DroneDeploy

Summary

DroneDeploy is a cloud-based reality capture and inspection platform that combines drone mapping, 360 ground photography, ground robot integration, and AI-powered analysis for construction sites. It covers aerial survey and documentation, daily walkthrough capture, pre-pour QA via its Concrete Sleeve AI, safety hazard detection, and progress tracking with subcontractor claim verification; physical site capture, interpretation of results, and trade-specific judgment stay with the crew. One person flies the pre-pour deck check in ten minutes and gets a sleeve-position report back in two to four hours, replacing the manual walkdown. The platform has been shipping since at least 2015 across 13 confirmed deployments with customers including Turner Construction, Skanska, and Kier Group.

PPE Compliance Monitoring Hazard Identification and Unsafe Behavior Detection Daily Walkthrough and Progress Documentation Drone Survey and Aerial Documentation Defect Identification and Punch List / Closeout Tracking

How it works on your site

PPE Compliance Monitoring

Safety AI scans existing 360 camera captures for missing guardrails, fall hazards, and improper PPE, then flags violations without requiring new hardware or dedicated safety walks. The crew reviews flagged items and makes enforcement decisions.

Hazard Identification and Unsafe Behavior Detection

The platform processes uploaded 360 imagery against OSHA 1910/1926 violation categories and returns flagged hazards. The safety team still walks the site; the AI layer surfaces violations that visual walkthroughs miss or that occur between scheduled inspections.

Daily Walkthrough and Progress Documentation

A crew member walks the floor with a 360 camera; photos auto-organize by date and location in the cloud platform. Remote stakeholders review progress, verify subcontractor claims against visual data, and check concealed conditions before close-up without traveling to site.

Drone Survey and Aerial Documentation

Automated flight planning covers the site in a single mission; the platform generates orthomosaics, 3D models, and cut-fill analysis from the captured imagery. For concrete pours, the Concrete Sleeve AI compares drone imagery of the deck against composite drawings or Navisworks models to flag misplaced, missing, or out-of-tolerance sleeves and embeds. Docked drone systems run scheduled autonomous missions with weather-aware rescheduling.

Defect Identification and Punch List / Closeout Tracking

Commercial teams compare subcontractor progress claims against time-stamped visual capture data. The platform auto-detects trade activity from 360 imagery without requiring a BIM model or a construction schedule as input.

How it worked on other sites

Infrastructure/Construction · United Kingdom · Ongoing

Site inspections, progress tracking, project management, and safety monitoring across multiple UK projects.
Ongoing production deployment.

Education/Institutional · Snowy Mountains, NSW, Australia · Ongoing since 2019

Weekly drone flights, remote site management, concealed-services verification, and subcontractor claim verification across 20 active projects.
Ongoing since 2019; plans to deploy on all new projects.

Mixed-use high-rise · Atlanta, GA · Ongoing

Pre-pour concrete deck inspection via Concrete Sleeve AI with sleeve and embed position verification against Navisworks models.
Ongoing production deployment on a 31-story mixed-use tower.

Robot also used by

Will it work on your site

Environment Outdoor (aerial) + Indoor (360/ground) Hardware-dependent; weather monitoring for docked ops

Site preparation GCPs or RTK/PPK for survey-grade accuracy (optional for non-survey use); dock installation for automation GCP marking workflow documented as time-intensive (1-2 hrs for 50 points, no session save); misalignment requires full re-upload

Connectivity Internet required for processing, upload, and collaboration; offline flight possible with pre-planned templates Up to 10 saved flight templates for offline use; large uploads documented as failure-prone on weak connections

Autonomy Conditional autonomous Supervised drone flight; autonomous dock/robot/AI ops

Control interface Web dashboard + mobile app App stability issues documented in user reviews

BIM/CAD Concrete Sleeve AI requires a coordinated sleeve drawing (2D); Progress AI and Safety AI do not require BIM Optional BIM compare available for 360 walks; Progress AI can incorporate BIM but does not require it

Fleet management Dock automation scheduling 100+ docked drone projects confirmed by independent press (DroneLife, SiliconANGLE, Oct 2025)

Security ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR Not CJIS or FedRAMP

Data encryption In-transit and at-rest

Data isolation Customer data not used for model training

Operator requirements FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate required for commercial drone flights in the US; equivalent certification required in other jurisdictions Automated flight planning via DroneDeploy app supports DJI drones only; 360 ground capture does not require pilot certification

Commercial model SaaS subscription, per-seat pricing; Individual from $329/seat/month, Business from $499/seat/month, Enterprise custom-quoted Construction-grade features (Sleeve AI, Progress AI, Safety AI) require Advanced or Unified tiers at custom pricing; hardware purchased separately

Processing throughput Cloud processing: 2-6 hours typical for standard datasets, up to 24 hours for large jobs at peak queue periods No published SLA for standard tiers; processing capped by annual Gigapixel allowance per plan tier