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¿Robot o humano?

Roof inspection

Inspector on a ladder vs Drone roof inspection

Estimaciones modeladas por Whirrwork, no hechos. Metodología · Historial de aciertos

Humano · Al año16.500 US$Ladder inspection
Robot · Al año31.350 US$Drone inspection
Plazo de recuperaciónnunca
Año de cruceno antes de 2035Base-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers people are clearly cheaper.

Estados Unidos · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

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Carga de trabajo
Supuesto

Roof inspections per month.

Supuesto

Working hours per day.

Supuesto

Working days per month.

Supuesto

Months per year.

Personal
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS OEWS May 2025 national median hourly wage, SOC 47-4011.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of total employer compensation cost for private industry workers in June 2026 (ECEC), so total cost = wage / 0.70.

ilostat.ilo.org

Nominal 4.4% a year, 2015-2025 (ILOSTAT hourly earnings).

Precios
Calculado HomeGuide

Midpoint of HomeGuide's traditional roof inspection $75-$200.

Calculado HomeGuide

Midpoint of HomeGuide's standard visual drone inspection $150-$400. A drone company (AeroDeploy) quotes ladder inspections at $300-$800 instead: sources disagree.

Robot
Supuesto

Inspections where someone still climbs (soft spots, interior attic checks).

Supuesto

Electricity price per kWh (USD). Check your bill; energy is rarely a big line.

Finanzas
Supuesto

Annual financing / discount rate. Nobody publishes yours; 8% is a round mid-2026 commercial borrowing guess.

Supuesto

Years in the NPV comparison.

Supuesto

Share of a human service price that is labour (rises with wages). Used to escalate and to adjust US service prices to other countries.

Supuesto

Share of a robot service price that is labour (pilot, technician). The rest is equipment, which learning curves make cheaper.

Supuesto

Share of a lease or RaaS fee that pays for hardware (learns down). The rest is service and support (moves with wages).

Download these results (CSV)

Resultados

OpciónAl mesAl añoPer unit (roof)Inversión inicialPlazo de recuperaciónBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Humano Ladder inspection Referencia 1375 US$16.500 US$138 US$— — — —
Robot Drone inspection 2613 US$31.350 US$261 US$— nunca — -62.053 US$

What moves the answer most

Each bar shows the 5-year NPV of the best robot option when one input moves to the low or high end of its range, with the rest held at your values.

5-year NPV vs baseline: Drone inspection5-year NPV vs baseline: Drone inspectionWorkloadlow value: 1 → -6205 US$high value: 100 → -620.532 US$Drone inspectionlow value: 150 → -4712 US$high value: 400 → -119.394 US$Ladder inspectionlow value: 75 → -91.188 US$high value: 200 → -32.918 US$Work that stays humanlow value: 0 → -68.948 US$high value: 0.3 → -48.264 US$Financing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → -66.710 US$high value: 0.12 → -56.523 US$Wage growth per yearlow value: 0.0236 → -61.574 US$high value: 0.0636 → -62.551 US$-62.053 US$0low valuehigh valueSource: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/roof-inspection/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.

Cost per unit to 2035

Real terms (today's money). Robot hardware follows Wright's law; wages follow each country's history. Shaded band: robots-slow to robots-fast scenarios. Estimaciones modeladas por Whirrwork, no hechos.

ChartCosto humano por unidad (Base), Costo del robot por unidad (Base), Costo del robot por unidad (Robots: avance rápido), Costo del robot por unidad (Robots: avance lento). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/roof-inspection/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.0,00 US$100 US$200 US$2026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / roofscenario rangeCosto humano por unidad (Base)Costo del robot por unidad (Base)Costo del robot por unidad (Robot…Costo del robot por unidad (Robot…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/roof-inspection/). Modelled estimate,…

Año de cruce: no antes de 2035

What the spreadsheet misses

Seguridad
Falls from roofs are a leading cause of construction deaths; steep or fragile roofs are where drones earn their fee.
Calidad
Drones capture every slope and thermal data; a person can feel soft decking.
Flexibilidad
Inspectors also check attics and gutters by hand.
Edge cases
Trees, power lines and no-fly zones near airports limit flights.
Customer experience
Photo reports help insurance claims.
Jobs and redeployment
Inspectors increasingly fly drones themselves: the human and robot are often the same person.
Regulación
Commercial drone pilots need FAA Part 107 (US) or local equivalent.

Relacionado

Fuentes de esta página

Las notas y las fuentes están en inglés; la versión en inglés es la de referencia.

  1. Roof inspection cost: traditional physical inspection $75-$200 HomeGuide, 2026
  2. Drone roof inspection cost: standard visual $150-$400; thermal $400-$600 HomeGuide, 2026-01
  3. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
  4. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: wages and salaries 70.0% of private-industry compensation (series CMU2020000000000P) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-06
  5. Mean nominal hourly earnings of employees by sex and occupation (ISCO-08), DF_EAR_EHRA_SEX_OCU_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), from national labour force and earnings surveys, 2025
  6. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): Germany 2022-2025, total labour cost vs wages and salaries per hour Eurostat, 2025
  7. Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
  8. 令和6年賃金構造基本統計調査 (Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2024), table 1 by occupation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (via e-Stat), 2024-06
  9. Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
  10. Average annual wage of employed persons in urban units in 2024 (by position and by region) National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2025-05-20
  11. Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
  12. Wright, T. P. (1936). Factors affecting the cost of airplanes. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 3(4), 122-128 Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936
  13. Nagy, B., Farmer, J. D., Bui, Q. M., & Trancik, J. E. (2013). Statistical basis for predicting technological progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e52669 (62 technologies; Wright's law among the best hindcasters; errors grow with horizon) PLoS ONE, 2013