Construction Drones
Drones used for site surveys, progress mapping, inspection and painting at height.
17 robots · 19 companies · from the Future of Built file
By trade
- Inspection · 8
- Aerial · 7
- Coating · 1
- Facade · 1
Robots
Voliro
Apellix
DJI Enterprise
Emesent
ScoutDI
Percepto
ParrotCompanies
- Skydio · San Mateo, United States · founded 2014
AI obstacle-avoiding drones for site capture, progress, and inspection through the clutter that makes construction unflyable for most UAVs.
- Voliro · Zurich, Switzerland · founded 2019
Tilt-rotor drones that fly ultrasonic probes into contact with steel. Inspection where a rope team used to go.
- Flybotix · Lausanne, Switzerland · founded 2019
Confined-space inspection drones for tanks, ducts, and tunnels - the voids a conventional UAV cannot enter.
- ScoutDI · Trondheim, Norway · founded 2017
Rugged inspection drones for GPS-denied industrial interiors. Norwegian confined-space flying for tanks and plants.
- DJI Enterprise · Shenzhen, China · founded 2006
The default aerial camera on a jobsite. Dock-based autonomous capture for progress, survey, and the weekly flyover a GC actually uses.
- Apellix · Jacksonville, United States · founded 2014
Tethered spray drones that coat high-rise facades and infrastructure. Winner of AkzoNobel Paint the Future. The skyscraper job without a swing stage.
- Lucid Bots · Charlotte, United States · founded 2018
Sherpa is a drone that washes and coats exteriors. Charlotte-built, sold to contractors who already own a pressure washer and a lift.
- Flyability · Lausanne, Switzerland · founded 2014
Elios - a collision-tolerant drone that flies inside tanks, chimneys, and the voids a person should not enter.
- Emesent · Brisbane, Australia · founded 2018
Hovermap LiDAR that flies or walks GPS-denied mines, plants, and unfinished decks.
- Exyn · Philadelphia, United States · founded 2014
Autonomous aerial mapping in GPS-denied space. Mines, plants, the volume a total station cannot see.
- Percepto · Modi'in, Israel · founded 2014
Dock-based autonomous drones for industrial sites. The flyover that no longer needs a pilot on the roof.
- Energy Robotics · Darmstadt, Germany · founded 2019
Fleet software that runs Spot, ANYmal, and drones on industrial sites as one inspection crew.
- CHC Navigation · Shanghai, China · founded 2003
Huace GNSS, LiDAR, and the X500 survey UAV. Layout and mapping hardware from Qingpu that already flies construction corridors in 140 countries.
- Autel Robotics · Shenzhen, China · founded 2014
EVO Max 4T - autonomous mapping and thermal from Nanshan. The other Shenzhen airframe GCs put on a corridor when DJI is not the bid.
- JOUAV · Chengdu, China · founded 2010
VTOL mapping UAVs. The CW-15 covers kilometers of highway and pipeline that a quadcopter battery will not.
- Infravision · Buda, United States · founded 2018
TX System - drones, a ground winch, and stringing hardware that pull high-voltage conductor. Powerlink in Queensland, PG&E in California, BC Hydro in British Columbia. Grid construction from Buda, Texas.
- Inspired Flight · San Luis Obispo, United States · founded 2018
IF1200A is an NDAA-compliant heavy-lift hexacopter for industrial and public-safety payloads - San Luis Obispo. Universal payload rail for survey cameras, LiDAR, and jobsite sensors.
- ModalAI · San Diego, United States · founded 2018
Starling 2 Max is a GPS-denied development and inspection drone - San Diego. VOXL compute for indoor and cluttered yards where consumer drones lose the lock.
- Parrot · Paris, France · founded 1994
ANAFI USA is a NDAA-aware professional inspection drone made in the USA - Paris HQ, U.S. build for government and enterprise survey. Thermal and zoom for the roof and facade day a crew used to walk.
Frequently asked questions
- How are drones used in construction?
- For surveying and mapping, progress photos, roof and facade inspection, and in some cases spraying.
- Which companies are on the construction drones list?
- Future of Built lists 19 companies here, including Skydio, Voliro, Flybotix, ScoutDI, DJI Enterprise, Apellix, Lucid Bots and Flyability.
- Where are these companies headquartered?
- By headquarters: United States (7), China (4), Switzerland (3), Australia (1), France (1).
- How many of these robots are deployed?
- Of the 17 robots on this page, 16 deployed, 1 pilot, per the Future of Built file.