Simultaneous Localisation and Aerial Mapping in the Built Environment (SLAMBE)

Defects in construction work cost billions globally and >£9bn / year in Great Britain alone. Spotting defects quickly and reliably is key to avoiding or reducing these costs. Current surveying/monitoring techniques are labour-intensive, slow and prone to repeating errors. No solution currently exists to autonomously survey the inside of a construction project, where most problems are hidden (even if drones can do so externally). In this project we propose developing an autonomous drone-based solution that can quickly, cost-effectively and reliably verify accuracy of a recently built internal environment with respect to its proposed design, in order to identify construction defects. Such a service will offer big benefits to the construction industry and building contractors in particular, because, for a relatively small investment, it will help lower overall project costs and risk, while also helping increase quality, client confidence and ultimately sales.