Sundt Construction cuts site inspection time by 90% with drones
Sundt, one of the largest 100% employee-owned construction companies in the southwest, specializes in a number of construction projects including transportation, commercial building, industrial, and renewable energy.
Skydio’s drones have streamlined Sundt’s drone operations in a big way, saving them time and money, while opening up additional avenues for revenue. Because of this, they are planning on transitioning their entire fleet to Skydio drones this year. This speaks to just how much Skydio is set to change the paradigm within the construction industry.
Learn more about Skydio for construction site monitoring.
- [upbeat music]
- I've spent years trying to make these kinds of models, this kind of level of
- detail, you know, with traditionally manual drones to try
- and
- replicate what Skydio has been able to program into all
- of their drones. It, it's impossible.
- [upbeat music] We're here in Goodyear, Arizona.
- It's currently 110 degrees outside.
- We're building this enormous data center for our client.
- I'm Dean Miller. I work for Sundt Construction.
- I'm a virtual construction engineer.
- I came to Sundt Construction because I knew how to build 3D models and
- work with them, too. As time progressed, we started to adopt drones as a whole, and
- I learned to fly them. Progressed that three more years
- and we're at where we are
- now with 30-plus pilots, 40 drones, and a slew
- of solutions.
- Traditionally, we use manual drones.
- Now that Skydio has been released, we've been able to transition to Skydio
- autonomous drones.
- Inspection is important at Sundt because it allows us to show
- progress of the project as a whole.
- Inspections have traditionally been done by hand, and that's somebody walking
- around with their phone or an iPad, laser scanners, plumb bobs, taking
- pictures from the ground level. But now that Skydio has been released,
- we've been
- able to utilize this autonomous drone to help the documentation of our job
- sites, and that's by allowing us to go into areas
- that
- otherwise couldn't be flown before.
- Because it doesn't rely on its magnetometer like traditional manual
- drones, it
- allows us to fly inside and next to heavy metals.
- This gives us the ability to document interiors of buildings as well as
- exteriors. Because of the Autonomy Enterprise
- Foundation, we've
- been able to get up close to different obstacles.
- We can fly through doorways, even through windows, and get
- into tight areas and document those areas to check for
- accuracy and as-builts.
- I'm Josh Anderson. I'm a senior project manager with Sundt
- Construction here in
- Phoenix, Arizona. I've been with the company for 17 years.
- Drones definitely help us build our projects faster, safer, and
- better. Faster, we can cover more ground with the drone,
- and it's that
- simple. We can cover a lot of area in a short
- amount of time.
- Better is we've got real-time video and documentation
- control of what we're building, where if we have to refer back to something,
- we can
- do that. Safer because we know of obstacles
- that we wouldn't normally see
- when we're on the ground to look for hazards.
- We can plan work at heights. We try to keep people on the ground as
- much as possible. It's safer on the ground.
- We're in this business to build great projects, but we wanna create careers for
- everybody and help support their families, and that's why we work safe.
- Drones help us do that. Drone usage over the years in
- construction has come a long way. Skydio specifically has been great for us.
- We're getting a much better image in a shorter amount of time.
- With Skydio drones, we're able to create photos, mosaics, and
- 3D models. Here's an example of an HVAC unit
- that we created a 3D
- model
- of. [upbeat music] When it comes to progress tracking,
- we're constantly looking for
- new ways to utilize the information given.
- Using the autonomous Skydio drones, we're able to verify accuracy of
- placements and verify that everything is being built correctly.
- Once a project's complete, we're able to fly it one final time
- and capture
- that moment in time of when we're handing over the finished
- product to our clients.
- We're able to use this for marketing in the future,
- and it also helps us to get new
- work.
- Utilizing Skydio autonomous drones, we're able to reduce our inspection
- time by 90%. That 90% on a job site
- means money.
- [upbeat music]
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3 Mins 50 Secs