Cyber physical system for safety management in smart construction site

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiguang Jiang ◽  
Lieyun Ding ◽  
Cheng Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
Data Communication ◽  
Cyber Physical System ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Virtual Construction

PurposeConstruction safety has been a long-term problem in the development of the construction industry. An increasing number of smart construction sites have been designed using different techniques to reduce injuries caused by construction accidents and achieve proactive risk control. However, comprehensive smart construction site safety management solutions and applications have yet to be developed. Thus, this study proposes a smart construction site framework for safety management.Design/methodology/approachA safety management system based on a cyber-physical system is proposed. The system establishes risk data synchronization mapping between the virtual construction and physical construction sites through scene reconstruction design, data awareness, data communication and data processing modules. Personnel, mechanical and other risks on site will be warned and controlled.FindingsThe results of the case study have proved the management benefits of the system. On-site workers gradually realized that they should enter the construction site based on the standard process. And the number of people close to the construction hazard areas decreased.Research limitations/implicationsThere are some limitations in the technology of smart construction site. The modeling speed can be faster, the data collection can be timelier, and the identification of unsafe behavior can be integrated into the system. Construction quality and efficiency issues in a virtual construction site will also be solved in further research.Practical implicationsIn this paper, this system is actually applied in the mega project management process. More practical projects can use the management ideas and method of this paper to ensure on-site safety.Originality/valueThis study is among the first attempts to build a complete smart construction site based on CPS and apply it in practice. Personnel, mechanical, components, environment information will be displayed on the virtual construction site. It will greatly promote the development of the intellectualized construction industry in the future.

A comprehensive overview on BIM-integrated cyber physical system architectures and practices in the architecture, engineering and construction industry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anish Banerjee ◽  
R. Ramesh Nayaka
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Cyber Physical System ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
System Architectures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Project Objectives

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate building information modelling (BIM) integrated Internet of Things (IoT) architectures extensively and provide comparative evaluation of those against deciding parameters pertaining to their characteristics and subsequent applications in construction industry. Design/methodology/approach This paper identifies BIM-integrated cyber physical system frameworks, specific to project objectives, comprising of sensors working as physical assets and BIM-based virtual models acting as the cyber component , connected via wired or wireless protocols (e.g. WiFi, Zigbee, near-field communication, mobile-to-mobile, Zwave, 3 G, 4 G, long-term evolution, 5 G and low-power wide-area networks) and their potential applications in decision-making, visual management, logistics and supply chain management, smart building system management and structural performance assessment, etc. Such proposed architectures are evaluated against deciding parameters such as availability, reliability, mobility, performance, management, scalability, interoperability and security and privacy to evaluate their respective efficiencies. Findings This study finds that the underlying aim of planned IoT frameworks is to integrate systems and processes for a better information flow and to initiate shift from silo solutions to a smart ecosystem. The efficiencies of such frameworks are completely subjective to their respective project natures, objectives and requirements. Originality/value This study is unique in its nature to identify requirements of an efficient BIM-integrated IoT architecture and provide comprehensive insights about potential applications in construction industry.

scholarly journals An Effective Safety Handling System for Construction Industry in Kerala

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 3968-3972
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
Construction Safety ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Construction Safety Management ◽  
Construction Works

The construction industry plays a prominent part in the progress of a country socially and economically. Nowadays construction industry has grown profit driven and the management focuses more on completing the projects on time neglecting safety of the workers. Construction works involving intricate works leading to accidents or injuries resulting in loss of life and body parts are rampant. So a proper safety management system is required to avoid accidents and improve safety at construction sites. Factors affecting safety at construction workplaces were identified and was surveyed through a quantitative questionnaire and analysed to form a basis for the total construction safety management model. The Total Construction Safety Management (TCSM) based on the PDCA modelling is proposed to improve safety at construction sites. This model can act as a guide to the present organizations and helps them to implement safety in quicker manner at construction site.

Is the construction site a safer place under the USACE or local government guidelines? The case of Afghanistan

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hashim Ibrahimkhil ◽  
Laith Hadidi
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Practices ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to assess the safety level of construction sites in Afghanistan following the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) safety practices and compare this with other construction sites in Afghanistan that follow local government safety guidelines. The USACE oversees and funds many infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, and these projects are supposed to follow the same standards implemented in the USA, including safety standards. The local government of Afghanistan also funds infrastructure projects in Afghanistan; however, these do not follow USACE best practices. This research explores the question of whether the USACE standards provide a safer construction site. The effect of the USACE standards on safety practices in construction projects is also investigated in the Afghanistan construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA literature review and other safety checklists were used to develop a safety checklist containing 104 items (questions) in 17 categories. Subsequently, the checklist was used to assess the safety performance of 57 construction projects (25 USACE projects, and 32 governmental projects). Utilizing quantitative analysis, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (Rho) and Mann–Whitney tests were carried out for correlation and statistical disparity between USACE and governmental projects.FindingsThe safety performance level of Afghan government projects was found to be poor in relation to other developing countries, while in USACE projects it was excellent. In addition, fire prevention, safety administration, PPE, heavy equipment, and handling and storage of materials for all types of contractors were the most overlooked aspects of Afghan Government projects.Practical implicationsThe findings clearly demonstrate the deficiencies in construction sites observed during this study and also support the adoption of USACE standards in Afghanistan projects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the safety of construction sites in Afghanistan. The study also demonstrates the benefits of adopting international standards (USACE) to improve the safety of construction sites in a developing country such as Afghanistan. The findings provide evidence of the safety of the Afghanistan construction industry compared to other developing countries. These findings will contribute to the Afghan Government's efforts to track injury statistics.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal analysis of trajectories for safer construction sites

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arslan ◽  
Christophe Cruz ◽  
Ana-Maria Roxin ◽  
Dominique Ginhac
Keyword(s):  
Safety Management ◽  
Construction Safety ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Gps Data ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Trajectory Data ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Construction Safety Management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to improve the safety of construction workers by understanding their behaviors on construction sites using spatio-temporal (ST) trajectories. Design/methodology/approach A review of construction safety management literature and international occupational health and safety statistics shows that the major reasons for fatalities on construction sites are mobility-related issues, such as unsafe human behaviors, difficult site conditions, and workers falling from heights and striking against or being struck by moving objects. Consequently, literature has been reviewed to find possible technological solutions to track the mobility of construction workers to reduce fatalities. This examination has suggested that location acquisition systems, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), have been widely used for real-time monitoring and tracking of workers on construction sites for hazard prevention. However, the raw data captured from GPS devices are generally available as discrete points and do not hold enough information to understand the workers’ mobility. As a solution, an application to transform raw GPS data into ST trajectories using different preprocessing algorithms is proposed for enhancing worker safety on construction sites. Findings The proposed system preprocesses raw GPS data for stay point detection, trajectory segmentation and intersection of multiple trajectories to find significant places and movements of workers on a construction site to enhance the information available to H&S managers for decision-making processes. In addition, it reduces the size of trajectory data for future analyses. Originality/value Application of location acquisition systems for construction safety management is very well addressed in the existing literature. However, a significant gap has been found: the usage of preprocessed ST trajectories is still missing in workers’ safety monitoring scenarios in the area of construction management. To address this research gap, the proposed system uses preprocessed ST trajectories to monitor workers’ movements on a construction site to identify potentially unsafe behaviors.

scholarly journals Managing “a little bit unsafe”: complexity, construction safety and situational self-organising

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 2519-2534
Author(s):  
Fred Sherratt ◽  
Chris Ivory
Keyword(s):  
Safety Management ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Approaches ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to unpack the shared understandings of safety held by workers on large UK construction sites using a complexity lens, and so provide empirical support for the inclusion of situational self-organising within construction site safety management systems (SMS). Design/methodology/approach A social constructionist epistemology supports the discourse analysis of talk (semi-structured interview and conversational), text (SMS and documentation) and visual (safety related signage) data collection from five large (+£20 m) UK construction sites. Findings Construction workers readily understand safety to be an emergent phenomenon with the complex system that is the construction site. Contemporary safety management approaches struggle with this complexity, yet there is the potential to mobilise situational self-organising on sites to improve safety in practice. Research limitations/implications Epistemological foundations mean no claim is made to generalisability as perceived by traditional positivistic parameters. The data are limited to large (+£20 m) UK construction sites; however, underlying construction management systems are common to the industry as a whole and can find fit with practitioner experiences and other empirical academic work from both the UK and other countries. Practical implications Situational self-organising of safety management within the construction workforce is proposed as a key contribution to a relevant, dynamic and effective SMS. Originality/value Data are analysed from a social constructionist perspective and considered through a complexity lens. This approach unpacks these data in an original way to seek synergy with existing adaptive safety approaches, specifically situational self-organising and make recommendations for practice.

Implementation challenges of COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Amoah ◽  
Fredrick Simpeh
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Measures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Construction Companies

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed safety measures in every industry, including the construction industry. Thus, the construction companies have instituted safety measures at the construction sites to curve the disease’s spread among the workforce. This paper aims to examine the challenges encountered by construction firms in implementing COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study using open-ended interview questions to solicit data from 19 construction professionals currently working on a construction project in South Africa. Content analysis with the assistance of an Excel spreadsheet was used to analyse the data collected. Findings The findings indicate that there are numerous challenges such as ignorance of COVID-19, the supply of poor personal protective equipment (PPEs) by contractors, lack of compliance, sanitising construction materials, difficulty in sharing tools and equipment, public transport usage by workers, superstition (COVID-19 is for a particular group of people), complying with social distancing rules, among others in the implementation of the COVID-19 safety measure at the construction site to curb the spread of the disease among the workers. These challenges have, therefore, hampered their effort to strictly adhere to the safety measures in accordance with the COVID-19 safety protocol at the project sites currently under construction. Research limitations/implications The interviewees were construction professionals working in the South African construction industry during the COVID-19 period. Practical implications The implication is that, due to the challenges faced in implementing the COVID-19 safety measures, workers on the construction site are not adequately protected from contracting COVID-19. The workers may thus contract the disease at the project sites and transmit it to their families and vice versa, which may have further implications on the spread of the disease within the communities and society. Originality/value The study has identified implementation challenges of the COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites of which the construction stakeholders must institute measures to overcome since COVID-19 has become part of our daily life. The study also recommends some preventive measures to the owners of construction companies to help overcome or minimise these COVID-19 safety implementation hurdles to minimise the spread of the disease among the construction site workers.

scholarly journals Students’ awareness and perception of the value of BIM and 4D for site health and safety management

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 414-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Swallow ◽  
Sambo Zulu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Purpose The education sector is at the forefront of developing tomorrow’s construction professionals. It is therefore important that with the current rate of change in the construction industry, education curriculum should be seen to be relevant. An area that is revolutionising the construction industry is the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), including its potential for improving H&S on construction sites. This paper aims to focus on the perception of higher education (HE) students on the potential impact of 4D modelling on the management of site health and safety on construction sites. Design/methodology/approach A quasi-experimental approach was adopted to determine student’s perception of the extent to which 4D modelling and simulation can impact H&S management. Pre-test and post-test students’ perceptions of the value of 4D to management of health and safety were compared. Findings The influence of education was examined by using two main students groups, one group studying BIM modules within their course while the other group did not. Although minimal perception differences regarding key impacts of 4D were highlighted, the awareness differences were significant. The study demonstrated the perception of benefits regarding 4D for H&S being in the planning of site logistics, visualisation, programme accuracy and risk reduction. The study highlights the importance of relevant education, to increase awareness of 4D for Health and Safety. Originality/value While most of the studies reported in academic literature on education and training related to university/tertiary education, this study focused on the higher education level students. It considered this as an equally important cohort as the graduates will also contribute to health and safety management on construction sites. The study also demonstrated the value of including technology based H&S training to mirror developments in the construction industry.

scholarly journals Causes of Accident at Construction Sites in Bangladesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1933-1951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakil Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
The Body ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Management Consultant ◽  
Importance Index ◽  
Construction Safety Management ◽  
Construction Accidents

Abstract Bangladeshi construction industry suffers more safety issues than other developing countries in the world. Among many of these, accidents at the construction site go far beyond and shape a horrific figure of death every year. The aims of this study are to identify and prioritize the causes of accidents. This study also analyses and discusses causes of accident at the construction site in Bangladesh. A widespread literature review and open discussion took place to identify the causes and design the questionnaire. The questionnaire-based survey was used to elicit the attitude of four stakeholders such as workers, owners, consultants and contractors towards the causes of accident. Mean and relative importance index (RII) were used to determine the rank of causes, and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23 was used to perform the data validation test. This study identifies 77 causes under 14 major groups and ranked them based on the mean and RII. The top five major groups of causes are management-, consultant-, technology-, labour- and contractor-related causes. The top five causes are unawareness of safety-related issue, lack of personal protective equipment, lack of safety eliminating/avoiding design, unfit equipment, lack of knowledge and training on equipment. This study will help the project participants and authorities to know and understand the various characteristics and linkage of causes of construction accidents to improve the construction safety management. It contributes to the body of knowledge, as it reveals for the first time the causes of acci dents in the Bangladeshi construction industry.

scholarly journals Using Synthetic Data to Improve and Evaluate the Tracking Performance of Construction Workers on Site

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 4948
Author(s):  
Marcel Neuhausen ◽  
Patrick Herbers ◽  
Markus König
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Tracking Systems ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Virtual Construction ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Video Frames ◽  
Graphics Software

Vision-based tracking systems enable the optimization of the productivity and safety management on construction sites by monitoring the workers’ movements. However, training and evaluation of such a system requires a vast amount of data. Sufficient datasets rarely exist for this purpose. We investigate the use of synthetic data to overcome this issue. Using 3D computer graphics software, we model virtual construction site scenarios. These are rendered for the use as a synthetic dataset which augments a self-recorded real world dataset. Our approach is verified by means of a tracking system. For this, we train a YOLOv3 detector identifying pedestrian workers. Kalman filtering is applied to the detections to track them over consecutive video frames. First, the detector’s performance is examined when using synthetic data of various environmental conditions for training. Second, we compare the evaluation results of our tracking system on real world and synthetic scenarios. With an increase of about 7.5 percentage points in mean average precision, our findings show that a synthetic extension is beneficial for otherwise small datasets. The similarity of synthetic and real world results allow for the conclusion that 3D scenes are an alternative to evaluate vision-based tracking systems on hazardous scenes without exposing workers to risks.

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