Investigation of the UAV Capability for Measuring Building's Cracks Dimensions

Abstract

This research uses Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a platform to examine and monitor a building. It concentrates on inspecting building flaws, particularly cracks, utilizing UAV photogrammetry, which is the focus of this study. The reason for using a building as an object in this work is that the building maintenance team can evaluate, which can support providing trustworthy crack information on buildings. The building chosen for this work contains a reasonable amount of cracks, making it suitable. The methodology and procedures are used to take images of cracks in the building. The software can determine the size of the cracks based on 518 photos taken with a UAV. The 3D model of the building is created by using Agisoft Photoscan software to receive an overview of the building dimensions. The measurement of cracks is also being processed using Photomodeler software. The results showed that the capability of the UAV imagery can aid present surveying operations, particularly on building maintenance. It also indicates that cracks appeared on buildings from 0.72cm to 3.24cm in a certain altitude. The Root Mean Square (RMS) error obtained from comparing the actual and measured value of cracks was ±0.70 cm with the help of 114 GCPs distributed all over the building.