Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Highway Construction Project Management

Abstract

This study employed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drone technology to increase the efficiency of highway construction project management in several aspects, e.g., construction planning, public participation, quality control, and safety in construction supervision process, etc. The study was a pilot project, which selected two highway construction projects, namely (1) the construction project of the 5th Thai – Laos Friendship Bridge (Bueng Kan – Bolikhamxay), and (2) the construction project of the administrative office building, truck weighing station and other elements for the Thai – Cambodian friendship Bridge (Nong Ian –Stung Bot), Sa Kaeo Province, to be used as case studies. The study team set up UAV equipped with cameras and digital surveying equipment to record the activities and results of the construction projects. Comparative work processing system were set up. The results were found that, in terms of using DJI MINI 2 to record activities and results of the construction project, the use of UAV processing system is more convenient, faster, and more efficient than traditional processing system. As well as using DJI Matrice 200
series V2 equipped with high-quality camera, the results shown that there was only 9.79% error in filled volume when implementing the UAV to measure the volume of earthwork in the construction project.