37 th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2020) Stakeholder Perspectives on the Adoption of Drones in Construction Projects V.P.C. Charlesraj and N. Rakshith RICS School of Built Environment, Delhi NCR 201313 India E-mail: vpcharlesraj@ricssbe.edu.in, rakshithn.mc18n@ricssbe.edu.in Abstract – Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and services based on them have been used globally in various sectors including but not limited to construction, real estate, e-commerce, agriculture, utilities & energy, financial services, and media & entertainment. Use of such robots have a potential to reduce the cost & time and increase safety & productivity among other benefits. The use of drones is increasing in India and the UAV market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% during 2017-2023 in terms of revenue. While the use of drones is primarily in defence sector compared to commercial use, it has been reported that drone-based solutions are being explored in agriculture, energy & utilities, insurance, infrastructure, media & entertainment and mining in India. Hence, there exists a need to investigate the level of awareness, application, benefits and barriers of using drones in Indian construction. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the level of awareness and the application of drones among the key stakeholders in Indian construction through questionnaire survey-based quantitative research among key stakeholders. The study revealed there is high level of awareness of drones and low level of usage in Indian construction. The overall pattern in the data revealed that the respondents have rated most of the indicators highly important. Following are the top-rated attributes: Drones must be experimented before using it in the construction projects (relevance); Surveying (application); Drones provide real time updates from the site (benefit); Weather related issues (barrier) and Health and Safety (KPI). It has been observed that there is statistically significant difference in perception among contractors, consultants and clients with respect to relevance & application of drones and not so for benefits, barriers & impact on KPI. Keywords – Awareness; Drones; Indian construction; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) 1 Introduction The construction industry globally is worth 10 Trillion Dollars per annum. The countries around the world spend around 9-15% of the Gross Domestic Product on the construction sector. But the construction industry is very fragmented and unorganized. The construction industry is facing huge challenges compared to other sectors. There is a serious performance outfall observed over the decades in the construction industry [1]. The challenges such as lack of performance, low productivity of labours, lack of data collection and documentation, cost over runs of the project, lack of adoption of technology, delays in project completion, safety issues on site, lack of quality, lack of innovation, high expenses and management issues are observed in the construction industry [2]. The industry suffers with severe shortage of labours, lack of adoption of new technology, lack of performance due to decreased productivity [3]. Disasters such as one created by COVID-19 pandemic demand change in working conditions in addition to unavailability of resources. One of the ways to overcome these challenges in construction operations is to implement automation and robotics to improve the performance [4]. Construction industry is labour dependent and robotics & automation has shown potential improvement in the productivity and quality of the construction projects [5]. The emerging technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), Internet of Things (IOT), Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and robots like bricklaying machine, glazing machine, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drones, autonomous ground vehicles, robotic 3d printing can be used to increase the productivity, reduce the cost over- runs and delays in the project. So there is need for adopting the innovative technologies for the development of the construction industry [4,6]. Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) can be adopted as potential solution to the challenges faced by the construction industry. While the use of drones in India is primarily in defence sector compared to commercial use, it has been reported that drone-based solutions are being explored in agriculture, energy & 1227