Abstract (English)
Technology use in construction and facilities management has seen an increase over the past decade with new and emerging technologies of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), or “Drones”. Drones have been used by Facilities Managers (FM’s) in the post occupancy stages to monitor and inspect the condition of various building envelope systems, as a part of protecting the building assets of people, processes and technology. Although there have been previous studies using drone-monitoring on roofs, the evidence of a standardized process is found to be very limited. The goal of this study is to develop and provide a standardized protocol that FM’s can utilize in conducting low-slope roof inspections. To develop this framework, a detailed analysis of published literature covering the current processes to inspect building envelope systems was used to develop a structure. Additional steps were identified to add to the existing body of knowledge providing a full sequence standardized workflow specific to low slope roof inspections using drones. As a part of the study, two low-slope roofing inspections with drone technology were conducted using the steps from previous studies joined with the additionally proposed steps to create a formalized workflow.