Toyo Construction Co., Ltd. (Head office: Chiyoda city, Tokyo Metropolis, President and
Representative Director: Kyoji Takezawa) has implemented a demonstration experiment to
utilize an autonomous drone for the remote supervision method of works (streamlining of
progress management), in collaboration with SENSYN ROBOTICS, Inc. (Head office: Shibuya city,
Tokyo Metropolis, CEO: Takuya Kitamura).
This demonstration experiment was conducted as a work by Toyo Construction for the FY 2022
Model project for building production and operation & maintenance process facilitation by utilizing
BIM (leading entrepreneur type), which was adopted by MLIT.
For streamlining the progress management at construction sites, the experiment was conducted to
explore the effects of the new supervision method of works utilizing the construction BIM model
with an autonomous drone, and as a result of the exploration, we were able to confirm the expected effects.
Skydio Dock
Autonomously flying drone
The demonstration experiment was conducted with preparation of the automatic flying route using
the “Skydio Dock”, a drone site dedicated for Skydio machine, and with autonomous flying through
the cloud platform.
Since the Skydio machine is equipped with the Visual-SLAM* technology, by which the self-localization
is possible even indoors where a radio wave of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) is not available,
the machine is capable to fly, with AI processing, automatically avoiding the obstacles such as cables hung
from the ceiling. Moreover, the machine is an autonomous drone that is capable to fly autonomously only
by pushing the takeoff button from a remote place, to fly autonomously through a narrow path such as stairs,
and to come back automatically to the original Dock place, and automatic charging is also available.
In the experiment, firstly, the dedicated application was activated on the PC screen, then the local operator
prepared the flight schedule by designating the flight route and photographing points. Next, according to
the flight plan, we had the drone accomplish the automatic takeoff from the Skydio Dock and take videos
of the flying route as well as still pictures at the designated points
As a result of the demonstration experiment, it was confirmed that the machine was perfectly doable to fly
at night or in a low luminance environment peculiar to construction sites, to avoid obstacles, and to move
through plural stories, and it successfully obtained the image data required to confirm the construction
status of each room.
Visual-SLAM*：visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (self-localization by camera image
and environmental mapping technique)
Operation from a remote place (Head office of Toyo Construction)
Operation screen of Skydio2
Moving through plural stories
Taking picture of ceiling section by Skydio2
BIM model
Construction status identical to the BIM model’s location
Also, a system has been developed for confirming the captured image data, by linking the image data
captured by the drone to the point data set on the BIM model shared on the cloud platform.
Both companies will set up a system for effective management & sharing of image data utilizing the BIM,
and will reduce the working time required for construction management / administrative tasks.
■Overview of the demonstration experiment
Date of activity: November 25, 2022 and December 19, 2022
Place: (working title) New construction for Tokyo Information Design Professional University (Komatsugawa, Edogawa city)
Contents: 1. Automatic flight from a remote place using Skydio Dock (Drone site)
2. Automatic flight under the condition of construction site
3. Utilization of captured data for construction management