A framework for adoption of drones in the Dominican Republic construction industry

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.There is a severe problem in developing countries in whether or not adopt technologies for facilitating daily tasks. It is happening mostly in sectors with low skills employees as the construction industry. The adoption of technologies in developing countries is a challenge that affect health, economy, and consciousness advancement. Furthermore, the scepticism in the what, how, and why the effectiveness of certain technologies, as drones, difficult the cost-benefit of the decision-making process for organisations in developing countries. This cost-benefit decision, involved in the cases of UAS applications, covers the regulatory and practical implications that are barriers in developed countries. But, in developing one, seems to have another set of barriers that should be investigate in-depth. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop an ontology for public, private, and non-profit organisations that explain the epistemological implications in the implementation of Unmanned Aerial Systems for the Construction Industry in the Dominican Republic. The study approaches an iterative strategy of interviewing 24 participants in a semi-structured format. Then, the Nvivo 2020 software was used to identify cases utilising ground theory coding, thematic and content analysis. Later, the root cause reasons and challenges of implementing UAS were identified utilising Interpretative Structured Method (ISM) and their sub analyses. 5 Cases of studies were presented (real estate, construction, infrastructure, urban development, and disaster management) to illustrate the drone operations. The findings reveal that a hybrid management adoption approach have been the most suitable with drones in the country. The root cause of drone implementation and its barriers were cost reduction and reactive cultural respectively. Strategic and operational ontologies for UAS skill programs, understanding of UAS outcomes, and Building Information Modelling integration were developed in order to focus efforts on developing drones for cargo, assisting humans, and digitalisation. Mandates are recommended for policy makers as drones for digitalisation initiates digital workflows towards BIM. Other scenarios should be considering scenarios where autonomous aerial operations affect safety in future operations. Furthermore, recommendations on legal and standards should be updated in order to allow UAS outcomes as law acceptable. Further works are recommended in decentralised systems, artificial intelligence, and drone applications.Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology

Unmanned aerial system integration for monitoring and management of landslide: A case of Dominican Republic

Conference paper presented at the 38th annual ISARC symposium, available online: https://doi.org/10.22260/ISARC2021/0087The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Aerial Robot or Drone has been a multi-purpose tool for professionals, especially for its unknown versatile applications and regardless of its challenges in adoption. In the built environment and the current global situation, the topic of disaster management has grabbed attention from the scientific community, raising questions of cyberspace linking the COVID-19. As a result, the case study shows how UAS is used to evaluate the landslide provoked as cascading effect of a bridge site construction and the digital data required to feed in 2D and 3D a database of urban planning development. The findings reveal that the application of UAS reduced physical inspections, allowed professionals to obtain inaccessible data, and helped to overview the site conditions identifying the cause of the phenomenon. A safety design factor of the critical building of the school in the community to mitigate the landslide hazards at Santa Maria, Dominican Republic was recommended. Future works in 360°evaluation for similar cases in construction are recommended

Navigating flood resilience: challenges, solutions, and lessons learnt from the Dominican Republic

© 2024 The authors. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3390/w16030382Recent unprecedented events worldwide, such as floods in Dubai, recurring heavy rainfall in Santo Domingo, and abrupt temperature changes in the United Kingdom (UK), underscore the tangible impacts of climate change. In response to escalating threats from natural disasters, global communities prioritise resilience and effective disaster management systems. This paper addresses best practices for managing abnormal floods, laying the foundation for the next generation of preparedness and mitigation plans. Focusing on flood risk in Santo Domingo, the study employs the Community Disaster Resilience Framework, conducting a workshop with over 100 stakeholders from government, private, and academic sectors. The assessment spans physical, economic, environmental, and social aspects, revealing common challenges in infrastructure upkeep, public awareness, urban planning, drainage, and economic disparities. The paper proposes technological solutions like predictive maintenance and smart drainage systems, emphasising the potential for implementation. Recognising the importance of community involvement and preparedness, insights from the United Kingdom guide initial steps in strategy development. The conclusions advocate for collaborative efforts among government, academia, and society to navigate the complexities of disaster management and community resilience, ultimately proposing a framework to address these challenges. Further research is suggested in expanding online platforms for disaster risk reduction education in the Caribbean region.The Embassy of the Dominican Republic in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland partially funded this research.Published onlin

Application of UAS and revit for pipeline design

Paper delivered at Creative Construction e-Conference 2020, Budapest, Hungary, 28 June-1 July 2020, available online: https://repozitorium.omikk.bme.hu/handle/10890/13419 For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.The professionals in the vertical and horizontal construction have tested methods to enhance the quality, safety, environmental impact, delivery time and cost control in their works promoted in learning organisations. Automation strategies applying robots and technology has been a focal point in industry of manufacture by its benefits in productivity levels and quality of works, and in some cases, without affecting other factors in a long-term period. The construction industry is playing a predominant economic heading in certain countries. Therefore, the adoption of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodology as an automation strategy represent in short and long terms positive economic impact. UAS or drones have been used for cargo and data capturing in the built environment. Nowadays, the construction of infrastructures is the most benefited project from UAS implementations by gathering visual data of cracks, obstructions, energy levels, traffic and current conditions of the projects fulfilling the gap of human risks reduction, speed on data collection, and digitalisation of the real-world along with BIM. However, there is a breach in reliability and awareness on the UAS application cases in the infrastructure sector. The aim of this paper is to present the reasons and the application case of the UAS from the topography department of a Water Supply public organisation. The findings show that the UAS achieved a higher level of productivity and efficiency in the daily pre-construction works for designing pipelines. The case covers sewer identification and georeferencing in rural areas where the satellites were unavailable to show the state accurately. The tool used was an RTK DJI Phantom 4 to survey the site conditions in BIM format. The integration of UAS in BIM showed a higher level of productivity and efficiency in the employee's workflow in terms of data collection contrasting to old-fashion methods

A framework for adoption of drones in the Domininican Republic construction industry

Presented at CONVR 2022, 16th-19th November 2022, Seoul, South Korea.Developing countries face issues in adopting technologies for facilitating various tasks. It is happening mostly in sectors with low levels of innovation such as the construction industry. The adoption of technologies in developing countries is a challenge that affects health, economy, and consciousness advancement. The scepticism in what, how, and why certain technologies influence the cost-benefit of tasks has impeded the decision-making process of adopting them. Nevertheless, the cost-benefit decisions related to Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) applications, cover the regulatory and practical implications. These are barriers in developed countries, but developing ones, seem to have another set of configurations that should be investigated in-depth. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop an ontology for public, private, and non-profit organisations that explain the epistemological implications of the implementation of UAS for the Construction Industry in the Dominican Republic. This study was part of a longitudinal study by conducting 4 interviews and 30 surveys as a first study and a second study undertaking an iterative strategy of interviewing 24 participants in a semi-structured format to address an in-depth investigation of the topic. Then, the Nvivo 2020 software was used to identify cases utilising ground theory coding, thematic and content analysis to elaborate them. Later, a model and a framework were developed to map the process of adoption utilising the social technical theory and refining the factors of policy embedded in the problem. The model presents the theoretical composition of the adoption process and the framework reflects on the key ideas discussed. The outcomes contribute to understand, how the adoption process of UAS should be developed at a national level considering the stakeholders involved in construction. Further works are recommended in merging various emerging technologies with UAS

Barriers and cost model of implementing unmanned aerial system (UAS) services in a decentralised system: Case of the Dominican Republic

This is an accepted manuscript of a paper published by Emerald on 16/05/2022, available online: https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-08-2021-0155 The accepted manuscript of the publication may differ from the final published version.Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify the business barriers that influence cost of implementing UAS and its suitability for a decentralised system. Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), or drone, plays a role of data provider to AEC professionals within a decentralised system. However, exist disappointments in the execution and test of the effectiveness of the UAS. The reasons for these fails are not well elaborated in the literature. Hence, the study investigates the barriers and cost analysis of UAS that can be used for a decentralised case in which the UAS data is useful for multiple stakeholders and provide illustration of the interactions within this approach. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is part of a longitudinal project by utilising a qualitative method of interviewing 24 participants involved in the process of application of drones in the country of the Dominican Republic. The open-ended semi-structured interviews were composed for questions regarding the application of UAS, barriers, and business implications. The data gathered were transcribed and used thematic analysis for its interpretation. Later, conclusions of the barriers of UAS implementation in the organisation were analysed and a cost model was developed to identify a viable scenario. Findings – The paper provides empirical insights about the barriers and economic considerations faced in the implementation process of UAS. In this research were identified: 16 barriers in the implementation process at the management level, 8 types of cases of business relationships, and 13 business models. Furthermore, recommendations in being accountable for the dimensions and recurrent visits to the projects handled by the portfolio of the organisations were made, to prudently invest in this project management tool for construction. Practical implications – The paper includes barriers to consider before implementation, business implications, project examples and cost structure developed. Furthermore, the findings are fit theoretically into the context of a decentralised system. It was understood and contemplated that monitoring in open and outdoor spaces are the suitable approach for UAS implementations for decentralised system. The trend of decentralised autonomous organisations for transparency and efficiency of human tasks provides the foundations of human-robot interactions as well as the role of tokenisation of assets into the cyberspace. Therefore, the paper brings managers and technicians the implications for the future-proofing implementation of UAS. Research Limitations – Blockchain system is supported by UAS data and its tests require skills and resources that were outside of the scope of the main research intend regarding UAS implementation in construction. Word counts limited details in a certain degree. Furthermore, as these technologies are still under development, the assessment of the decentralised system, smart contract, and swarm technology was addressed conceptually and further research are encouraged in this field. Originality/value – This paper provides an overview of the implications of cost and the suitable scenarios for return of investment in the UAS implementation in the current stage of the technology development. In addition, the paper makes reference to decentralised systems, smart contracts and swarm technology as options in which reality capture technologies are essential for construction projects

Systematic literature research of the current implementation of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) in the construction industry

The implementation of UAS is bringing easiness and time saving activities into the currently construction site task. In the construction industry, diverse and relevant benefits of the technology have been identified through the project life cycle, such as monitoring project progress report, faster and low-cost land measurements and 3D modelling. Currently, the most valuable benefits of the UAS in the construction industry are related to automation the construction process, low cost, greater speed and safer real-time data collection compare with the traditional methods, and a reliable replacement over satellites and manned vehicles in terms of high-resolution images. However, there is a lack of exemplification and clarity of the actual implementation of the UAS in the construction industry in terms of adoption process and impacted usage. Therefore, a systematic literature review was carried out in order to explore the literature available of the topic related to implementation of unmanned aerial system in the construction industry, the most relevant tasks, cases, areas of usage and the reasons of applying it. The finding of this paper is providing exemplification models of current usage such as visualisation and disaster management, evolution map of the UAS according to the publication numbers and construction project stages when to use the UAS

Frameworks for standard cases of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in the construction industry

This is an accepted manuscript of an article due to be published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. This material may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This material may be found at [URL/link of abstract in the ASCE Library or Civil Engineering Database].Uncertainty in the homologation of drone legislation for nations has resulted from the argument over whether to control developing technology. In the field of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) there is a lack of clarity in stablishing the policies. The intricacies involved in assessing risk probabilities, such as weight, altitude, commercial purpose, involvement of personnel, and other relevant variables, prompt countries to establish legislative frameworks for their Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) policies. This is driven by the recognition that homogeneity in certain application forms of UAS is achieved or discovered at varying rates. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive ontologies behind of regulating UAS by utilising standard cases of operations or ideal scenarios of application in which practices outside of these frames should be ethically evaluated for regulation in the field of construction. A longitudinal study was used to observe the policy changes, evolution of the technology, applications, and trends. In addition, 28 interviews and 30 surveys were conducted involving policy makers, practitioners, service providers, and academics in the Dominican Republic to identify their position in the adequate process of adopting UAS. The findings present that the implications in policy involve Building Information Modelling, safety aviation, technical inspection manuals, and design of cities by ruling the types and capabilities of UAS adopted for construction companies

Application of blockchain technology in the engineering and construction sector: a state-of-the-art review

Presented at CONVR 2022, 16th-19th November 2022, Seoul, South Korea.Emerging technologies have been significantly improving the engineering and construction sectors. IN the last 5 years, blockchain technology have shown evidence in addressing the issues of low productivity, inadequate regulation compliance, cooperation, collaboration, and payment procedures in the sector. However, emerging technology require adequate breadth and depth in investigations as every year new advancement and applications are discovered that understanding from previous years may change in terms of the challenges, IT infrastructure and variations of the technology. Therefore, The aim of this study is to discover and analyse the research trends, challenges and application by assessing the literature status of blockchain applications in the engineering and construction industry. Then, the direction of further research can be recommended A systematic review combined with a bibliometric analysis approach was adopted utilising 37 articles for review and in-depth examination for a further bibliometric analysis and Nvivo software. The findings present a holistic status of the blockchain in the engineering and construction sector regarding the trending keywords involved (digital storage and decentralisation), countries in developing this technology (China), areas of application (payment thou smart contracts and supply chain management), interoperability with other technologies (BIM & AI) and challenges (legal implications). Further research are suggested towards interoperability of the blockchain between other technologies as well as feasibility of the applications