful for evaluating building insulation, detecting moisture issues, and assessing energy efficiency. Mounted on drones, thermal cameras can easily spot temperature anomalies that may indicate problems like insulation gaps, moisture infiltration, or electrical faults. This is especially helpful for inspecting hard-to-reach areas, like rooftops, that would otherwise require complex and costly access solutions.
Thermal imaging is also ideal for regular solar panel inspections. Any faults in panels are visible as measurable temperature differences. Some recent advances even support detecting pollution in waterways, expanding the use of thermal imaging beyond traditional building applications.
Thermal cameras are especially good at determining water issues in both manmade and naturally occurring areas. Recent developments in thermal cameras for illicit discharge (waterway pollution detection have yielded promising results.
3. Durability and Weather Resistance for Construction Sites
AEC projects often take place in challenging environments. Hot, cold, windy, dusty, it can be a tough environment sometimes. It would seem an obvious goal would be to obtain ruggidized ‘all weather’ equipment (drones, payloads, ground equipment) so that the mission can be completed no matter what and the construction schedule is maintained.
The key challenge is that while many ‘rugged’ aircraft and GCS products exist, their sensors are often not optimized for alignment, meaning the overall system may not suit all conditions. LiDAR and imaging, for example, don’t perform well in rain, dust, or fog, so prioritizing “all-weather” specifications may not be necessary. Instead, it’s usually more effective to select equipment that best fits the mission and plan flights around favorable conditions.
“ We have had several clients that purchased “rugged” drones and had to return them to find one that was better for scanning. In general, we encourage clients to plan their projects around good weather so the payload can do its job well. I find that ruggedized drones don’t factor too much in AEC besides niche cases like the Elios. “ – Scott Harrigan , Founder of Harkin Aerial,
4. Extended Flight Time for Large-Scale Projects
AEC projects frequently cover large areas, making extended flight times a necessity. Drones with efficient battery management and RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) GPS can survey vast sites with fewer flights, reducing both time and operational costs while ensuring accuracy over longer distances.
5. Data Integration
The integration of drone-collected data into BIM or Geospatial software is increasingly important in the AEC sector. The workflows and manpower required for these post-flight task need to be carefully thought out. Streamlining this process minimizes data conversion issues and speeds up decision-making.
Investments in software, such as GIS or a 2D or 3D CAD program, can be very beneficial in getting the most out of drone data such as LIDAR or photogrammetry. Additionally, several photogrammetry software vendors now support the ability to import airborne, terrestrial, and handheld LIDAR into the same project to effectively merge aerial and terrestrial data collections.
By employing proper ground control, datasets taken with different scanners and drones, and at different time periods, can be combined with ease for full context of a site. This can include exterior drone data combined interior laser scans for complete building documentation, or simply multiple drone flights aligned over time to track progress on an earthworks project.
6. Airspace
It’s essential to consider the airspace where the project is located. Not every site has unrestricted access—some may be close to airports, in controlled zones, or other areas that need specific authorization. Getting a clear understanding of these restrictions early on helps ensure compliance and avoid delays. Good airspace management is key for keeping the project safe, meeting regulatory standards, and allowing operations to run smoothly without interruptions.
7. Ground Control
It may seem contradictory, but good drone data accuracy is influenced mainly by work done on the ground! Properly setting and measuring ground control points is critical for ensuring and verifying the accuracy of a drone dataset.
Typically, control points are high-visibility checkerboard targets with a precisely measured center point, often surveyed via GPS or a total station. These points help align photogrammetry, LIDAR, and imagery data with an existing survey or the project’s coordinate system.
Alongside control points, checkpoints play a vital role as well. Unlike control points, checkpoints aren’t fed into the processing software—they’re used afterward to double-check the control points for errors, adding an extra layer of accuracy assurance.
They are essentially a “blind taste test” for the software to ensure that future survey measurements on the ground will align well with the drone produced data. The value of checkpoints in establishing long-term accuracy cannot be understated – ASPRS currently recommends a minimum of 30 checkpoints per project for a complete test of drone data to positional accuracy standards.
It is worth noting that many US states consider this process to constitute land surveying, a regulated profession at the state level. Depending on project complexity and your team’s familiarity with geodetic datums, map projections, survey calibration/localization, coordinate systems, and statistical error, it may be advisable – and possibly legally required – to utilize a licensed land surveyor or (in some states) professional engineer to establish site control + mapping.
If you’re a licensed surveyor or engineer, your expertise in engineering and surveying is an invaluable foundation for expanding into drone mapping services. Harkin Aerial offers training specifically designed for licensed AEC professionals, equipping you to harness drone technology effectively in your field.
8. Enhancing Safety and compliance.
In the AEC industry, projects often happen in busy or high-risk areas, making safety a top priority. This means drone equipment must meet strict safety standards, and operators need thorough training and strong safety awareness. Fortunately, new technologies—like obstacle avoidance, fail-safe systems, and geofencing—are making drone operations safer and lightening the operator’s workload. By using drones equipped with these safety features, companies can significantly reduce risks to people and property, especially on active construction sites with crews working below.
9. Training/Skill/Experience
To be successful, AEC drone program managers and team members should possess a broad range of skills and experience. This includes not only piloting the drones but also understanding survey techniques, ground control, and becoming familiar with the nuances of data collection using specific payloads and processing software.
For example, working with LIDAR data typically requires software specific to the manufacturer of the payload, while photogrammetry software is more versatile and compatible with various cameras and payloads. While the workflows for photogrammetry and LIDAR are similar during the later stages of data extraction, they differ significantly in the initial data capture and processing phases.
A solid understanding of basic photography is also crucial—knowing how to read light, take a quality photo, and adjust settings like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get the best images in different conditions and angles.
Your team will be continuously learning, and by building a strong foundation through training, consulting with colleagues, and testing new technologies, you’ll develop internal processes and expertise to maximize the value of the drone hardware and software you invest in.
10 . Emerging trends for AEC drones
Onboard Compute
The rise of onboard compute capabilities on small platforms is a massive enabler.
Onboard Processing: While capturing in the field and processing in the office is the standard today, we expect to see the innovations in raw processing power found on current-gen smartphones and laptops carry over to drones. More systems are entering the market that are capable of stitching maps + processing LIDAR onboard, to reduce the need for data processing in the office.
While higher-end LIDAR and photogrammetry will still benefit from dedicated computers, we expect that many next generation entry-level and mid-level drones will have basic photogrammetry and LIDAR processing compute ability built-in.
AI: Artificial intelligence (AI) is already bringing transformative benefits to the AEC industry by enhancing decision-making, automating processes, and improving accuracy throughout the project. AI-enhanced drones and software can analyze data in real time, allowing AEC professionals to quickly identify patterns, detect potential issues, and make informed decisions faster.
By integrating AI with drone technology, the AEC industry can reduce human error, boost productivity, and streamline operations, ultimately leading to more efficient and cost-effective project execution.
Swarms: The innovation of drone swarms will, I believe, revolutionize how the AEC industry approaches large-scale projects. By deploying multiple drones to work in unison to achieve a state goal, swarms can cover vast areas more efficiently than individual drones, performing tasks such as site surveying, progress monitoring, or infrastructure inspections simultaneously. This technology can significantly reduce the time it takes to gather critical data, allowing for real-time collaboration and decision-making. For complex or high-volume AEC projects, the scalability and efficiency provided by swarms represent a game-changing approach, helping teams meet tight deadlines and keep projects on track. As with most technology, there may be a trade-off that needs to be considered. When considering the use of swarms, one of the considerations is ROI on manpower vs added capital equipment. For some jobs 1 PIC and 1 Drone may be the most efficient and cost effective. For other jobs, 1PIC, 1 ground crew and 5 drones operating in a swarm may be most cost effective.
Smaller Sensors, Affordable Sensors, More Sensors
Especially in LIDAR, sensors are continuing to see drops in cost, complexity, and integration time. In imagery, multiple cameras on a single drone are now commonplace. We expect to see even more affordable scanning payloads enter the market with more features, and more integrated lidar and photogrammetry payloads that scan + photograph at the same time.
We are also seeing a trend towards multiple camera systems onboard. From Skydio’s 360 camera inspection modes to DJI making two-sensor cameras a standard on most enterprise drones, multi-camera, multi-sensor drones are becoming common.
There is a lot to consider when implementing a drone solution to AEC, however, the benefits to the industry are becoming obvious to are changing the way these industries plan and execute. It’s an exciting time.
I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to Scott Harrigan of Harkin Aerial for collaborating with me on this article. Scott brings over 8 years of experience in providing specialized drone training and mapping services for engineers, architects, and surveyors ranging from photogrammetric topo mapping in Costa Rica to LIDAR scanning for stormwater infrastructure in San Francisco, and even thermal monitoring of groundwater pollution in New York City.
If you’re looking to build or expand a drone program within your organization, Clarify Consulting LLC is here to help! From guiding technology selection to developing effective go-to-market strategies, we’re focused on aligning the best tools and processes with your business goals.
Feel free to reach out to set up an initial consultation—I’d love to discuss how we can make drone technology work for you.