Aerial Inspections of Buildings
Image: 3D model from one of our inspection projects, Bern, Switzerland (model: Inspekt AI)
SORA Approved
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Parhelion's state-of-the-art drone equipment plus Inspect AI's powerful AI analysis tool produce precise, useable inspections results. Contact us to get a facts-based understanding of your building's exterior condition.
The Ugly Truth: buildings deteriorate over time.
What’s more, defects worsen as long as they go undetected and un-repaired. Defects go undetected because thorough, effective buildings inspections are not always performed with regularity.
This results in:
- Increased maintenance costs. Defects that would be easy to fix today become expensive and sometimes even dangerous problems when left to tomorrow.
- Increased energy costs. Poorly maintained buildings waste energy, often via leakage from defects (cracks) in the facade material. Owners of buildings with such defects potentially face higher-than-necessary energy bills for heating and cooling their buildings.
- Increased climate impact. According to the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), buildings account for over 25% of all CO2 emissions in Switzerland.
Read our article: Greenhouse Emissions and Energy Loss Due to Building Envelope Defects: A Solution
Swiss FOEN report on CO2 emissions
Delay is the enemy!
Waiting to fix external defects can only increase the costs associated with repairs, energy wastage and environmental impact. We can perform the (rapid and inexpensive) buildings inspections that will inform and guide your management of your building’s external condition. Contact us to discuss how this can be arranged (it’s easy!).
The Solution: early, periodic and thorough buildings inspections.
- Early, in order to avoid allowing facade repairs and lost-energy costs to increase over time.
- Periodic, (e.g. annual) because new defects arise with time and repaired defects sometimes aren’t repaired well enough to stop being problems.
- Thorough, because partial inspections tell only part of the story and missed defects would thereby go un-repaired.
Specifically: aerial (drone) buildings inspections - a cost-efficient method.
An advanced technology drone flies over every centimeter of your building, capturing high-resolution images and thermal data. The data are then examined by a sophisticated AI engine for defect detection, analysis and reporting. You get a report that presents a complete picture of the defects of your building exterior as well as an analysis of energy leakage from those defects.
Why use drones?
- Aerial inspections by drones are far cheaper than older inspection methods, such as using scaffolding, hanging platforms (e.g. window-cleaning platforms) or even repelling down from above.
- Using drones is safer.
- Using drones is quicker.
- Drones are more thorough – they don’t “miss” areas because of fatigue or error.
- Drone inspections are more consistent than merely using binoculars is – the drone is able to see every part of the facade from up close.
The Companies Providing the Service: global, but local too.
Parhelion Aerospace GmbH – providing aerial data collection (we take the visual and thermal drone images).
- Parhelion is located in Evilard (BE), Switzerland.
- The company is registered in the Commercial Register of Canton Bern since 2011 – and has provided UAV (drone) services since 2016.
- The SORA authorization to conduct unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) flight operations has been granted to Parhelion Aerospace by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation/FOCA (Bundesamt für Zivilluftfahrt/BAZL). This is the most comprehensive drone operations permit available in Switzerland or the EU, and permits Parhelion to operate even in urban environments.
- Parhelion operations are insured for liability by Zurich AG for double the amount required by Swiss law.
- Our clients include Biel businesses, like itreas GmbH, as well as companies elsewhere in Switzerland, like Nomoko AG in Zürich and GM Prime Properties AG, in Bern.
- Our drone equipment have both visual and thermal IR imaging capabilities.
- Our pilot possesses the STS-01/STS-02 and the A1/A3+A2 Swiss (BAZL) Remote Pilot Certificates, the USA (FAA) Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate and the ISO 18436-7 Cat 1 Infrared Thermography course certificate.
Inspekt AI – providing AI analyses of drone data.
- The company is headquartered in Boston, USA, and is a global leader in providing innovative solutions to the complex exteriors maintenance challenges faced by buildings managers, owners, operators and contractors worldwide.
- It is truly international, having completed numerous inspection projects in North America, Europe and Asia.
- Inspekt AI leverages advanced artificial intelligence to provide expert, detailed and thorough analyses of the data collected at your site by Parhelion Aerospace.
- Inspekt AI maintains your online Dashboard that organises, displays and provides access to your data and analyses. This not only allows you to plan your building repairs but provides you with a fantastic instrument to inform, involve and manage repairs contractors.
How it works:
We collect imagery of your building.
- Parhelion Aerospace will fly a sophisticated, modern UAV (drone) at your site, on one or more precise, pre-planned, automated flights.
- All flights will be conducted with strict adherence to Bundesamt für Zivilluftfahrt (BAZL) regulations.
- All flights are insured in accordance with Swiss law.
- A large number of hi-resolution photographs and thermal images will be taken at regular intervals during the flight(s).
The AI program matches high-resolution photographs with thermal data to reveal surface defects (coloured rectangles on the left image) and any consequent energy losses (red areas on the right image). These images are from one of our recent client projects in Bern, Switzerland.
The data will be analysed and defects found, reported, and recorded.
- Inspekt AI will analyse all aerial photographs and thermal data, using their proprietary AI program. This program is specifically trained to recognize and characterize cracks and other building facade defects.
- Defects will be highlighted on the imagery so they are easy to see and find.
- You will get a detailed report of the buildings inspections results.
- You will get access to your own password-protected account in an online Inspekt AI “Dashboard.” In this account you will be able to view all of the photos and thermal data and see all of the marked locations of defects found by the AI engine. This makes an excellent record of periodic inspections.
- You will be able to see and understand not only where the defects are located, but how severe they are and what energy is leaking from them.
- Your “Dashboard” account with Inspekt AI allows you to view the previous inspections done for you by us – permitting you to keep track of problem areas over time. It is additionally a tool that you can use to inform repairs and maintenance contractors and to enhance collaboration during building repairs operations.
You can monitor changes over time in your building’s condition using the inspections results recorded in your Inspekt AI Dashboard account.
Final Points:
Periodic inspections will give you an excellent overview of building health.
- AI analysis provides extreme accuracy and thoroughness compared to what even highly qualified people would achieve looking at the same data sets. It would also take those people hundreds of hours to do the job that the AI program can accomplish (better!) in relatively little time.
- Our AI inspections work on all building materials.
- Our buildings inspections, when acted upon, have the potential to save you 25% or more on future energy bills, and this is in addition to the building maintenance savings that occur by fixing problems when they are still relatively small.
Finding issues before they become problems is the basis of a well-run and well-organized management operation!
Look here: an example of the sort of inspection project work that we can do for you:
Contact us to discuss how you can satisfy your buildings inspections requirements.
We use the best flight automation tools:
Parhelion Aerospace GmbH
is a registered Swiss company (registry of Canton Bern), and is also registered with the Swiss Bundesamt fur Zivilluftfahrt (BAZL) as a commercial drone operator.
Parhelion’s operations and aircraft are insured in accordance with Swiss law by Zürich Versicherungs-Gesellschaft AG.