In these days, several new facilities are being established, and one of them is currently in the excavation and shoring phase. This is a resource-intensive project with very strict schedules – where each day of delay can directly affect the completion date and construction costs.
One of the main questions during the excavation stages is whether the work is progressing as planned, and what is the volume of excavation that has been carried out so far. To get an accurate answer, it is usually necessary to send a surveyor to the site to perform measurements and calculations – a process that takes time and requires an investment of thousands of shekels for each measurement cycle.
In order to accelerate the control process and enable quick insights, an interesting experiment was conducted: using an AI tool to estimate the depth and volume of the excavation within just a few minutes. A simple commercial drone was flown over the excavation site and photographed the area from different angles.
The next step was to use an artificial intelligence tool to extract insights from the photos. ChatGPT software was used to perform an assessment and receive AI-based analyses. Within a short time, estimates were given for both the depth and volume of the excavation – relying on the identification of objects of known height (such as a person, a container, etc.) and performing relative calculations accordingly.
The assessment result was compared to the result of a professional surveyor who visited the site the day before, and the difference between the two was less than 10%, meaning: an accuracy level of over 90%. This result indicates the high potential of integrating AI tools as an efficient and accessible control tool.
Following the tests, additional AI-based tools were also tested, and precise instructions were defined regarding the height and angles of the photography required in the next measurements – all this in order to further improve the level of accuracy and reliability.
This innovative approach is expected to enable continuous, fast, and accurate monitoring of the progress of the excavation stages in relation to the plan – and to provide a smart technological solution to one of the most significant challenges in the construction stages of complex projects of this type.