Drones for construction management

Builtworlds (July 12) -- A robotic quadcopter drone dubbed "The Flying Superintendent" has taken to the skies, designed and outfitted with cameras by a trio of computer science and engineering professors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The new construction management tool that closely and frequently observes sites from above, tracking progress and enabling real-time checks against scheduled deadlines, particularly those involving time-sensitive, labor-intensive tasks. It is the brainchild of associate professors Mani Golparvar-Fard (civil and environmental engineering), Derek Hoiem (computer science), and Timothy Bretl (aerospace engineering).