Drones monitoring large building sites: discovery research at Intel.
This project explores how drones can be used to monitor large scale building sites, mostly conducting discovery and market research with limited resources.
Outcome. We delivered a good body of research, within budget limitations which was used by internal teams at Intel for product development.
My role. Strategy, user research, ideation, prototyping, managing relationships with start ups.
Drones for large building sites.
This work was conducted at the peak of Intel’s exploration into the Internet of Things and Autonomous vehicles. While the market has evolved, the core questions around ecosystem coordination, data ethics, and trust in automation are still relevant today.
At that time, I collaborated with different start ups and the community of makers to connect tech with users’ needs, through discovery, market research, and modest budgets.
Hypothesis.
Large areas such as building sites or military zones were difficult to access, monitor and manage for professionals. Drones help to monitor those areas and in some cases replace human labour where access is limited.
Market, technical review, surveys and interviews.
We compared 20 different drones available on the Market. We chose a range of drones based on the unique characteristics they offer. Part of the technical review included building a drone from scratch, to understand the weight to lift ratio. We also tested various customisation methods using Arduino and 3D Printing. The main goal was not to make the drone fly, but understand what enables it to do so.
We also conducted 15 Online Surveys on DIY Drones community and 6 individual semi structured interviews with entrepreneurs focused on drone technology.
Main findings.
End to End experience for professional drones is inconsistent, dependable on regulations that are different in each country.
Drones have technical limitations, such as battery life, which make them difficult to use to monitor large building sites planning long missions.
Flight Data Overflow makes it hard for the operator to prioritise data consumption and act fast in difficult situations.
Partnering with FK Group, the Manchester Stadium roof.
FK Group is a worldwide full building envelope contractor, we wanted to identify new opportunities for using drones in large building sites. We went to Manchester to spend some time with them while they were working on the extension for the roof’s stadium. We interviewed the site manager, HR manager and a few contractors, we also observed how people were working on site.
Designing the Platform.
Designers and engineers spent a week together in idea generating workshops, the new ideas were contextualised with our technical and infield research.
The overall process brought to life a basic set of features for the initial multi-device platform, which connected the different workflows of the site manager, engineers with the drone operator, to monitor a large building site and identify critical areas that needed maintenance.
