Drone Control System for Monitoring Structures (12K EUR in Prizes)

Drone control system for monitoring building structures. This is a design challenge with 12,000 EUR in prizes. Can you come up with a solution that makes steel profile installation easier, reduces execution errors, controls the quality of the building structures, and cuts execution costs? Take a look at other recent challenges published on ennomotive. Join the challenge (click on the button below), register, and download the complete description of this competition. The deadline for submissions is the 15th of December, 2020.

Background

Since the introduction of steel in the construction sector as a structural material, the number of structures has grown exponentially, and so has their complexity and quality control requirements. The building of metallic structures requires both preparations in the factory (sheeting, cutting, welding, etc.) and on-site (positioning, anchoring, etc.). Although factories have the required resources, sometimes the assembly of structures takes place in remote locations where technical and human resources are very limited. This may endanger the correct assembly and quality of the structure. The Design Challenge: A Drone Control System for Monitoring Structures The building of the metallic structure requires the correct control of the different required steps for the installation of every profile or part:

• On-site geolocation of the exact planned spot to carry out the foundation or connection with other profiles. It must include the relative height of the site.
• Scanning the barcodes of every single part. Bar codes are added previously in the factory to ensure the correct installation according to the construction plan.
• Monitoring the right placement of each steel profile, once installed, especially the abutment head, to control potential plumbing or twist of the steel profiles.

Monitoring these variables would improve the on-site execution through effective quality control while reducing rework.

What the client is looking for

The main goal of this challenge is to find a drone control system solution that makes profile-installation easier, reduces execution errors, controls the quality of the structures, and cuts execution costs. The said solution must carry out all or some of the following operations:

• To geolocate the foundation and installation spots (± 2cm).
• To laser mark these spots on the ground. (± 2cm)
• To geolocate the abutment heads of the steel profiles  (± 2cm)
• To indicate the plumb or twist of the steel profile (± 0.5º).

Challenge participants may find inspiration in commercial models (drones, cameras, SW, etc.), but the focus will be on the solver or startup’s ability to create a prototype that includes data-and-image capturing, software to process them, and the delivery of ready-to-analyze data. It will necessary to use geolocation technologies, lidar, image processing, artificial intelligence, etc. Please, find more information in annex 1 - Measurements and tolerances.

Evaluation Criteria

The drone control system solutions will be evaluated according to the following criteria. In order of importance:

• Higher robustness of the solution and technical viability.
• The lower percentage of errors
• The higher degree of automation
• Possibility to be used remotely and off-line
• Best Business Case: initial investment (CAPEX) + operational cost (OPEX)

Timeline

1st round – 6 weeks (15th December) + 3 weeks for evaluation  2nd round – 8 weeks (1st March) + 3 weeks for evaluation

Prize: 12,000 €

Up to 4 participants that submit the best solutions in Round 1 will receive 3,000 EUR for the pilot testing, as long as they continue in the competition and deliver results in Round 2. The best solution or solutions of Round 2 that pass the pilot testing may reach an operating agreement with the company. In the event the solution is patentable or may generate a utility model, the WINNER will keep 30% of the rights. Already developed technologies can be submitted to solve this challenge. However, in this case, intellectual property will not be transferred. Participate in the challenge