TECHNOLOGY
nearly impossible to get around .
As new cities are built in the 21st century — and older cities rebuilt — drones will help nations construct them to be far more scalable . Drones , which can cover difficult areas over short time frames , map out maximally efficient roadways and enable more compact , space-saving building designs .
2 . Spurring the development of autonomous machines Drones have ushered in a wave of automation that will soon reach all sorts of construction equipment . Soon , all dozers and cranes will operate autonomously , fed data by drones zipping above them . Machines can now work 24 / 7 in harsh conditions at rates unattainable by humans laboring from 9 a . m . to 5 p . m . As a result , build costs are falling , with impacts ranging from faster development of highways to more low-cost housing options across the globe .
3 . Providing realtime site visibility Drones may not be able to wield hammers or move earth , but they can do something even more valuable : They can capture images , which technology providers then process into data such as orthomaps , point clouds , and 3D models . This means that site managers can essentially watch a project be built in real time from anywhere in the world . And more important , this facilitates visual coordination ( both human-to-human
20 November 2016