Monte Carlo based Risk Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flights over Construction Job Sites

摘要

While Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used on construction job sites for different purposes for over a decade, the risks and hazards of flying UAVs on construction job sites has not been either quantitatively or qualitatively assessed. Quantifying the risks of flying UAVs over general populations is a common practice in the general UAV industry. This study uses an established model that has been used to quantify the risks of flying UAVs over general population, propagates the bases of the model based on the construction industry needs, tailors some of the input of the model based on the construction industry specifications, and uses the Monte-Carlo Simulation method to quantify the risks of flying UAVs over a real construction job site adopted as a case study. This model is based on mishap rate for UAVs, population density of the area that UAVs fly over and the lethal area of UAVs that could be potentially fatal in the event of a crash. While this paper presents the very first effort in quantifying the risks of flying UAVs over construction sites, there is a need in the construction industry to tailor this model based on the needs of the industry to make the model more accurate.