Construction Cost for Soil Excavation (Cut and Fill) on-Site: Computer Based Program Analysis

Excavation is an important part of any construction project whereby removing earth to form cavity in the ground. This paper mainly focuses on cut and fill excavation by identify the cost of labor, material and equipment. Besides that, this paper aims to have better understanding on Bill of Quantity using coding. The method implemented for this study is using GNU Octave, version 6.2.0 and manual calculation to calculate the construction cost incurred during excavation process. Referring to the manual calculation, the overall cost obtained for the project is RM27352.15 whereas using GNU Octave software obtained for the project is RM27352.15. Thus, both GNU Octave software and manual calculation has zero percent difference. Octave is a computer programme that is designed for numerical computations and able to solve linear and nonlinear mathematical problems.

Large-Scale Earthwork Progress Digitalization Practices Using Series of 3D Models Generated from UAS Images

Since the Fourth Industrial Revolution, existing manpower-centric manufacture has been shifting towards technology and data-centric production in all areas of society. The construction sector is also facing a new paradigm called smart construction with a clear purpose of improving productivity and securing safety by applying site management using information and communications technology (ICT). This study aims to develop a framework for earthwork process digitalization based on images acquired by using the unmanned aerial system (UAS). The entire framework includes precise UAS data acquisition, cut-and-fill volume estimation, cross-section drawing, and geo-fencing generation. To this end, homogeneous time-series drone image data were obtained from active road construction sites under earthwork. The developed system was able to generate precise 3D topographical models and estimate cut-and-fill volume changes. In addition, the proposed framework generated cross-sectional views of each area of interest throughout the construction stages and finally created geo-fencing to assist the safe operation of heavy equipment. We expect that the proposed framework can contribute to smart construction areas by automating the process of digitizing earthwork progress.

Accuracy Assessment of TanDEM-X 90 and CartoDEM Using ICESat-2 Datasets for Plain Regions of Ratlam City and Surroundings

The spaceborne LiDAR dataset from the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) provides highly accurate measurements of heights for the Earth’s surface, which helps in terrain analysis, visualization, and decision making for many applications. TanDEM-X 90 (90 m) and CartoDEM V3R1 (30 m) elevation are among the high-quality openly accessible DEM datasets for the plain regions in India. These two DEMs are validated against the ICESat-2 elevation datasets for the relatively plain areas of Ratlam City and its surroundings. The mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE) of TanDEM-X 90 DEM are 1.35 m, 1.48 m, and 2.19 m, respectively. The computed ME, MAE, and RMSE for CartoDEM V3R1 are 3.05 m, 3.18 m, and 3.82 m, respectively. The statistical results reveal that TanDEM-X 90 performs better in plain areas than CartoDEMV3R1. The study further indicates that these DEMs and spaceborne LiDAR datasets can be useful for planning various works requiring height as an important parameter, such as the layout of pipelines or cut and fill calculations for various construction activities. The TanDEM-X 90 can assist planners in quick assessments of the terrain for infrastructural developments, which otherwise need time-consuming traditional surveys using theodolite or a total station.

Stability Analysis of Paste Filling Roof by Cut and Fill Mining

Ensuring the stability of paste false rooves is an important issue in the study of the process of paste filling and slicing mining. Here, a mechanical model of a paste false roof is created to analyze its stability in the process of lower slicing mining in order to determine the minimum slicing thickness of the false roof. We use FLAC3D to simulate and analyze the influence of changes in paste false roof thickness on the stability of the roof. The quantitative functional relationship between the thickness and the subsidence of a false roof, and the optimal thickness of the artificial paste roof, is finally obtained by the development law of the plastic zone in the lower slicing face. The results show that when the thickness of the paste false roof is 3.2 m, the roof can maintain its self-stabilization state and ensure the normal mining of lower layers. Because the same thickness of the upper and lower layers is beneficial for mining replacement and equipment selection in different layered working faces, the optimal thickness of a paste false roof is determined to be 3.2 m.

Robotic embankment

Automating earth-moving tasks has the potential to resolve labour-shortage, allow for unseen designs and foster sustainability through using on-site materials. In this interdisciplinary project involving robotics and landscape architecture, we combine our previous work on autonomous excavation of free-form shapes, dynamic landscape design and terrain modelling tools into a robotic landscape system. It tightly connects survey, design and fabrication to exchange information in real-time during fabrication. We purposely built a LiDAR survey drone for tight integration. The design environment contains terrain modelling tools to balance cut and fill volumes for material-neutral, on-site construction. Its parametric nature allows it to adapt the geometry to changing site conditions during fabrication. Our autonomous walking excavator is used to create these free-form shapes in natural granular material. We propose an excavation planner for free-form embankments that computes the next excavation location and subsequently the location where the excavated soil should be dumped. This robotic excavation system achieves the world’s first autonomous completion of free-form embankments with high accuracy. A $$20\hbox { m}$$ 20 m long S-shaped and a two-faced embankment with a corner with roughly 0.03–0.05 m average error were created.

GPR investigation on damaged road pavements built in cut and fill sections with retaining wall

We present the GPR results dealing with flexible road pavements located on cut and fill sections with retaining wall. The aim is to evaluate the road damage (particularly the ramified cracks) taking into consideration also other parameters (cut and fill section height and traffic load). The GPR evaluation was carried out on 20 sites selected in the secondary urban road network of L’Aquila, a medium-size urban area representative of the Abruzzi Region (Central Italy). Stress induced by traffic load generally affects a road section thickness of about 1.0 m from the ground; so a monostatic GPR antenna, with a nominal frequency of 2000 MHz, was used given that its maximum inspection depth corresponds to 1.0 m from the ground. The 2000 MHz antenna has also a quite high-resolution when inspecting road damage. The GPR acquisition was carried out in damaged and adjoining undamaged road sites, to compare the GPR data of the two areas. GPR data analysis was based on the sweep-rectified power approach to evaluate the radar signal attenuation curve vs. depth, which permitted us to single out different road types of damage and to discuss the factors which caused them.