Building Condition Inspection - An Avian Case Study
Building Managers are faced with the challenge of assessing the condition of the building facade at periodic intervals for maintenance, insurance, safety and reporting compliance. This is a challenge when dealing with multi-story, high rise buildings and can be a time consuming and laborious undertaking. Avian Australia has developed a building condition inspection and reporting methodology that makes the entire process more efficient, cost effective and safe.
Avian Australia, a digital imaging, surveying and visualisation company who partners with the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry to deliver quality assured, digital data and visualisations on real-world environments including assets, sites, terrain and buildings.
In this example we review the benefits of using Avian Australia for building condition inspection and reporting on a high-rise residential building.
Historically, workers would suspend down from the roof and examine the building facade to identify any defects and damage for an overall condition assessment. This takes a considerable amount of time and money to suspend BMU (Building Maintenance Units) or rope access so workers can move up and down the building facade. Also due to the close proximity of the workers to the facade the captured photographs are confusing and difficult to reference to the exact position on the building facade.
Avian Australia deploys professional-grade UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) fitted with range sensors and high-magnification zoom lenses that capture superficial defects on the building from a safe distance. Our methodology involves using the UAVs to traverse the external facade, floor by floor to inspect the entire building, including all facades in a matter of days. Plus our reporting is methodically categorised and indexed for reporting so that any desktop analysis is easier, targeted and more efficient.
The Project
Avian deployed multiple UAVs to complete the required inspection task within two days. Due to the neighbouring building being within 20m (on the southern facade) a wind tunnel effect was created and caused difficulties. We encountered interference with the internal systems of the UAV (GPS, compass and magnetometer) making the inspection of the higher floors too high risk. Avian Australia mobilised a custom-built inspection platform with additional safety features and no internal GPS or compass to avoid the risk of interference from the buildings to complete the inspection tasks.
In addition, we provided the client with high-resolution vertical maps of each facade as a reference image to assist with defect referencing and reporting.
The Benefits
- The entire building and all facades were captured within 2 days including the southern facade despite the difficulties with interference and wind effects on our UAVs, rendering many professional-grade UAVs useless for this type of inspection.
- A high-resolution vertical map of each building facade was provided to the client showing the entire facade in one image.
- A 3D model was supplied to the client for presentation purposes to show the building in a 3D photo-realistic format.
