Case Study

UAS Highrise Inspection of Façade

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TEXO was commissioned by a prominent construction consultancy to deliver a façade inspection of the new Finsbury Tower development, by Unmanned Aerial System (UAS).

The project involved the partial demolishment of the existing 16 storey tower to rebuild it to 29 storeys with two seven-storey podiums on either side. The client required the façade to be inspected as erected in stages, to allow for snagging and highlighting of defects to the contractors for rectification.

Solution

TEXO deployed skilled UAS inspection teams capable of flying in restrictive and congested environments, often 3-6m away from the building to attain the level of detail required.

The team were provided with marked schematics to fly the inspections from the second floor upwards, across multiple visits. This was delivered with highly trained, congested airspace pilots, capable of landing the UAS on narrow gantries and crowded work areas.

TEXO hold a unique Operating Safety Case with the Civil Aviation Authority, enabling them to operate drones in some of the most restrictive environments and airspaces.

Upon capture, all data was coordinated in TEXO’s data management platform TEXZONE. The client, via a browser, was able to navigate between the data floor by floor and add annotations and comments to the images to build a comprehensive list of defects for their contractors. This data was easily shared, and all images could be interrogated and annotated, comments recorded and easily downloaded by the client.

UAS Highrise Inspection of Façade

Result

All data capture was provided without the requirement for rope access and scaffolding, and therefore completed much faster than conventional means. This enabled a more flexible inspection program to work around the work scopes occurring on site. 

The ability to capture this data in such a flexible unobtrusive manner enabled the client to identify defects in advance of handover dates to ensure all faults were remedied in a timely and cost-effective manner.

UAS Highrise Inspection of Façade