?如何快速檢測一幢58層的摩天大樓？試試無人機

As the head of a 700-year-old winemaking dynasty, Lamberto Frescobaldi is overseeing a construction project in one of his Tuscany vineyards using technology that would have seemed otherworldly to his ancestors: high-flying drones.

蘭貝托·弗雷斯科巴爾迪(Lamberto Frescobaldi)統(tǒng)領著一個有700年歷史的葡萄酒釀造王朝，他眼下正在監(jiān)督自己位于托斯卡納的一座葡萄園的建設項目，并且使用了他的祖輩會視為天外之物的技術：高空無人機。

Ubiquitous as toys for the gadget-minded — and sometimes for purposes like spying and dropping explosives — drones have become indispensable tools in construction and real estate. Their relatively low cost and ease of handling have made work more efficient for architects, landscape designers, surveyors, builders, structural engineers and brokers.

作為那些科技小玩意愛好者的消遣之物，無人機隨處可見——有時它也用于偵查和投彈之類用途——在建筑和房地產(chǎn)業(yè)，它已成為不可或缺的工具。因為相對廉價和易于操控，它們提高了建筑師、景觀設計師、測量師、施工方、結構工程師和房產(chǎn)經(jīng)紀人的工作效率。

By launching a drone over the Perano vineyard in the Chianti region south of Florence, Mr. Frescobaldi can examine the progress of a 25,000-square-foot garden being built atop one of his wine cellars. The rooftop garden is intended for wine tastings, a crucial marketing strategy for the vintner’s business, Marchesi Frescobaldi. The company, which has a half-dozen vineyards that produce 11 million bottles of wine each year, reported revenue of $120 million in 2017.Richard Shelbourne, a British landscape architect who designed the garden, said the drone images helped refine the project. “The garden design, which started in my head and was then calculated and set out on paper, could now be seen in full scale from the air, and all the lines and curves were in the right place,” he said.

弗雷斯科巴爾迪第在佛羅倫薩南部基昂蒂(Chianti)的佩拉諾葡萄園上空施放無人機，這樣就能查看他在其中一個酒窖上方建造的2.5萬平方英尺(約合2300平方米)花園的工程進度。這個屋頂花園打算用于品酒，這在花思蝶酒莊(Marchesi Frescobaldi)非常重要的營銷策略。這家公司擁有6個葡萄園，年產(chǎn)葡萄酒1100萬瓶，2017年營業(yè)收入據(jù)報達到1.2億美元。設計這座花園的英國景觀設計師理查德·謝爾本(Richard Shelbourne)說，無人機拍攝的影像有助于項目的完善。“花園的設計始自我腦中，然后經(jīng)過計算落到紙面，現(xiàn)在能從空中看到完整的比例，所有的直線曲線都準確無誤。”他說。

The drone allowed the men to observe the work of excavators and motorized barrows, and the construction of pergolas, fountains and terra-cotta walkways. After looking at the drone footage during construction, they decided to modify an entrance to the garden.

無人機讓他們能夠視察挖掘機和機動手推車的工作，以及涼棚、噴泉和磚墁步道的建造。施工期間在看過無人機拍攝的畫面之后，他們決定修改一處花園入口。

“I asked my son to fly over a number of times, so I could imagine how it would be planted, to give it attention from a perspective that you usually do not have,” Mr. Frescobaldi said. “These modern devices, these videos — it’s progress.”

“我讓我兒子用無人機飛了很多次，這樣我就能設想該如何種植花木，能從平常做不到的視角注視它，”弗雷斯科巴爾迪第說。“這些現(xiàn)代設備，這些影像——這就是進步。”

Small, swift and agile, drones have all but replaced the more costly and less nimble helicopter for tasks that involve inspections, measurements and marketing images.

小巧、快速、敏捷的無人機在觀察、測量和拍攝營銷影像等任務中幾乎已取代了更貴、靈活性更低的直升機。

Interest in drones is rising for both consumer and commercial use. Sales of drones increased 33 percent in 2017 over the prior year, according to the market research firm NPD Group.

一般消費用途和商業(yè)用途對無人機的興趣都在增加。市場調(diào)查公司NPD集團稱，2017年無人機銷售量同比增長33%。

In 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration allowed commercial drone use for a broad range of businesses, but with restrictions: Pilots must be at least 16 years old and pass a written test.

2016年，美國聯(lián)邦航空管理局批準了商用無人機廣泛應用于商業(yè)領域，但也有一定限制：操作者必須年滿16歲并通過筆試。

On building sites, drones are saving money and time by providing digital images, maps and other files that can be shared in a matter of minutes, said Mike Winn, the chief executive of DroneDeploy, a company founded five years ago in San Francisco that creates software for, among other uses, operating drones with mobile apps.

Drone Deploy的首席執(zhí)行官邁克·溫(Mike Winn)說，在建筑工地上，無人機提供的數(shù)字圖像、地圖和其他文件在幾分鐘內(nèi)就能共享給相關各方，節(jié)省了資金和時間。這家公司五年前在舊金山成立，開發(fā)運用移動應用程序操作無人機等多種用途的軟件。

Drones are reducing the travel time for busy executives, Mr. Winn said. “The head office can see what’s going on, and the safety team, the costing team, the designers — all of them can contribute to the project, share data and comment on it, without actually going to the job.”

無人機也為忙碌的公司高管節(jié)省了差旅時間，溫說道。“公司總部能看到項目進展，安全團隊、成本團隊、設計師——他們都能為項目出力，共享數(shù)據(jù)并作出評點，不用真到施工現(xiàn)場。”

They could also improve safety. In the days before drones, Mr. Winn said, measuring the roof of a house for solar panels would require “a guy with a tape measure to climb up there,” which often produced inaccurate results and, like anything involving heights, was dangerous.

無人機還能提高安全性。溫說，在無人機出現(xiàn)之前的時代，在一幢房子的屋頂安裝太陽能板需要“一個人帶著皮尺爬上去”進行測量，而且得到的結果常常不精確，加之因為需要爬高的緣故，這個工作很危險。

Such peril is magnified in the construction of skyscrapers, said John Murphy Jr., a contractor on the Paramount Miami Worldcenter, a 58-story condominium tower being built in downtown Miami. Before drones, Mr. Murphy said, workers seeking access to the exterior of a high-rise were “dropped over the side” in so-called swing stages, small platforms that hang from cables. Often used by window cleaners, swing stages are precarious in high winds.

邁阿密市中心58層在建公寓樓派拉蒙世界中心的建筑承包商小約翰·墨菲(John Murphy Jr.)說，這種危險在摩天樓的建設中就更大了。墨菲說，有無人機之前，工人要去高層建筑外部，是用所謂的吊板——以纜繩懸掛的小平板“從樓側放下去”。這種吊板擦窗工經(jīng)常用到，在大風里非常危險。

“No one wants to go out there,” he said. “It’s scary.”

“沒人想去，”他說。“太嚇人了。”

Falls accounted for 384 of the 991 deaths in the construction industry in 2016, according to the latest figures from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That number could be reduced over time by increasing the use of drones for quality-control inspections and similar missions.

據(jù)美國職業(yè)安全與健康管理局(Occupational Safety and Health Administration)的最新數(shù)據(jù)，2016年美國建筑行業(yè)的991起死亡案例中有384起是高空墜落。隨著時間的推移，通過增加無人機在建筑質(zhì)量檢查及類似任務中的使用，這個數(shù)字會逐漸減小。

“We’re definitely limiting the exposure to workers,” said Mr. Murphy, who on a recent afternoon was at the Paramount site to supervise a drone inspection of window glazing on the tower. The drone’s camera was looking for possible leaks, water intrusion and “other things that you can’t see from the interior of the building.”

“我們肯定減少了工人的風險，”墨菲說，最近的某個下午他在派拉蒙的工地上監(jiān)督一架無人機檢查大樓的幕墻玻璃。無人機上的攝像頭尋找著可能的滲漏、透水和“從建筑內(nèi)部看不到的各種其他問題”。

Earlier, the drone was used to check the quality of steel connections in a bridge, 72 feet above the ground, that links the main tower to a parking structure.

更早的時候，這架無人機還用來檢查一座天橋的鋼結構連接的質(zhì)量，天橋距地面72英尺(約合22米)，連通主樓與一幢停車樓。

The utility of drones often begins long before the foundation is poured. They help planners decide where to place new buildings. And at the 87-room Foundry Hotel in downtown Asheville, N.C., the developer sent a drone to the precise height and location of a proposed fourth-floor balcony to help him decide how best to take advantage of the view.

無人機常常在地基澆筑之前就派上用場了。它們幫助規(guī)劃者決定把新建筑置于何處。北卡羅萊納州阿什維爾市中心有87間客房的Foundry酒店還未開建時，開發(fā)商讓一架無人機飛到規(guī)劃中四樓露臺的確切高度和位置，幫助他決定如何最好地利用景觀。

“A drone really helps us to conceptualize what a development is going to be, because sometimes it’s hard to do that just from a set of plans,” said Alexandros D. Papapieris, the development manager at McCall Capital, which is converting a 1925 office building in Bristol, Va., into the 65-room Bristol Hotel, set to open this fall. “Everyone loves a good aerial. Drones allowed us to paint a picture for the investors about why this was a good idea.”

“無人機的確幫助我們對一個開發(fā)項目會是什么樣子有了概念，因為有時候光靠一堆方案很難做到，”亞歷山德羅·帕帕皮里斯(Alexandros D. Papapieris)說。他是麥考爾資本(McCall Capital)的開發(fā)經(jīng)理，該公司正在把弗吉尼亞州布里斯托爾市一座1925年的辦公樓改造成65間客房的布里斯托爾酒店，定于今年秋季開張。“好的航拍畫面人人愛看。無人機讓我們能夠繪出圖景，告訴投資人為什么這是個好主意。”

Careers are being transformed with the new technology. Pedro Domecq, a videographer in San Sebastián, Spain, bought his first drone in 2011. “It cost $6,000,” he said. “Now, they cost $1,000 and they’re much better.”

某些職業(yè)也隨著這個新技術而改變。西班牙圣塞巴斯蒂安的攝影師佩德羅·多梅克(Pedro Domecq)在2011年買了他的第一架無人機。“花了6000美元，”他說。“現(xiàn)在的機器只要1000美元，而且還好得多。”

Initially, Mr. Domecq used the drone to capture aerial videos of his picturesque Basque Country surroundings and share them on social media. Now, under the banner of his company, Heliworx, Mr. Domecq spends much of his time fulfilling contracts with builders.

最開始多梅克用無人機航拍巴斯克地區(qū)周邊風景如畫的視頻，分享到社交網(wǎng)絡上。現(xiàn)在，在他自己的公司Heliworx旗號下，多梅克大量時間用來完成與各建筑商的合同。

“It’s all much easier with a drone,” said Mr. Domecq, who has lately been producing high-definition aerial surveys for the construction conglomerate Acciona, which is building a high-speed railroad that will connect the Basque Country with Madrid.

“有了無人機一切都容易多了，”多梅克說，他最近在為建筑工程集團安迅能(Acciona)進行高清航空測量作業(yè)，該公司正在修建一條連接巴斯克地區(qū)和馬德里的高速鐵路。

Mr. Domecq’s drone flights are aided by photogrammetry, in which three-dimensional digital models are created from overlapping photographs of a structure, landscape or object. Some of the flights involve mapping the paths to be taken underground by the many tunnels required for the railroad in the region’s mountainous terrain.

多梅克的無人機飛行得到了攝影測量的輔助，這種技術通過疊加一個結構、地貌或物體的照片來創(chuàng)建三維數(shù)字模型。在這個多山地區(qū)修建鐵路需要開掘許多隧道，部分無人機飛行的任務就包括繪制出這些地下路徑。

Younger business owners see drones as a moneymaking tool. After graduating from college four years ago and starting a small video marketing company in Charleston, S.C., Matt Coda found himself being asked to produce industrial videos with a drone. His biggest coup was a contract for his company, Vive Media, to document the first phase of construction of a 280-acre container terminal for the South Carolina Ports Authority.

更年輕的一些企業(yè)主將無人機視為賺錢工具。馬特·科達(Matt Coda)四年前大學畢業(yè)后，在南卡羅來納州查爾斯頓創(chuàng)辦了一家小型視頻營銷公司，他發(fā)現(xiàn)總有人找他用無人機拍攝工業(yè)視頻。最大的意外之喜是接到合同，讓他的公司Vive Media用無人機記錄南卡羅來納港務局一個280英畝(約合113公頃)集裝箱碼頭的第一期建設情況。

For more than a year, said Mr. Coda, 26, he provided monthly progress reports to his client, the S.J. Hamill Construction Company, in the form of video updates. He flew the drone along the same two routes on the development site to show Hamill Construction the entire property as the project progressed.

26歲的科達說，在一年多時間里，他每個月都以視頻更新的形式向客戶哈米爾建筑公司提交工程進度報告。他操作無人機在工地上空沿兩條固定線路飛行，讓哈米爾建筑公司隨著工程進展看到整個情況。

In May, Mr. Coda began working on the building site of the South Carolina Aeronautical Training Center, an $80-million, 224,000-square-foot structure at Trident Technical College in North Charleston.

今年5月，科達又開始拍攝南卡羅來納州航空訓練中心的建設工地，這個耗資8000萬美元、22.4萬平方英尺(約合2公頃)的建筑位于北查爾斯頓市的特萊登特技術學院(Trident Technical College)。

“It’s fascinating to see a project evolve,” said Mr. Coda, a certified drone operator. “But I’m grateful to be the one flying the drone and not doing the actual construction.”

“目睹一個項目漸漸成形令人著迷，”獲得認證的無人機操作員科達說。 “但謝天謝地我是那個飛無人機的，而不是真正干建筑的。”