CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Managing a construction project is no small task. From tracking site progress and

monitoring safety, to overseeing subcontractors and keeping stakeholders

informed, there is almost no end to the amount of coordination you face on any

given day. It’s no wonder project managers on job sites of all sizes are adding

drones to their toolkit. Aerial photos, maps, and 3D models have the power to

transform your workflow. Not only can drones save your project money and

resources, but they also give your team a rich set of data for more informed

communication and decision making. By spending less than an hour each week

mapping your job site, you gain access to an unprecedented amount of knowledge

about nearly every aspect of your project (Bogue, 2018).

Why Aerial Maps and 3D Models are Transforming Project Management “ As a

construction project manager, you are the hub of an ever-changing landscape. But

staying up to date on the many moving parts of a project can be challenging. That’s

where drone data comes in. Drone insights make it possible to view your job site in

a whole new way. Project managers using Drone Deploy typically map their job

site each week. This consistent overhead view is invaluable when it comes to

tracking progress, inspecting for safety issues, and keeping real-time tabs on every
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corner of a site. It’s even possible to take basic measurements and calculate

stockpile volumes, or annotate drone maps in the cloud to share notes across teams

for better communication and reporting. Drone data can also be overlaid with

additional site data—such as CAD designs—or imported into industry software for

more advanced oversight and planning (Dukowitz, 2018).

A common scenario for a struck-by accident is one in which a worker is hit by a

boomed vehicle or a piece of heavy construction equipment. One of the underlying

causes for this type of accident is the lack of visibility in the operator’s blind spot

(Fullerton et al., 2009). Blind spots can lead to accidents because the operator’s

view is obstructed and he or she is unable to see workers in close proximity (Teizer

et al., 2010), especially when the equipment is backing up. In order to mitigate

these risks, there is an increasing interest in employing state-of-the-art

technologies, such as proximity sensing, to identify and remove blind spots around

heavy construction equipment (Tatum and Liu, 2017)

During the past decade, UASs have been applied in a wide range of civil and

transportation engineering applications, including traffic surveillance (Coifman et

al., 2004; Chen et al., 2007), traffic simulation (Puri et al., 2007; Coifman et al.,

2006), monitoring of structures (Rathinam et al., 2008; Frew et al., 2004),

avalanche control (McCormack and Trepanier, 2008), and bridge inspection (Metni

and Hamel, 2007). Although UASs have only recently appeared in the building and
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construction literature, they have been used for variety of purposes, including

safety inspection (Irizarry et al., 2012), inspection of building façades (Roca et al.,

2013), surveying (Siebert and Teizer, 2014), building inspection and visual

inspection of structures (Michael et al., 2012; Morgenthal and Hallermann, 2014),

site monitoring (Wen and Kang, 2014), and construction progress monitoring (Han

et al., 2015). Irizarry et al. (2012) conducted the only study on using UASs for

safety applications; they also conducted a usability study and a heuristic evaluation

of a small-scale quadcopter equipped with a camera as a safety inspection tool on

construction sites. They ultimately proposed that UAS can be an ideal safety

inspection assistant, providing a safety manager with real-time access to videos or

images from a range of predefined paths and locations around the job site, as well

as voice interaction with construction workers. However, their proposed

conceptual system was not validated by construction safety managers, and little

information was collected from actual safety managers in the field. To address this

knowledge gap, the current study will gather opinions from safety managers about

using UASs in various safety-related operations. This research project would

investigate current construction safety management tasks that have the potential to

implement UAS technology, as well as user and technological requirements for

successful implementation of this technology within those practices.

Understanding the requirements of professionals who are involved in safety

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management applications will ultimately lead to a series of UAS development

specifications and design characteristics for construction safety applications.

1.2 Problem Statement

Unmanned aerial vehicles will inevitably be adopted by large portions of society

and many organizations. However, many innovation adoption factors are

important, and an unprepared organization can waste significant sums of money by

forcing an unwelcome or poorly executed change on its employees. On one such

change, the USAF spent approximately $1.1 billion on a scrapped ERP system

(Kanaracus, 2012).

Although the construction industry is highly scrutinised and industry standards as

well as governmental regulations are strict to prevent injuries, fatal accidents still

occur. Many initiatives have been recorded in recent years with the purpose to

reduce hazardous accidents. Technology is constantly evolving and being adopted

into various industries to improve safety. However, this has not been the case for

the construction industry to the same extent, where technology adoption is low

Drones are a promising innovation that significantly can improve safety and is a

relatively cheap investment for construction companies. Accordingly, there have

been many studies conducted that focus on the various benefits of drone usage in

the construction industry, one of them being safety. Bogue (2018), for instance,

states that the use of drones can reduce the reliance on workforce and minimise
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hazards to workers, speed up processes, reduce waste, shorten construction

timescales and reduce costs. There are undeniably many benefits associated with

adopting drone technology for safety purposes. This led to the purpose of examine

the emerging technologies for adopting diffusion of Unmanned Ariel Vehicles

(Drones) in project construction in Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to examine the emerging technologies for adopting

diffusion of Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (Drones) in project. To achieve this aim, the

following objectives are to be carried out:

i. To examine the level of adoption of UAVs by stakeholders in building

project safety and security monitoring

ii. To identify the limitations of adopting effective use of drones in safety and

security monitoring in building construction sites

1.4 Research questions

i. To what extent do level of adoption of UAVs by stakeholder’s impact on

project delivery?

ii. What are the limitations of adopting effective use of drones in safety and

security monitoring on project delivery?

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1.5 Research hypotheses

H0A: Level of adoption of UAVs by stakeholders has significant effect on project

delivery

H01: Level of adoption of UAVs by stakeholders has no significant effect on

project delivery

H0A: There are no limitations for adopting effective use of drones in safety and

security monitoring on project delivery

H02: There are no limitations for adopting effective use of drones in safety and

security monitoring on project delivery

1.6 Significant of the study

The usage of drones will not only yield safety benefits but also economical. If

safety is improved it will result in less accident, which in turn would result in

workers being safer at work. This will drive efficiency and thus also render

economic benefits. Additionally, the usage of drones can replace some work that

historically has been needed to be conducted by humans, thus creating cost

reductions. Thus, switching to drones will have economic benefits that can be

reinvested in safety and environmental initiatives.

1.7 Scope of the study

This study will only focus on how drones can improve safety on construction sites,

thus excluding other technology that also might improve safety at construction
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sites in Port Harcourt. The project covers the level of adoption of UAVs by

stakeholders in building project safety and security monitoring and limitations of

adopting effective use of drones in safety and security monitoring in building

construction sites. It will cover selected construction projects in Rivers State

The limitation of this study was inability of stakeholders to divulge certain

information which they consider sensitive and fear of publication which might be

detrimental to their operation. Also, the outright inability of some respondents to

complete and return the questionnaire to the researcher is one of the limitations of

the study.

Another limitation to the study was traffic congestion for the researcher to meet

them in their places of work and for possible return of the questionnaire.

Finally, the researcher observed the non-cooperative attitude of some workers of

the company to make information available for him.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Conceptual framework

2.1.1 Unmanned Aerial Systems

An Unmanned Aerial System comprises the aircraft carrying the payload

(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAV); a control station (CS) which houses the

system operators and interfaces between the operators and the rest of the system;

the system of communication between the CS and UAV; and the various

maintenance and transport equipment. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is as

an aerial vehicle that uses aerodynamic and propulsion forces to sustain its flight

along a prescribed path without an on-board pilot. It may carry cameras, sensors,

communications equipment or other payloads. This definition of UAVs includes

fixed-wing, rotary-wing and airship platform. (Budiyono, 2008).There has been a

burst of activity in Unmanned Aerial Systems. UAS constitute the most dynamic

section of the aerospace industry. The debut and eventual widespread application

of UAVs in Kenya is inevitable. The main segmentation for applications of UAS

are in the Energy Sector; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; Earth Observation and

Remote Sensing; Communication and Broadcasting; Fire fighting and various

Government Applications (Frost and Sullivan, 2007).

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Like the internet and GPS, drones have evolved beyond their military origin and

are becoming powerful tools in the business world. Many different application

areas have been identified where drones have a significant impact on how

everyday business is conducted and is expected to yield big safety, economic and

sustainability benefits. The drone market for construction usage is currently valued

at approximately $11 billion, which makes it the biggest segment of all business

related application areas (Goldman Sachs, 2014). Within the construction industry

in North America it is estimated that 18% of small and medium-sized companies

are currently using drones with another 8% planning to implement it by 2020,

indicating a significant increase (Budiac, 2018). Drones are primarily battery

driven, which is good for the environment, as it does not release carbon dioxide

into the atmosphere directly by the usage. As mentioned before, a key feature of

the drone is its weight, which means that batteries must become smaller and

lighter. With regards to power density, lithium-polymer and lithium-ion batteries

have become very small and affordable, driven by the mobile phone industry

(Drone Industry Insights, 2017). It has resulted in wide adoption and it is estimated

thatthe majority, approximately 96%, of commercial unmanned aerial vehicles use

batteries as a power source (Drone Industry Insights, 2017). However, when

considering the full life cycle of manufacturing these batteries, there is another side

to the story. These batteries comprise of materials that have high environmental
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and energy impacts. In addition, materials such as lithium are scarce natural

resources (McManus, 2012).

Fig 1: Unmanned Aerial Systems (McManus, 2012).

2.1.2 Types of drones

2.1.2.1 Multi-rotor drones

Multi-rotor drones are the most common type of drone as they are easy to

manufacture and the cheapest option available on the market. The multi-rotor

drone can be used for the most common applications such as aerial photography,

aerial video surveillance and so on. However, the multi-rotor drone has some

downsides such as limited flying time, endurance and speed, which does not make

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them suitable for large-scale projects (Circuits today, 2017). Below is a visual

example of a multi-rotor drone.

2.1.2.2 Fixed wing drones

Fixed wing drones are different in design and how they function. Unlike the multi-

rotor drone the fixed wing version has wings like normal aeroplanes and does not

utilise energy to stay afloat in the air, however, they cannot hover in the air like

multi-rotor drones can (Circuits today, 2017). This makes fixed wing drones ideal

for long distance operations, but they cannot be used for aerial photography since it

requires the drone to be kept still in mid-air for some time. The other downsides of

fixed wing drones are higher costs and required training. Below is a visual example

of a fixed wing drone.

2.1.2.3 Fixed wing hybrid

Fixed wing hybrids are as the name suggests a hybrid of multi-rotor drones and

fixed wing drones. These drones combine the benefits of the two models, which

result in higher flying time and the ability to hover (Circuits today, 2017). Below is

a visual example of a fixed wing hybrid drone.

2.1.2.4 Single rotor helicopter

Single rotor drones are similar in design and structure to actual helicopters. Unlike

multi-rotor drones, a single rotor model only has one big rotor and a small one on

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the tail of the drone used to control the vehicle. This model is more efficient than

the multi-rotor one and has higher flying time (Circuits today, 2017).

2.1.3 Advantages of Drones

To properly weigh the pros and cons of drones and their use, it’s important to

examine both sides of the debate on their own merits. For instance, plenty of

reasons exist to support the use of drones.

Quality Aerial Imaging

Drones are excellent for taking high-quality aerial photographs and video, and

collecting vast amounts of imaging data. These high-resolution images can be used

to create 3D maps and interactive 3D models, which have many beneficial uses.

For example, 3D mapping of disaster areas can enable rescue teams to be better

prepared before entering hazardous situations.

Precision

Since unmanned aerial vehicles use GPS (the Global Positioning System), they can

be programmed and maneuvered accurately to precise locations. This is especially

helpful in a variety of situations. In precision agriculture, for example, UAVs are

used for a variety of farming needs, such as spraying fertilizer and insecticide,

identifying weed infestations, and monitoring crop health. The precision of UAVs

saves farmers both time and cost.

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Easily Deployable

With advances in control technology, most drones can be deployed and operated

with relatively minimal experience. Combined with the relatively low cost of most

models, drones are becoming accessible to a wide range of operators. UAVs also

have a greater range of movement than manned aircraft. They are able to fly lower

and in more directions, allowing them to easily navigate traditionally hard-to-

access areas.

Security

Another plus to drone use centers on security. With the appropriate license,

operators can use unmanned aerial vehicles to provide security and surveillance to

private companies, sporting events, public gatherings, and other venues. Drones

can also gather valuable data during and after natural disasters to aid in security

and recovery efforts.

2.2 Theoretical framework for Drone Adoption

2.2.1 Diffusion Theory

Diffusion is how an innovation is communicated over time among members of a

social system (Rogers, 1995). In the present study, the innovations are drones and

the social system is local TV news departments in the United States.

Communication may occur in articles in trade publications and interpersonal

conversation among news directors and with station owners. Rogers (1995)
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explained five perceived characteristics of an innovation that influence its

adoption: (1) relative advantage, (2) compatibility, (3) complexity, (4)

observability, and (5) trialability. All characteristics except complexity are

positively related to the adoption. Relative advantage is often associated with a

cost/benefit analysis in which individuals or organizations determine whether it is

in their best interest to adopt an innovation (Rogers, 1995). An important aspect of

this characteristic is audience size, which is usually a crucial issue for broadcasters.

For example, Goldberg, Corcoran, and Picard (2013) noted the challenges to

stations using drones to gathering news but identified competitive opportunities for

stations that cannot afford piloted news helicopters. Adoption of drones might,

therefore, largely be a matter of cost, since stations need only special permission

from the FAA. The low equipment cost (relative to helicopters) also applies to

drones. Compatibility is related to the extent to which the innovation is similar to

existing objects or practices, that is, how well it fits “values, past experiences, and

need of potential adopters” (Rogers, 1995). A high degree of compatibility tends to

reduce the level of uncertainty toward the innovation. Because stations already

have some experience with aerial photography, there is an assumed degree of

congruence in delivering content via drones. Complexity is associated with the

level of simplicity or complexity in using the innovation (Rogers, 1995). TV

stations interested in implementing innovations will need to understand the

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technological side of news dissemination and gathering. As noted above,

complexity is associated with negatives of adopting an innovation, so that the

higher the perceived complexity of the innovation, the lower the tendency to adopt

the innovation. For example, a news director who perceives drones as too complex

is less likely to implement the technology. News directors might view the entire

process as too much trouble. For other news managers, however, the addition of

drones might seem a relatively simple process. Trialability is the ability for a

potential adopter to try an innovation before deciding whether or not to adopt it

(Rogers, 1995). Additionally, this provides an opportunity to see how the

innovation works in the potential adopter’s particular situation. However, as

Rogers (1995) noted, some innovations are more difficult to try than others. The

use of drones is complicated by FAA regulation that protects commercial flights.

Coupled with complexity, local TV stations might perceive that implementing

drones is too difficult to try because it requires additional technology and

permission. Observability relates to how well potential adopters can see an

innovation in use(Rogers, 1995). News directors can observe other stations’ use of

new technology, but without being able to observe results in relation to TV

audiences. The issue is the extent to which adoption of drones by other stations in a

market influence other news directors to implement new methods for gathering and

dissemination .In addition to the perceived characteristics of an innovation,

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organizations adopt innovations based on three types (Rogers, 1995). First,

adoption from the optional perspective means the organization does not sense a

need to adopt or is not mandated to do so. Second, under collective adoption, the

decision to implement an innovation is based on consensus. The third type of

innovation adoption in an organization is authority-driven. In that instance, a few

people who are in authority positions make the decision to adopt. In the case of

drones, stations that are part of a station group might fall under either collective or

authority drive, depending on the amount of participation the local news director

has in the decision process. For example, Cox Media took advantage of drones for

newsgathering in 2015 in anticipation of blanket approval by the FAA in 2016

(Suciu, 2016).

2.2.2 Technology acceptance model

There has been significant prior research focused on technology acceptance model

(TAM). In 1985, Fred Davis suggested the TAM. TAM models how users come to

accept and use a technology. UAV is an emerging technology and relates how

users accept and use UAV in EM and PS discipline. The advantage of UAVs is

that they can move at higher speeds than surface vehicles as they are not restricted

to traveling on the road network or facing obstructions. UAVs have advantages

over manned vehicles as most of the functions and operations can be implemented

at a much lower cost, faster and safer (Puri, 2005).“TAM examines the mediating
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role of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness in their relation between

systems characteristics (external variables) and the probability of system use (an

indicator of system success)” (Collerette, 2003). The model suggests that when

users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence their

decision about how and when they will use it:

• Perceived usefulness (PU) -This was defined by Fred Davis as "the degree to

which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job

performance" (Davis, 1989).

• Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) -defined this as "the degree to which a person

believes that using a particular system would be free from effort” (Davis, 1989).

TAM is predictive, but its generality does not provide the information necessary to

understand acceptance behavior or guide meaningful intervention identification for

the purpose of enhancing adoption (Venkatesh, 2000).

Prior work points to the value of new community-based organizational forms and

their increasing use for innovation (Baldwin & von Hippel, 2011; Felin & Zenger,

2014; Lakhani et al., 2013) but leaves open how these forms

influence the innovation process and its outcomes for ventures in nascent markets.

To address this gap, we develop a theoretical framework that outlines when and

why the firm and community organizational forms are effective for innovation in

entrepreneurial settings. Our principal argument is that fit between ventures’

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organizational form, innovation process, and the nature of innovation bottlenecks

is critical for performance.

Below, we develop this emergent framework and explicate its theoretical logic

through the history of innovation bottlenecks in the nascent consumer drone

industry. Specifically, we detail the roles played by both DJI and 3DR, including

the specific processes each venture employed to identify and resolve each

bottleneck and, to that end, the central role of their organizational forms. In doing

so, we show that organizational form influences the repertoire of experimentation

and problem-solving processes ventures can employ to innovate. Performance, in

turn, is a function of the fit of this repertoire with the different types of bottlenecks

that block innovation—i.e., whether ambiguous or uncertain, or whether solutions

are novel or complex..

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