COVER STORY
SMART TECHNOLOGY WITH DRONES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR BUILDING FACADE INSPECTION by Prof David Chua, Prof Lawrence Wong, Prof Justin Yeoh, Prof William Lee, Prof Marcelo Ang, Prof Michael Chew, Lin Yuehan, Janine Wong, Alvin Teo, Liew Jia Min and Ding Man, National University of Singapore; Prof Lawrence Wong and Edwin Loh, WingSpec; and David Ng, Victor Ong and Lee Long Guang, One Smart Engineering Pte Ltd With the new Periodic Façade Inspection (PFI) regime scheduled to take effect from 1 January 2022, advanced engineering concepts are being deployed, that will help building owners obtain fast and accurate results. Singapore has a densely populated high-rise cityscape with ageing building stock, with the facades of buildings subjected to weather elements and deterioration over time. There is potential risk to passers-by, should components from the facade of a building fall to the ground, as they can cause major and even fatal injuries. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out early detection of such possible building facade deterioration and to carry out rectification to prevent façade components from falling and injuring people. Under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act (BMSMA), responsible parties have a duty to ensure that building exteriors are properly maintained. Going forward, BCA has introduced a new Periodic Facade Inspection (PFI) regime to facilitate the early detection of facade deterioration and allow defects to be rectified in a timely manner. This will help to reduce the likelihood of facade failures, as our building stock ages. The requirements above are now consolidated into the Building Control Act. Facade inspections will need to be conducted every seven years for buildings that are more than 13 m tall once they are over 20 years old. Responsible parties must appoint a Competent Person (CP), i.e. a Professional Engineer (PE) or Registered Architect, who can be assisted by a Facade Inspector (FI), to conduct the facade inspection.
Application of drones and AI for facade inspection One Smart Engineering Pte Ltd together with WingSpec, a new start up from NUS, can provide the professional services of the CP and FI to carry out the PFI with smart technology. Drone and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies will be deployed to carry out the PFI in a more efficient and practical way to improve the productivity and enhance safety of the CP and FI. Figure 1 shows a drone in operation during an inspection of the facade of a Housing & Development Board (HDB) apartment block that is more than 20 years old. The procedure of building facade inspection includes 100% visual inspection of the building, followed by 10% physical hands-on inspection of a few selected portions
Figure 1: Drone performing building facade inspection. THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER November 2021
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