Drones are increasingly being utilized in the construction industry, offering a wide range of applications. As these drones have to work with or alongside construction professionals, this integration could pose new safety risks and psychological impacts on construction professionals. Hence, it is important to understand their perceptions and attitudes towards drones and evaluate the cognitive demand of working with or near drones. Limited research has explored individuals' perceptions of drones, particularly when engaged in construction activities at job sites. This study specifically targets construction students, the future professionals in the field, to understand their responses to drone interactions on job sites. An immersive virtual reality construction site was developed using a VR game engine, allowing construction students to interact with drones while engaging in typical construction activities. Through a user-centered experiment, the influence of drone presence on construction students' attitude, cognitive workload, and perceived safety risk was evaluated. The results suggest that presence of drones did not significantly elevate cognitive load or foster significantly negative attitudes among construction students. Instead, they perceived only mild safety risks, suggesting a general acceptance and adaptability towards drone technology in construction settings.
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Zhu et al. (2024) studied this question.
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