Construction

Our Specialists will equip you with cost-effective tools to enable safer, more efficient construction operations

Let's Talk Construction Drones

Cost-Effective Drone Solutions for Construction

We work with some of the largest construction companies in the United States and we use that experience to offer you knowledgeable, personalized advice to pair you with the solution that best fits your needs.

Monitor Progress

Quickly and safely monitor your progress ensuring deadlines are met and budgets are maintained.

Document Milestones

Drones are the perfect tool to document milestones and capture the key areas of your project.

Measure & Model

LiDAR, high-resolution cameras, and various software suites make measuring and modeling easier than ever before.

We provide comprehensive drone solutions that solve real-world problems

Our Construction Drone Specialists are standing by to help save you time and money

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The Construction Drone Advantage

Drones have evolved into much more than just a flying camera.

 Quick, precise image acquisition.

The coordination of the contractors, engineers, excavators, subs and all of the other moving parts of your project keeps you busy enough. By utilizing drones, you're able to capture a complete view of your entire site and project on-demand and the data is available immediately. In addition to it being quick, the data captured by drones is typically more accurate and provides a closer view of your project due to the low altitudes at which drones fly and the high-resolution camera technology available on drones.


 Significant time and cost savings.

When deployed properly, the right tool can save you time and money. Drones are powerful tools that deploy in just minutes and capture incredibly accurate data in a fraction of the time it would take traditional methods. One drone with a high-resolution camera can capture billions of data points and cover entire stretches of roads, highways, runways and lots in a matter of hours.


 Accurate, comprehensive data collection.

With the advancements in drone technology, hardware is just the beginning. Drones capture more than just images. The photos captured by the drone are embedded with critical metadata, such as GPS coordinates, creating a digital map of your site. That metadata is then used by photogrammetry software to generate highly accurate models and maps, such as digital surface models (DSMs) and digital terrain models (DTMs).

Consider This...

We've spent the last decade equipping construction companies with drones and we used that experience to come up with some key considerations when starting or scaling your construction drone program.

Don't get distracted by the flashy marketing campaigns. It's mostly noise.

The drone industry is exploding. Every single day there's a new product. While it's great to see all of the innovation happening, it's making your job a lot harder than it needs to be. Drone manufacturers are spending millions of dollars a year on campaigns for whatever their latest product is, with zero attention being given to the tried-and-true solutions that are out in the field doing the work right now. Don't be a beta tester if you don't have to be.

This isn't a hobby drone purchase where you may not care about a few bugs while you tinker with your new toy. These are budgeted funds for commercial equipment that has to work on day one and it has to work well. That's where we come in. Talk to us about your project and we'll be the first to tell you what's smoke and mirrors and what's a legitimate consideration with whatever that latest product is saw on LinkedIn.

Watch out for the "pay-to-play" tactic. Or would it be "pay-to-work?"

We have all seen those amazing launch videos where a new drone is announced and then after 10 minutes of hearing about all of the amazing things it can do, you see that pesky asterisk at the end of a new features name or you see "available" somewhere near it. That should all mean one thing and one thing only when it comes to software-based features...licensing fees and $$$.

There's been a trend lately where a new drone comes out and has amazing software-based features that can autonomously scan, map, model, measure, avoid, and everything else under the sun but in order to do some of those things, you have to pay. That's right, even after you just paid for that fancy new drone, now you have to figure out how many of its features you really need and then possibly pay even more to enable those. We understand why and it's because software development is expensive and the hardware is really just an entry point into the world of data that a drone can provide. We'll cover more of this in the Deliverables section but for now, just be mindful of it.

This might seem like a weird thing for a drone dealer, a company who pays its bills by selling stuff to tell you about without possibly even talking to you first but when we say it's our job to give you our honest advice and feedback, we truly mean it. We don't do big fancy marketing campaigns. We listen to you. We talk to you. We get a full understanding of what your budget is and what your expectations are and we connect you with the very best drone solution the market has to offer. It's as simple as that.

Drones are just another tool in the toolbox.

If you need to buy a claw hammer, you go and buy a claw hammer and get back to work. That claw hammer is going to perform the same task each and every day of its life and when you're done with that claw hammer, its job ends. The same can't be said for drones.

Drones are one of the most versatile tools that will ever grace your "toolbox." There is no one drone that can do everything but there is a drone that can do anything. It all boils down to your deliverables, the data you need that drone to collect and how to properly use the drone to capture that data accurately and efficiently. Once you know your deliverable(s), the field gets narrowed and you can much more easily hone in on the right solution.

The drone is just a means to an end.

Drones have evolved so much so that most of the capabilities that were revolutionary just five years ago are now standard features on most commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) drones. It's quickly becoming more about which payloads the drone can carry. We're starting to see a shift in the market away from people asking about a specific brands' drones and more about being able to conduct a certain type of mission or capture a certain type of image or survey.

Payloads are the real powerhouse.

A payload is simply whatever your drone is carrying. It could be a DSLR camera, a hopper full of pesticides, or a LiDAR unit. Whatever it is, the payload has taken center stage more so than the drone itself over the last several years due to the vast number of options there are. This is where the need to model out your desired deliverable(s) becomes really important.

Even a "cheap" LiDAR unit will run you $40,000+ and that's a mere drop in the bucket compared to some of the larger, more powerful units which can run you $150,000+. This is why we invest so much time even before talking numbers into learning about your current project and almost more importantly, your plans for the future. We'll cover that more in the Scalability tab.

Don't sleep on the power of RGB imagery.

LiDAR is hot and sexy. There's no getting around it. It's frickin' lasers, man. We get it. However, don't overlook the capabilities of a good quality visual or red, green, blue (RGB; to signify the band of light that the human eye can see) cameras. Drones are flying GPS pucks and almost all of them capture precise geolocation data with every click of the shutter and embed that data into the image files themselves, which we call metadata. High-resolution RGB images combined with accurate GPS metadata alone can handle the bulk of most workflows. Add in ground control points (GCPs) and maybe an RTK or PPK workflow and you've got yourself a cost-effective, highly versatile solution (tool) for as little as 50% of what that LiDAR unit alone would have cost.

You budgeted for software...right?

The truth is, everything is gravitating toward software. Other industries are already there and we should have seen it coming. We're not talking about software or licenses to enable features of your drone. We're talking about software that complements and makes the most of your drone and sensor package.

Like we just talked about in the Hardware section, drones are essentially a means to an end and that end is almost surely going to involve a software package or four. The good news is that it very well may be software your company is already using, such as ArcGIS, Pix4D, and others.

Do I really need to colorize this and point cloud that?

Our honest answer? Absolutely. We know all too well how difficult it was for you to get the budget for this drone so trust us when we say you are going to need to make the most of it and where it all comes together is in that final deliverable. The first map or model you make in Pix4Dcloud of that site during pre-construction that saves you millions down the road will be the first of many, trust us. Maybe it's the LiDAR survey you did that you were able to colorize using Phoenix' RECON software to clearly illustrate what will be required to do that bridge project you're bidding on. The possibilities are nearly endless and we're here to guide you every step of the way.

One is none and two is one.

Once you deliver that first set of data to your client or your supervisor you better believe you'll be flying that drone at that site again, and again, and again. We've learned over the years that while drones speak for themselves relatively well on paper and in those insane marketing videos, nothing speaks volumes like seeing the drone in action or seeing that flythrough you made with it. The higher the demand for drone flights, the greater the burden to ensure you build a scalable drone program. The good news? You'll be able to tap into our knowledge and experience built over a decade of lessons learned.

Do I really need multiple drones?

This is one of the toughest questions to answer. We sell drones so we fully expect you to roll your eyes when we say this, but you are almost surely going to need multiple drones. Go back to the Hardware tab. There is no drone on the planet that can do everything. This also means there is no one drone that can carry or be made to carry every payload you're going to need.

So where do I start?

It sounds cliche, but if you've made it this far into this part of our website, you're off to a great start. The biggest mistake we see customers make is they start off too cheap. They start with a cheap consumer drone "to get their feet wet" and then quickly realize the drone they bought isn't even close to the drone they need. This can lead to distrust among your organization, with your supervisor or client questioning a drone's capabilities and worse, it can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth for drones. We won't let that happen. Contact us when you're ready and at least let us chat with you about what you're looking to do. Information is always free and we're here when you need us.

Let's Talk 

We're here when you need us

Our Solutions Specialists are standing by to provide you with a price quote, schedule an on-site demo, or just answer questions

We use over 30 years of combined experience to help companies like yours hone in on the perfect solution for the job.

 Industry Expertise. We take an experience-driven approach when it comes to guiding our customers toward the right solutions.

 Low Pressure. Our entire sales process is low pressure from start to finish and tailored toward government purchasing to make sure you get the equipment you need, when you need it.

 Diverse Product Catalog. We've spent almost an entire decade cultivating a diverse product catalog with solutions that solve real world problems.

 Unwavering Dedication. When we say nobody can support you the way UVT does, we mean it.

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