Usages and Practicality of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Safety Inspection in Malaysia Construction Industry

Choo, Yong Wei (2024) Usages and Practicality of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Safety Inspection in Malaysia Construction Industry. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

According to the records of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), the construction industry in Malaysia has the highest risk of occupational fatal accidents compared to other industries. Many countries, including the United States, Brazil, Singapore, China, India and Nigeria, have started adopting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drone technology to improve the health and safety management system in their construction industries. However, the use of UAV for health and safety purposes in the Malaysian construction industry is still relatively uncommon. Therefore, the research objectives are to explore the usage of UAV for construction safety inspection, investigations on their practicality, and to propose ways to improve the practicality of UAV in the Malaysian construction industry. The methodology used for this research is a qualitative approach, specifically Grounded Theory research through the theoretical sampling method combined with Qualitative Content Analysis. The target respondents for this research are construction professionals, including construction managers, project managers, safety managers, and other relevant individuals (at least 3 years working experiences) of those G6-G7 contractors in Peninsular Malaysia registered under CIDB. A total of 20 interviews were successfully conducted via virtual and physical meetings. Once the data collected from the interviews reaches saturation point, including 2 field observations, 5 interviews with other than the type of target respondents, and a total of three focus groups were conducted, comprising of 2 to 6 members each, with a duration of not more than two hours, to cover all the discussions and collaboratively arrive at potential approaches to address specific problems. The results show that UAV could be considered as an assisting tool to help in construction safety inspection. The research findings demonstrated UAV’s usages, practicalities, and ways to improve the practicalities of UAV in construction safety inspection, revealing their capability in hazard identification, real-time interaction, and in developing 3D/4D building models, while also highlighting the need to improve the practical aspects such as indoor data collection, the lack of safety awareness, the lack of drone knowledge and the limited for real-time interaction, ultimately advocating for UAV’s integration to enhance safety in the construction process despite human resistance to change. The result implies that current construction industry may have developed a misconception regarding UAV in construction safety inspections. However, the truth is that UAV is quite valuable and effective in enhancing construction safety inspections, despite the persistent rumours surrounding them. In terms of research limitation, this research faced time constraints in organizing focus group discussions and in conducting interviews, exacerbated by challenges in aligning respondents' schedules and unexpected cancellations, while also acknowledging the lack of generalizability of findings due to the qualitative nature of the research.