whirrwork

Robot or Human?

Roof inspection

Inspector on a ladder vs Drone roof inspection

Whirrwork modelled estimates, not facts. Methodology · Track record

Human · Per year$16,500Ladder inspection
Robot · Per year$31,350Drone inspection
Paybacknever
Crossover yearnot by 2035Base-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers people are clearly cheaper.

United States · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

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Workload
Assumption

Roof inspections per month.

Assumption

Working hours per day.

Assumption

Working days per month.

Assumption

Months per year.

People
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).

Prices
Derived HomeGuide

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

Derived 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
Assumption

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

Assumption

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

Money
Assumption

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

Assumption

Years in the NPV comparison.

Assumption

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

Assumption

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

Assumption

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)

Results

OptionPer monthPer yearPer unit (roof)UpfrontPaybackBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Human Ladder inspection Baseline $1,375$16,500$138— — — —
Robot Drone inspection $2,613$31,350$261— never — -$62,053

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 → -$6,205high value: 100 → -$620,532Drone inspectionlow value: 150 → -$4,712high value: 400 → -$119,394Ladder inspectionlow value: 75 → -$91,188high value: 200 → -$32,918Work that stays humanlow value: 0 → -$68,948high value: 0.3 → -$48,264Financing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → -$66,710high value: 0.12 → -$56,523Wage growth per yearlow value: 0.0236 → -$61,574high value: 0.0636 → -$62,551-$62,0530low 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. Whirrwork modelled estimates, not facts.

ChartHuman cost per unit (Base), Robot cost per unit (Base), Robot cost per unit (Robots fast), Robot cost per unit (Robots slow). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/roof-inspection/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.$0.00$100$2002026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / roofscenario rangeHuman cost per unit (Base)Robot cost per unit (Base)Robot cost per unit (Robots fast)Robot cost per unit (Robots slow)Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/roof-inspection/). Modelled estimate,…

Crossover year: not by 2035

What the spreadsheet misses

Safety
Falls from roofs are a leading cause of construction deaths; steep or fragile roofs are where drones earn their fee.
Quality
Drones capture every slope and thermal data; a person can feel soft decking.
Flexibility
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.
Regulation
Commercial drone pilots need FAA Part 107 (US) or local equivalent.

Related

Sources on this page

  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