No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
BIM-based immersive Virtual Reality for construction workspace planning: A safety-oriented approach
Abstract
Effective workspace planning is known to play a crucial role in site planning and construction activity scheduling. This research seeks to enhance the usual manual workspace planning process by simulating a construction activity using both immersive Virtual Reality and Building Information Modeling technologies. Workspace planning is improved by eliciting experienced workers' knowledge and integrating it with construction managers' knowledge. The workers' knowledge is elicited both directly, by asking them for feedback during the activity simulation, and indirectly, by collecting and analysing position tracking data. The application of this approach in a real case study demonstrates its beneficial impact in terms of the sharing of planning and safety-related information between project partners and its formal representation in a Health and Safety Plan.
... [7] ARTIGO O ambiente construído desempenha um papel crucial na formação do bem-estar físico, fisiológico e psicológico, pois as pessoas passam a maior parte do tempo em ambientes fechados (Zhang et al, 2020). De acordo com Jiang (2021), o princípio básico da Realidade Virtual é construir um espaço virtual tridimensional correspondente com a ajuda da tecnologia de renderização de gráficos de computador e outras tecnologias, para dar ao usuário percepções sensoriais, principalmente visuais, auditivas e táteis, fundamentais para se entender os aspectos construtivos do ambiente a ser analisado. ...
... De acordo com Getuli et al. (2020), a Realidade Virtual imersiva permite que o usuário entre e avalie, com uma compreensão espacial de primeira pessoa e em escala real, a configuração do espaço de trabalho modelado pela RV, enquanto replica suas tarefas cotidianas neste mundo virtual. Lucas (2020), afirma que a Realidade Virtual imersiva coloca o usuário completamente no ambiente virtual por meio de um visor montado na cabeça (HMD head-mounted display, em inglês) ou do ambiente virtual automático de caverna (CAVEcave automatic virtual environment, em inglês). ...
... Rauf et al. (2019) compreendem que os laboratórios de RV têm um papel crucial na melhoria da aprendizagem e que oferecem aos alunos a chance de perceber sistemas estruturais, detalhes de construção, materiais de experimentação, realidades virtuais, hologramas, além de outros produtos da nova tecnologia, que abrem possibilidades no âmbito do ensino de arquitetura e, especialmente, nas disciplinas de construção. Silva (2021) destaca que as metodologias ativas se apresentam como uma potencialização do processo de ensino, uma vez que o aluno, ao ser o centro do processo, passa a assumir uma maior autonomia para construir o seu próprio conhecimento. Dinis et al. (2018) concluem que a interface imersiva proporcionada pela RV fornece acesso virtual aos sistemas de construção que, de outra forma, exigiria uma visita ao local dos trabalhos, para ser observada dentro do contexto. ...
Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar o uso da realidade virtual aplicada no aprendizado de profissões técnicas na área da Construção Civil e sua correlação com a Segurança do Trabalho, analisando e sintetizando a literatura atual. A metodologia adotada consistiu na realização de uma Revisão Sistemática de Literatura, utilizando o Método de Orientações dos Itens de Relatório Preferidos para Revisões Sistemáticas e Meta-análises (Metodologia PRISMA) para a análise dos conteúdos dos artigos obtidos e selecionados. Como resultados foram identificados: as principais tecnologias imersivas, que utilizam a Realidade Virtual (RV), voltadas para a capacitação técnica do setor da Construção Civil; a forma de utilização da tecnologia de Realidade Virtual no ensino da Construção Civil; e a correlação entre estas tecnologias identificadas e os conceitos da Segurança no Trabalho. Foi constatado que a tecnologia de Realidade Virtual está em franca expansão no referido setor e que o enfoque dado nos sistemas imersivos, já desenvolvidos, necessitam de uma maior interação com os conceitos da Segurança do Trabalho.
... The research studies carried out in this context include an examination of the simulation of human behavior when designing a building's security and fire systems [22]. Getuli et al. [23] have evaluated the human behavior heatmap in a construction site to identify the safe zones around handling some materials and activities. That would improve the health and safety on a construction site. ...
... Other researchers have found that the use of VR in safety training is more effective due to its immersion, and trainee involvement as stated by Afzal et al. [26]. There is also the use of VR in construction project management, specifically for the effective management of site space, using simulations to improve health and safety [23]. More and more research are being conducted in the field of VR for building engineering education, as mentioned by Wang et al. [27]. ...
... In fact, much research has been devoted to the interoperability between BIM tools and VR environments [35]. However, most of this work has addressed this interoperability in one direction only, i.e. the transfer of information from BIM tools to VR environments, including using the IFC format [3,22,23,[35][36][37]. One can note that most of these studies focus on a one-way information transfer from BIM tools and VR environments. ...
Notwithstanding the emergence of Virtual Reality technologies, the solutions available on the market for integrating 4D and Virtual Reality are not well adapted to the principles of BIM and only propose certain visualization functionalities. Indeed, generally, such solutions are mainly simple visualization tools which do not offer BIM-based collaborative tools such as BIM Collaboration Format (BCF)-based exchanges. Our research aims to develop a method and subsequent prototype to integrate an IFC-compliant 3D model and a planning schedule in order to perform a 4D simulation in a Virtual Reality environment having BCF-based information exchange capabilities. The prototype developed achieved its theoretical and technical objectives, namely, to validate our hypothesis that the BCF can be implemented in a VR environment and support 4D simulation-based collaboration. The proposed method allows to identify some lessons learned, in terms of success factors as well as areas for improvement.
... The layout and organization of the workspace constantly change throughout different stages of the construction process. This can lead to conflicts and disorganization if not properly managed (Getuli et al., 2020). In construction, there is a specific need to manage the priorities and needs of the stakeholders ensuring a smooth project, and manage and coordinate the activities of different work crews and trades to ensure that workers, resources, and equipment are constantly available (Winge et al., 2019). ...
... Workers and Engineers have a lower number of mentions with 14 and 10, respectively. Facility Managers were identified as the primary target group in two articles (Getuli et al., 2020;Pham et al., 2020). Similarly, students were primary target groups in two articles (Bhagwat et al., 2021;Clevenger et al., 2015). ...
... Zhou et al., 2021). 3D Unity, which is a Game Engine was used seven times (Bhagwat et al., 2021;Dong et al., 2018;Getuli et al., 2020;H. Li, Lu, Chan, et al., 2015;H. ...
... Given the enormous application areas of VR in the construction industry, this technology is beneficial to communication management, construction project delivery, design development, safety management, and risk management [19,22,48]. ...
... The immersive visualization capabilities of VR could help the participant identify potential risk zones since the construction site could be simulated in a virtual environment. In this regard, proper risk and safety protocols could be developed and adhered to by Getuli et al. [48]. Lew et al. [54] highlighted digitalization as one of the benefits of ICTs. ...
... A BIM-based immersive virtual reality for construction workspace planning 2020 Getuli et al. [48] Qualitative research design ...
Existing literature has shown that Virtual Reality (VR) is widely utilized in advanced economies to enhance sustainable construction practices. However, its adoption in developing economies remains limited. To this end, this study aims at exploring the potential benefits of implementing VR technology in a developing country. The study collected information on the beneficial aspects of VR from previous research and conducted questionnaire surveys to gather relevant insights from construction project experts in Nigeria. The collected data were analyzed using the Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking According to the Compromise Solution (MARCOS) method and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The MARCOS method revealed that the key potential benefits of VR include improved communication and collaboration, enhanced project performance, risk identification, digitalization, and safety planning. Furthermore, the study conducted an in-depth investigation of the beneficial areas of VR using EFA, which identified six component groups: pre-contract stage planning, post-contract stage planning, quality control and sustainability, design flexibility and reputation, resource management, and risk management and digitalization. The study provides a comprehensive discussion of the advantages of implementing virtual building methods in developing countries.
... Among such technologies, Immersive Realities (IR) such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have proven to be very advantageous in various areas of built environment. When considering architecture discipline and the required spatial qualities, capabilities and understanding required for it, VR seems to be a more appropriate tool to incorporate in its pedagogy, with multiple advantages (Getuli et al., 2020;Rahimian et al., 2019). Despite the emphasis that have been made by a number of studies and scholars regarding the development of digitally enhanced and technology-integrated teaching methods (Aydin & Aktaş, 2020;Bashabsheh et al., 2019;Ceylan, 2021;Shirazi & Behzadan, 2015), a number of studies conducted by authors have identified that the current teaching and learning practices in the AEC higher education does not adequately embrace and incorporate such digitally enhanced methods and, therefore, are yet to respond to the industry's demand in this area (Getuli et al., 2020;Pour Rahimian et al., 2019). ...
... When considering architecture discipline and the required spatial qualities, capabilities and understanding required for it, VR seems to be a more appropriate tool to incorporate in its pedagogy, with multiple advantages (Getuli et al., 2020;Rahimian et al., 2019). Despite the emphasis that have been made by a number of studies and scholars regarding the development of digitally enhanced and technology-integrated teaching methods (Aydin & Aktaş, 2020;Bashabsheh et al., 2019;Ceylan, 2021;Shirazi & Behzadan, 2015), a number of studies conducted by authors have identified that the current teaching and learning practices in the AEC higher education does not adequately embrace and incorporate such digitally enhanced methods and, therefore, are yet to respond to the industry's demand in this area (Getuli et al., 2020;Pour Rahimian et al., 2019). More importantly, when developing such pedagogies, how would this affect students' perception of their education and impact their teaching and learning experience. ...
In recent years, technology has been playing a transformative role in the field of built environment, architecture, and construction education. It can be argued that the emergence of digital technologies has revolutionised the approach to teaching and learning in higher education in these fields. Digital technologies, such as Artificial intelligence (AI), additive manufacturing, robotics, 3D laser scanners, and Immersive Realities (IR), have played a crucial role in enhancing sustainability and efficiency in the industry. However, the opportunities provided by the use of these technologies (as a single tool or combined) in higher education and within the field of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) are still relatively unexplored. To address this gap, this work presents a novel pedagogical framework aimed to enhance students’ literacy on emerging technologies, and increase their criticality, and understanding of professional practices along with the related ethical challenges. Furthermore, to assess its effectiveness regarding the integration of immersive VR technologies in the teaching practice, a learner-centred evaluation approach is proposed, based on the collection and correlation of both qualitative and quantitative data. Concerning the former, a dedicated questionnaire is developed to collect students’ subjective feedback. For the latter, a method for tracking their use of space in the virtual environment is discussed. Both the immersive pedagogical framework and evaluation approach presented in this work will be implemented in diverse architecture and civil engineering master classes in Australia and in Italy, and their comparative outcomes and validation will be the object of future joint contributions.
... In the architecture and urban planning fields, these new forms of representation have been studied in different contexts and from different perspectives. Some studies have focused on the different phases of architectural and urban design practice, including maintenance [40], resource management [41], construction [35], architectural design [42], urban planning [43] and design communication [44], where they are beneficial tools given the importance of representations in the design phase [45], and even more so in participatory processes [46,47]. Representations must be able to faithfully reflect the specific context to which they are applied [48], but digital media are very efficient due to their inherent flexibility [42]. ...
... The statistical analyses applied were based on the normality of the data for each variable, which were assessed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test. Due to the non-normality of the data (K-S, p < 0.05), the comparison between both groups (gender: male vs female/age: 20-35 vs. [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] was made through a non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test (also referred to as the Wilcoxon rank sum test). The Mann-Whitney U test is a non-parametric method to detect whether two samples come from the same distribution, or to test whether the medians between comparison groups are different. ...
Visual environmental simulations are fundamental in understanding the relationship between the built environment and psychological perception. The remarkable evolution of virtual immersion displays over recent years has provided a series of advantages to the architectural discipline , one of which is that non-specialists now have the potential to better understand architectural spaces. This work aimed to analyse the adequacy of the main displays and formats currently used in environmental simulations. As the objective was twofold, two experimental studies were carried out (with a sample of 100 participants). The studies evaluated users' responses to different environmental representations of two environments, using differential semantic scales to measure key underlying factors (utility, credibility, realism, accuracy, abstraction). The first study examined simulation displays: a PC, an HTC Vive Pro 2 head-mounted display, a PowerWall Screen and a CAVE. In the second, formats were analysed: normal image, 360 • image, video and 360 • video. The results of this work revealed that users perceived the space differently depending on the representation displays and formats used. Such comparisons of these new means of representing architectural spaces can be helpful to researchers, architects and urban planning professionals and might provoke debate in, and be extrapolated into, the design field.
... They presented risk-free virtual environments to train construction workers efficiently (e.g. [5,19,71,72]). VR-based simulations aim to model a real-time event or a hypothesis to understand how the system works and evaluate the deficiencies of real-world practices [73]. ...
... In this sense, considering the risky nature of construction sites, virtual environments provide an excellent opportunity for off-site training, enabling the trainees to learn from their mistakes, and correct them without entering the actual construction site. As a result, trainees could improve their behavior-based skills, communication, and cognitive abilities [71]. In short, simulation-based computer technologies can significantly improve the training level and substitute conventional construction safety training methods. ...
... As working space in construction sites is limited, simulation models are essential tools for managing and analyzing the construction processes, specifically for the dynamic workspace required for construction activities [1]. Construction practice demands space to maintain safety and efficiency. ...
... Mirzaei et al. [24] introduced a 4D-BIM time-space system detecting conflicts regarding labor movement. Recently, Getuli et al. [1,25] introduced a method using BIM technologies and immersive VR applications for manual activity workspace planning. As a result, they evaluated the historic passive and active data from the worker's immersive VR activity simulation and improved workspace planning. ...
Time–space conflicts are one of the most common issues facing construction practices, impacting safety and productivity in several negative ways at construction sites. Therefore, implementing and developing methods to reduce the frequency of such conflicts occurring in activity workspaces can effectively enhance project performance. Space is usually a constrained resource in construction project sites; therefore, in this project, we propose an approach as a method of time–space conflict management in construction project sites. The method implements Informed Rapidly Exploring Random Tree-Star (Informed-RRT*) path planning, Discrete Event Simulation (DES), and geometry to automatically detect and resolve time–space conflicts in construction projects. To evaluate the method’s capabilities, it is tested on a case study of an earthwork operation, including the loading, hauling, dumping, and return phases. Finally, our method finds the shortest travel path and duration for each hauling truck between two given starting and end points in each phase without colliding with static obstacles (randomly placed in the site), intersection points of the trucks’ path, the start and stop time for the truck serving higher-priority construction activities, and the total duration of each truck’s earthwork operation.
... VR safety training is more effective than traditional methods such as lectures, videos, or handouts [5]. However, the effectiveness of safety training systems developed exclusively for a single platform, such as a mobile or desktop [6]- [13], is reduced due to the lack of software and hardware at construction sites that meet the current VR system's requirements. Also, workers who do not have the necessary setup knowledge experience difficulties accessing these training systems. ...
... The study aimed to develop a framework for collecting user data via hazardous scenarios and evaluating users' performance during safety education training [9]. Another study attempted to collect user position data in a mobile VR environment and then analyze the data using BIM software to understand the worker's spatial awareness [6]. Another approach for VR is to create a training scenario by exporting and importing a 4D BIM model and activity data into a game engine [7]. ...
A construction site is a highly complex and constantly changing environment, where hazardous areas are difficult to detect if workers lack sufficient knowledge and awareness. Thus, frequent worker safety training is required. Numerous studies on using virtual reality (VR) for safety training were published. While they demonstrate the potential for improving the skills necessary to avoid accidents in the construction industry, they remain difficult to apply at actual construction sites. VR requires specialized hardware and software, limiting workers' access and restricting workers' participation in training sessions. As a result, this paper proposes multiple platforms for immersive virtual reality safety training (VRMP) based on Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and web technologies such as immersive web (WebXR). The VRMP is compatible with mobile and desktop devices currently by workers and demonstrates scenario models familiar to workers. Also, it reduces development time by utilizing Building Information Models (BIM). Additionally, The VRMP collects data from workers in a virtual environment to assess each worker's safety level, assisting workers in effectively and comfortably gaining a better understanding and raising their awareness. This paper develops a case study based on the VRPM in order to assess its effectiveness.
... Building Information Modeling) i może mieć zastosowanie np. podczas planowania prac montażowych [21] (panel CLT, ang. Cross Laminated Timber -drewno klejone krzyżowo). ...
Od wielu lat branża budowlana charakteryzuje się wysokim stopniem zagrożenia dla pracowników budowlanych. Z uwagi na utrzymujące się niesprzyjające warunki pracy na terenie budowy przedsiębiorstwa budowlane stale rozwijają stosowane procedury w zakresie bezpieczeństwa i higieny pracy(BHP), które umożliwią wyeliminowanie lub ograniczenie możliwości zaistnienia wypadków oraz zdarzeń potencjalnie wypadkowych. Analiza stanu wiedzy wskazuje, że obiecującym wsparciem może być wdrożenie innowacyjnego rozwiązania jakim jest zastosowanie rzeczywistości wirtualnej w zakresie szkoleń BHP.W pracy omówiono dotychczasowe wyniki badań związane z zastosowaniem tej technologii.
... fly-through/passage through a building, display of information about elements, addition of realistic materials or artificial lighting. The output from the video game development is meant to be in the form of static image visualization as well as video sequence or a desktop application, or an application for virtual reality glasses [9], [10]. All of these options, familiar from AAA video game titles, are available to the general professional community thanks to freely available video game development environments. ...
Due to current legislation, a local public body is obliged to preserve as-built documentation of its buildings. A form of as-built documentation has been currently transforming according to building information modelling methodology. As-built documentation of listed buildings is an important step in preserving cultural heritage and allows preserving as much information as possible about immovable cultural monuments for future generations. Currently, building information models (BIM) of the real estate cultural heritage objects are being produced due to digitizing and conserving entire buildings with all the construction details with respect to culture heritage needs. Land surveyors are responsible for data acquisition at the building site to deliver geometrically accurate and precise 3D spatial data for the following modelling process as well as georeferencing data to appropriate datum and reference coordinate system. The 3D spatial data is primarily represented by a point cloud acquired by laser scanning technology. Historic buildings typically contain unique construction elements of very different and often more complex geometric shapes, such as arches, columns, statues, attics, etc. Such elements need to be individually modelled from the point cloud with respect to the precision of the model. The modelling process of existing historic building elements becomes far more demanding than the design of the future building. Building elements for new buildings are available in the construction products BIM database for information modelling. n the other hand, a certain degree of generalisation must always be considered when modelling historical buildings. The building elements are more of an aesthetic nature. Hence, the modelling process needs to cover the geometrical shape of the element, construction assembly as well as material definition. The resulting model of the element is geometrically and visually affected by a generalization of spatial information. Nowadays, game development environment tools are increasingly used outside the video game industry, especially in architecture/construction/engineering, automotive, virtual production, etc. Thus, the information model can be delivered to a broader audience of stakeholders without vendor-locked software restrictions. Simultaneously, culture heritage value can be provided to the public in an immersive way. This paper discusses in which cases generalization in the sense of the level of information needed (LOIN) is involved and when it is already a geometric error of modelling regarding the needs of the public body and specification of public procurement. In this paper, the matters mentioned above are described using several case studies of the creation of an information model of listed buildings, namely the Maxmilian’s Court in Kroměříž and the Parish office in Cetkovice.
... Building information modeling (BIM) and parametric modeling have revolutionized the construction industry by facilitating the development of detailed, digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of spaces [16,38,39]. BIM's application extends across various phases of construction, including design, documentation, construction, and facility management, enabling stakeholders to visualize projects in a simulated environment before actual construction commences. ...
In the construction industry, the imperative for visual surveillance mechanisms is underscored by the need for safety monitoring, resources, and progress tracking, especially with the adoption of vision intelligence technology. Traditional camera installation plans often move toward coverage and cost objectives without considering substantial coverage overlap, inflating processing and storage requirements, and complicating subsequent analyses. To address these issues, this research proposes a voxel-based site coverage and overlapping analysis for camera allocation planning in parametric BIM environments, called the PBA approach. The first step is to collect information from the BIM model, which is the input for the parametric modeling step. After that, the PBA approach simulates the virtual devices and the construction layout by employing visual language programming and then generates a coverage area. Lastly, the performance simulation and evaluation of various placement scenarios against predefined criteria are conducted, including visual coverage and overlapping optimization for eliminating data redundancy purposes. The proposed approach is evaluated through its application to construction projects. The results from these various implementations indicate a marked decrease in data overlap and an overall enhancement in surveillance efficacy. This research contributes a novel, BIM-centric solution to visual information adoption in the construction industry, offering a scalable approach to optimize camera placement while mitigating overlapping areas.
... Getuli et al. [103] aim to improve workplace planning in construction projects using immersive and building information modeling (BIM) technologies. This approach is to take knowledge from experienced workers and integrate it with the expertise of field managers. ...
This chapter presents a comprehensive exploration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management (AEC-FM) industry. It begins with a general overview of Generative AI, highlighting its capacity to create novel content. The subsequent section delves into the technological requirements for implementing Generative AI in the AEC-FM industry, including Internet of Things (IoT), Distributed Ledger Technology, Computing, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Knowledge Graph, Computer Vision, and Immersive Technologies. The chapter then proceeds to discuss the wide-ranging applications of Generative AI in the AEC-FM industry, showcasing its potential in enhancing design processes, predictive modeling, operations, and maintenance. Furthermore, the role of Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a facilitator for Generative AI in the AEC-FM industry is explored. Identifying gaps and trends in Generative AI research, the chapter presents a keyword co-occurrence analysis specific to the AEC-FM industry, covering lifecycle management, predictive modeling, machine learning implementation in design, design optimization, constraint-based generative design, and design techniques. Finally, the chapter concludes by examining the future prospects for Generative AI in AEC-FM activities, offering insights into its potential transformative impact on the industry.
... Another important topic is the movement or spatial tracking of workers during VR simulation of construction activities, that has been shown to be useful for ergonomic evaluation of workstations or assembly procedures (Getuli, Capone, Bruttini, & Isaac, 2020). ...
The diffusion of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and advanced visualization technologies in the increasingly digitalised construction sector is fostering the development and implementation of disruptive approaches for workforce Health and Safety (H&S) training. Project-specific risks, safety procedures and information can be administered through immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experiences where construction site environments and activities are reproduced without exposing the trainees to real hazards. However, despite numerous research and industry applications demonstrating the potential benefits of these technologies, a standardized framework and methodology for the evaluation of VR safety training effectiveness for construction workers is still lacking hence hindering its large scale-adoption and recognition from policymakers. Within the scope of previous authors contributions on the development and implementation of BIM-based VR experiences for construction workers’ safety training, this paper aims to address the evaluation of their effectiveness proposing a novel semi-qualitative approach based on the integration of trainees’ subjective and objective data. A post- experience evaluation questionnaire is developed to collect trainees’ direct and qualitative feedback about the experience immersivity and perceived safety content transfer. Furthermore, the integration with trainees’ spatial tracking data is proposed to complement the qualitative feedback with the quantitative evaluation of their use of the virtual space for safety training purposes. The application of the presented approach in case study is currently undergoing and the related results will be subject of future contributions.
... A series of studies has developed several spatial validation tools of construction work plans to support workspace management. These studies apply different combination of the most advanced technologies, such as 4D-BIM [9], VR/AR [27], serious game engines [28], and Bayesian inference techniques [29]. ...
In the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, many efforts have provided remarkable contributions to construction planning and control processes during work execution. Nevertheless, frequent coordination issues among stakeholders and difficulties in dealing with unexpected events can be explained by the complexity featuring the construction sector. Several approaches to deal with this issue were investigated in the manufacturing area, among which this paper looks at the holonic approach as one of the most promising strategies. This study first analyzes the more fragmented and dynamic nature of the construction industry as compared with the manufacturing one. Secondly, it suggests developing a process-based holonic construction management system based on building information modeling (BIM) and a conceptual architecture for manufacturing control called Product Resource Order Staff Architecture (PROSA). The process-based paradigm ensures exploiting the benefits of BIM towards the development of sustainable and efficient regeneration methods of the built environment. Subsequently, a first management system prototype was developed and tested for the purpose of renovation works management. For the first time, results from an actual implementation of PROSA were applied to a real construction site, and its feasibility was assessed using the data on the field. Key performance indicators (KPIs) evaluated during the onsite demonstration confirmed a good performance of PROSA and the presented holonic approach, which contributed to the overall success of the energy efficient refurbishment project.
... Moreover, training through VR can upskill construction workers and improve their productivity while it is more conclusive and cost-efficient than traditional approaches (Hafsia et al. 2018). For improving construction workspace planning, Getuli et al. (2020) developed a BIM-based VR approach and demonstrated the benefits of this approach in sharing planning and safety-related information between project partners. Shi et al. (2019) utilized a multi-user VR system for assessing the effects of reinforced learning methods on construction workers' fall risk behavior and indicated that VR can effectively contribute to safety training and improve the learning processes of workers. ...
Research on the use of innovative technology, such as virtual reality (VR), in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) education, has been growing in the past twenty years. However, such research still requires robust investigation, as few studies have adopted educational psychology theories and rigorous methods. Furthermore, most of the research has focused on the cognitive effects of VR and additional research is also needed to investigate the affective effects, such as motivation, engagement, and self-efficacy. This study aims to evaluate the effects of technology decision-making between immersive virtual reality (IVR) and non-immersive virtual reality (nIVR) setups for a learning activity on AEC learners. For this, three hypotheses are formulated and tested on 165 UK students. Based on the results, both the designed IVR and nIVR learning activities had significant positive effects on learners' self-efficacy and user experience with no significant difference between IVR and nIVR delivery. With this research, the authors contribute to the growing literature on VR implementation in AEC classrooms by showcasing a study founded on educational psychology theory and by using a rigorous research methodology. Furthermore, this study illustrates the effects that IVR and nIVR have on students' affective learning and opens the possibility of new research in the field.
... BIM, RFID Worker location tracking, monitoring safety [55,61] 6. BIM, UAV Hazard identification in the construction phase [26,53] 7. BIM VR Workspace planning [8] Monitoring and control systems are used to make sure that safety regulations and standards are followed when implementing safety measures during a project. Data from real-time data capturing technologies (e.g., UAVs such as drones) can help to monitor progress on construction projects. ...
With developments in Industry 4.0, there is growing momentum to adopt technology-assisted tools to support existing processes. Even though most construction processes are now computerized, safety procedures have not yet fully embraced the digital revolution. Building information modeling (BIM) is a platform that radically redefines the way in which businesses operate. Various past studies on the application of BIM in site safety mainly focus on using BIM for safety during construction and for a specific project type. The potential benefits of BIM for site safety have not yet been fully explored. The aim of the present study is to develop a BIM-based automatic safety checking (ASC) framework for an early identification of hazards. It includes safety checking with codified OSHA rules, corrective actions, scheduling, and reporting in a virtual environment. All these steps are part of the risk lifecycle which is typically managed according to the phases of construction on a physical site. However, in the proposed framework, all these steps are managed at the preconstruction stage in a virtual environment. The major contribution of this study is the proposed framework that provides the conceptual foundation for early site safety management by identifying hazards at the design stage. The integration of a 3D model with codified OSHA standard safety rules ensures that the design is in adherence to safety rules and is rendered hazard-free for a pilot case.
... Typical applications for VR today include construction safety planning and training [2,8,28,32], production planning [29,56,65], virtual showrooms [63,64], as well as design review sessions [67,82,84]. During design review session performed in real-world projects VR has been shown to clarify aspects of the design that is difficult to extract from traditional design documents, such as lack of space for installations and maintenance or physical clashes between components [84]. ...
The integration of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) has many applications within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries. In this context VR is often highlighted for its ability to convey scale and details, especially when compared to non-immersive visualizations. However, despite being an active area of research, there is currently a lack of real-world studies exploring immersive VR in a construction-oriented context. In addition, there are still technical challenges and barriers for an efficient integration, such as rendering performance and interoperability issues. This paper addresses these issues by investigating the use of immersive, single- and multi-user VR within the openBIM ecosystem. The contribution is two-fold: (a) an in-depth presentation of algorithms and technical details of a multi-user VR application for immersive visualization of large and complex BIMs and (b) an evaluation of this VR system on several real-world construction projects. In all cases the VR visualization has been directly realized from the design teams IFC-models and the multi-user sessions has been performed both co-located as well as fully remote. The results show that multi-user VR improves communication, understanding, and collaboration, and by letting staff with knowledge and experience from construction production review the project in VR, design errors and constructability issues can be identified and resolved before reaching the actual production stage. Moreover, the use of VR is helpful regarding sequencing and planning, and to identify alternative design solutions.
... BIM-based immersive Virtual Reality for construction workspace planning: A safety-oriented approach [25]. ...
Construction safety is one of the most critical parameters which affect the overall construction productivity. Despite being an important parameter, it is still one of the highly ignored areas in construction project management. At present, automation has been observed in several construction aspects such as effective cost management, time management, quality management; but automation for safety management is the least priority by many construction firms. Construction accidents are the most widespread issue faced by construction industries of both developing and developed countries. Currently, Building Information Modelling (BIM) appears to be a valuable tool for analyzing occupational safety issues throughout the construction life cycle of projects, helping to avoid hazards and risks and consequently, increasing safety. The wide applications of BIM with dimensions ranging from 3D to nD include visual representation, clash detection, scheduling, cost management, energy consumption, collaboration and communication, facility management, safety management and to name a few. Based on this, this article is a review of previous studies on the use of BIM technology in construction safety in order to identify research gaps by examining these studies. For this purpose, by using the keywords BIM and construction safety, related articles have been reviewed separately according to the filters. According to the review of past studies, it can be concluded that the use of BIM technology can greatly contribute to the discussion of construction safety.
... Aashiq, Irum Zeb, Zhang Yan, Tahir N. 20, 2023-ISSN: 2386 International Journal of Educational Research and Innovation Impacto de las tecnologías emergentes en el desarrollo cognitivo: el papel mediador del apoyo social digital entre estudiantes de educación superior New and advanced technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are changing how we use and interact with technology. These technologies can help us learn and develop our thinking abilities in exciting ways (Getuli et al., 2020). They offer interactive and immersive experiences that can improve our attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. ...
The aim of the current study is to explore the direct and indirect relationships between emerging technology and cognitive development. This study utilized a cross-sectional research design, employing a questionnaire survey approach for data collection from students in higher education. The multi-point Likert scale was used to measure emerging technology, cognitive development, and digital social support. Data were collected from 500 students, both male and female, studying at Chinese universities. The PLS-SEM approach was applied to analyze the structural relationship among the given variables in this research study. Findings of the study indicated that emerging technology has a positive and significant relationship with cognitive development, and that digital social support positively and significantly mediates the connection between emerging technology and cognitive development among higher education students. It was concluded that both emerging technology and digital social support are predictors of students' cognitive development at the higher education level. The study contributes to the literature on emerging technology, cognitive development, and digital social support in the context of higher education. This study provides valuable theoretical and practical implications for teachers, psychologists, and curriculum developers at the higher education level.
... In recent years, advancements in virtual reality (VR) technology coupled with the accessibility and affordability of VR hardware and software tools have resulted in its widespread adoption and diverse applications across various domains. One of the major and compelling uses of VR is in training across different domains, such as the military (Li and Harris 2008;Pallavicini et al. 2016), sports (Akbaş et al. 2019), healthcare (Pawassar and Tiberius 2021), construction safety (Perlman et al. 2014;Le et al. 2015;Zhang et al. 2019Zhang et al. , 2022Getuli et al. 2020;Xu and Zheng 2021), disaster preparedness (Liang et al. 2019;Sermet and Demir 2019;Isleyen et al. 2021) and emergency training (Smith and Ericson 2009;Rüppel and Schatz 2011;Gong et al. 2015;Li et al. 2017;Çakiroğlu and Gökoğlu 2019;Cao et al. 2019;Feng et al. 2020;Lovreglio et al. 2021;Sermet and Demir 2022). ...
Disaster emergency management is crucial for safeguarding lives and the environment in the face of natural and human-caused calamities, such as quick clay landslides. Disaster emergency management encompasses hazard identification, prevention, response, and recovery, most of which require knowledge and information acquired through training initiatives. Quick clay landslides pose a substantial hazard in regions like Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, and Russia. With numerous historical incidents, knowledge-based awareness of quick clay landslide hazards is of paramount importance. In recent years, the area of application of virtual reality (VR) has grown tremendously from the entertainment industry to the military, to mental health, to hazard identification training and our daily lives. VR has been widely employed in hazard identification and prevention, safety training, evacuation, search and rescue, and damage identification of hazards. This study outlines the design, development, and implementation of QuickAware, a VR tool designed to create awareness of quick clay hazards. The development process of the tool started with a co-design approach where stakeholder experts were brought to collaborate in setting up VR scenarios and defining the VR environment contents. The contents were then conceptualized and translated into a VR experience. The novelty of the tool is that it immerses users in a realistic experience, allowing them to engage directly with the causes and consequences of quick clay landslide disasters which would be dangerous in real-life. The usability of the VR tool was examined by surveying 16 participants. The preliminary results of the survey indicated that the tool has a promising value in improving awareness creation for quick clay landslide hazards.
... The user can enter a simulated construction site with the associated activities using immersive VR technologies. They can help a more efficient evaluation of the building plans, schedules and identify or assess relevant risks by improving real-scale spatial perception (Getuli et al., 2020). VR is one powerful visualization tool used to advance state-of-the-art safety management practices (Park & Kim, 2013). ...
Existing research reveals that by adopting leading technologies in the construction industry, worker's safety could be maximized. Presently, the application of technologies to promote safety in the construction sector is limited. The data for accident cases on the construction sites are very limited. Many tools and techniques have been created to increase worker safety on construction sites by designing and implementing good safety plans. A bibliometric and scientometric approach was used to identify the most prominent technologies in construction safety management. The data was retrieved from WOS database, and the analysis of the study is based on using VOS viewer to visualize the domain-specific knowledge. This study helps in the identification of emerging digital technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), IT applications, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), its application, and barriers in adoption during safety management. This study also highlights critical factors that promote technology adoption in construction safety management. This research also traces the current trends, future directions and supports crucial knowledge on safety technology to construction researchers and practitioners.
... BIM has aroused the interest of both industry and academia [11] and consolidated itself as a trending theme for research and application in all phases of the construction life cycle [43]. Our findings indicate that BIM, as a process of virtual representation of buildings and infrastructure, has advanced with the incorporation of AR, VR, Blockchain, and IoT, among other technologies [72][73][74][75]. Beyond that, we believe that BIM is an enabler of using those technologies. ...
Connectivity, digitization, and emerging Industry 4.0 technology such as AI, automation, robotics, IoT, and cyber-physical space have transformed social relations, the means of production, and the world of labor. The construction industry has also been transformed by Industry 4.0 technologies, mainly through Building Information Modeling (BIM)-based digitization. This revolution in the construction industry has been called Construction 4.0 and is based on the use of innovative technologies that promote digitalization and automation of design, construction, and management processes. Furthermore, the workforce for the construction industry in the context of Construction 4.0 must have adequate skills for this new scenario. Previous literature reviews have analyzed the idea of transitioning the construction industry to Construction 4.0 and implementing specific technologies in the industry. However, there has been limited exploration of the skills necessary for the Construction 4.0 workforce. This article aims to address this gap by identifying the technologies and skills that have been scientifically researched and applied in the construction industry, specifically related to the concepts of Industry 4.0 and Construction 4.0. Utilizing a scoping literature review in the Scopus database, this study seeks to identify: (i) emergent C4.0 technologies in the AEC industry; and (ii) which skills or competencies are demanded when using these technologies. All of our bibliographical searches are inserted and restricted to the concept of Construction 4.0. A total of 108 articles related to technologies and 15 related to skills in the Construction 4.0 context were selected for analysis. Twenty-one technologies were identified and grouped into five sets according to their similarities and applications: AI-assisted technologies, Advanced manufacture, Smart tools, Digital simulation/Visualization, and Data acquisition/detection. The skills were identified and grouped into soft and hard skills. However, the findings point out that the new skills needed by the workforce are described in a dispersed way, without a central theme of research in the context of Construction 4.0. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the transformations towards Construction 4.0 and provide data for industry and universities to respond appropriately to the new demands of the construction industry.
... Building Information Modeling (BIM) has increased on-site person safety by analyzing spatial and temporal information and enhancing safety communication [35][36][37]. For instance, Table 2 lists examples of applying/developing BIM for construction safety. ...
Detecting intrusion in hazardous areas is one of the priorities and duties of safety enhancement. With the emergence of vision intelligence technology, hazardous-area-detection algorithms can support safety managers in predicting potential hazards and making decisions. However, because of the dynamic and complex nature of the jobsite, high-risk zones have a different geometry and can be changed following the schedule and workspace of activity. This leads to hazardous areas being annotated manually. Thus, this study proposes a computer vision and a 4D BIM-based approach for intrusion detection in hazardous areas, called IDC4D. IDC4D comprises three modules: (1) the 4D BIM-based safety planning (4BSP) module, which analyzes the hazardous area; (2) the hazardous area registration (HAR) module, which delivers the hazardous area from the BIM model to the camera’s first frame image; and (3) the hazardous-area-intrusion-detection module (HAID), which applies the computer vision algorithm to identify the correlation between workers and hazardous areas. The efficiency of the IDC4D approach is validated by testing a maintenance project on the construction site. IDC4D supports the planner in choosing the plan and detecting the event of workers entering hazardous areas while working. It showed an average precision of 93% and 94% in phase 1 and phase 2, respectively. These findings provide insight into how varying geometries of diverse hazard areas can be handled for enhancing intrusion detection.
... The BIM model has become a repository for all information about the visual power of a three-dimensional representation. Some advantages of BIM are the workplace planning during construction (Getuli et al., 2020), as-built data collection (Gunner et al., 2021;Pepe et al., 2021), asset maintenance , quality control (Biancardo et al., 2020b), space management (Pavón et al., 2020a;Valinejadshoubi et al., 2021), or emergency management have been published (Deng et al., 2021a;Wehbe & Shahrour, 2021). The latest research seeks to bring the BIM model closer to Digital Twin (DT) concept, through the digital model of smart building (Deng et al., 2021b;Zheng et al., 2019) that interacts with the built environment through enabling technologies such as the IoT (Fuller et al., 2020). ...
Roads and highways are often managed by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). However, these systems lack the level of detail that Building Information Modelling (BIM) can bring to an infrastructure management system. BMGIS integration allows the management of information from both infrastructure and environmental points of view. This provides an overview of the infrastructure, facilitating decision-making process throughout its complete life cycle. This article shows a semi-automated process to generate the hybrid BIM-GIS model of Madrid Calle30. The model together with an external database was uploaded to an intelligent management platform that allows visualising the available documentation, assisting management, and bringing the ring-road closer to a digital twin of the infrastructure.
... Over the past decades, visualizations have helped scientists and researchers across many fields produce and explore different scenarios in multisensory three-dimensional (3D) environments to immerse and study users. The benefits of these visualizations lie in their ability of providing realistic visuals to increase in fidelity, users' involvement, and reducing the gap between virtual environments and reality (Jung and Lindeman 2021), which combine to raise a breadth of opportunities for simulating situations that are often either dangerous or too expensive to conduct in the real world (Getuli et al. 2020;Pooladvand et al. 2021). Among these visual simulation methods, Virtual Reality (VR) involves a high human-computer interface with computer-generated graphics; its essential characteristics entail immersion, interactivity, and visualization (Wang 2012). ...
While the advancement of visualization technologies-virtual-reality, augmented-reality, mixed-reality, and extended reality-has long produced opportunities to create more realistic simulated environments to provoke and study natural human behavior, recent interest in applying 360° panoramic visualizations has been increasing across several disciplines due to these technologies' lower costs, higher presence, and greater immersive-ness. However, the variety of applications of 360° panoramas (both images and videos) is limited in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain compared to other domains. This paper systematically presents an in-depth understanding of 360° panorama research trends and reveals the challenges and opportunities for future research in the AEC area. In particular, this systematic review analyzed eighty studies across two decades (2000-2022) to consider 360° panoramas' application areas, methodologies, potential benefits, challenges, best practices, and future research directions for both AEC and non-AEC domains. Several prevalent application domains in AEC-namely architectural studies, construction education and training, construction visualization and progress monitoring, and cognitive analysis and human behavior in the construction industry-were identified. This paper indicates that 360° panoramas provide a higher sense of presence than conventional simulation methods (e.g., virtual reality). Moreover, pairing 360° panorama technologies with a head-mounted display significantly increases immersion when compared with other display options. Lastly, limitations of 360° panoramas, such as cybersickness and technical properties, are discussed. This paper is expected to shed light on the potential of these state-of-the-art technologies in the AEC domain, which can serve both academia and industry.
The construction industry contends with high injury rates, emphasizing the need for innovative preventive
measures in construction health and safety (CHS). While previous studies have investigated the potential ap
plications of virtual reality (VR) in the construction industry for different purposes, an in-depth study on VR in
the CHS context is lacking. Hence, this study provides a state-of-the-art analysis of VR applications in CHS,
employing a dual scientometric and systematic review approach. A scientometric analysis is conducted to
examine annual publication trends, keyword co-occurrences, and science mapping of publication outlets,
alongside mapping the contributions of leading countries in this domain. This analysis reveals a marked increase
in research interest and identifies central thematic connections within the body of literature. The systematic
review assesses VR technologies, including immersive, desktop-based, BIM-based, 3D game-based, and
augmented reality, addressing their roles in hazard identification and safety training. The study also underscores
challenges like infrastructure, content modeling, and interoperability and proposes directions for future research.
Recommendations include probing into VR’s role in cognitive safety risks and the impact of users’ prior safety
knowledge on learning outcomes. This study suggests that developing tailored VR experiences for specific user
groups could significantly advance safety practices in the construction industry.
Devido à sua natureza migratória, a indústria da construção ainda sofre anualmente com altas taxas de lesões ocupacionais e de fatalidades quando comparada a outras indústrias. A gestão tradicional da segurança depende da experiência humana e de processos manuais, com isso, nos últimos anos, vários estudos se dedicam a investigar o uso da modelagem da informação da construção (BIM) para otimizar a gestão da segurança. O objetivo principal deste estudo foi investigar o potencial do BIM na gestão da segurança do trabalho no setor da construção. Para tal propósito, uma revisão sistemática foi realizada, classificando os artigos encontrados em cinco categorias: Checagem automática de regras, Feedback proativo, Treinamento e educação, Sistemas baseados no conhecimento e Planejamento e visualização. Os resultados mostram um crescimento de aplicações práticas do BIM, apesar das limitações ainda encontradas, e um avanço tecnológico quando comparado aos cenários anteriores. O BIM serve como uma plataforma central e tem o potencial de uso expandido quando combinado com tecnologias habilitadoras. Pode-se constatar um estágio inicial das aplicações práticas em alguns estudos, com limitações de riscos mitigados, de parâmetros monitorados e de funcionários envolvidos. Além disso, nota-se que o principal risco mitigado, eliminado ou monitorado é o risco de queda em altura. Ainda que o BIM possibilite uma melhora na gestão da segurança tradicional, é necessário que sua utilização seja mais estudada e aplicada em maior escala. Uma das recomendações para estudos futuros é a otimização do processo de atualização do modelo BIM por meio do uso de tecnologias habilitadoras.
In smart buildings, digital construction technologies can support more efficient management of data and information related to building components. This paper aims to draw a robust linking mechanism between digital construction technologies that support smart buildings and smart city development to satisfy building users' expectations. Data was attained using a qualitative approach via secondary data from literature and primary data in the context of case study with building users. The study suggests the importance of recognising single/multi-purposed data to support better synergy between digital construction technologies and in smart buildings and smart city development to satisfy building users’ expectations.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the support for multi-party collaboration in project construction provided by building information modeling (BIM). Based on the perspective of value co-creation, the research results can provide support for the collaborative application and contract design of BIM platform.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, an evolutionary game model involving the owner, designer and constructor is constructed by using prospect theory and evolutionary game theory. Through simulation analysis, the evolution law of the strategy choice of each party in the collaborative application of BIM platform is discussed and the key factors affecting the strategy choice of all parties are analyzed.
Findings
The results show that there is an ideal local equilibrium point with progressive stability in the evolutionary game between the three parties: “the construction party shares information, the designer receives the information and optimizes the project and the owner does not provide incentives”; in addition, the opportunistic behaviors of the design and construction parties, as well as the probability of such behaviors being detected and the subsequent punishment have a significant impact on the evolutionary outcome.
Originality/value
This method can provide support for the collaborative application and contract design of BIM platform.
The construction industry faces safety management challenges that impact its reputation and workforce well-being. Despite existing safety regulations, safety violations persist, necessitating innovative solutions. This thesis explores the potential of Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a tool to improve safety practices throughout the project lifecycle. A literature review identifies key safety factors and BIM features, revealing their interconnections and potential for synergistic improvements. A questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with 55 construction professionals from diverse regions revealed that over 45% of respondents reported positive outcomes from BIM implementation in their projects. A comprehensive framework is developed to integrate BIM-based safety improvement strategies into various project phases, providing practical guidelines and recommendations for construction professionals to enhance safety practices effectively and efficiently. The research emphasizes the significance of BIM adoption in the construction industry, promoting better safety outcomes and elevating safety management practices. The proposed framework offers valuable insights for stakeholders, encouraging the widespread adoption of BIM technology and its seamless integration with safety practices for improved project safety and overall construction efficiency.
Purpose
Despite extensive academic research related to digital technologies (DT), their integration into architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects lags in practice. This paper aims to discover DT deployment patterns and emerging trends in real-life AEC projects.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study methodology was adopted, including individual case analyses and comparative multiple-case analyses.
Findings
The results revealed the temporal distribution of DT in practical AEC projects, specific DT products/software, major project types integrated with digital solutions, DT application areas and project stages and associated project performance. Three distinct patterns in DT adoption have been observed, reflecting the evolution of DT applications, the progression from single to multiple DT integration and alignment with emerging industry requirements. The DT adoption behavior in the studied cases has been examined using the technology-organization-environment-human (TOE + H) framework. Further, eight emerging trend streams for future DT adoption were identified, with “leveraging the diverse features of certain mature DT” being a shared recognition of all studied companies.
Practical implications
This research offers actionable insights for AEC companies, facilitating the development of customized DT implementation roadmaps aligned with organizational needs. Policymakers, industry associations and DT suppliers may leverage these findings for informed decision-making, collaborative educational initiatives and product/service customization.
Originality/value
This research provides empirical evidence of applicable products/software, application areas and project performance. The examination of the TOE + H framework offers a holistic understanding of the collective influences on DT adoption. The identification of emerging trends addresses the evolving demands of the AEC industry in the digital era.
Purpose
Prefabricated building has been widely applied in the construction industry all over the world, which can significantly reduce labor consumption and improve construction efficiency compared with conventional approaches. During the construction of prefabricated buildings, the overall efficiency largely depends on the lifting sequence and path of each prefabricated component. To improve the efficiency and safety of the lifting process, this study proposes a framework for automatically optimizing the lifting path of prefabricated building components using building information modeling (BIM), improved 3D-A* and a physic-informed genetic algorithm (GA).
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, the industry foundation class (IFC) schema for prefabricated buildings is established to enrich the semantic information of BIM. After extracting corresponding component attributes from BIM, the models of typical prefabricated components and their slings are simplified. Further, the slings and elements’ rotations are considered to build a safety bounding box. Secondly, an efficient 3D-A* is proposed for element path planning by integrating both safety factors and variable step size. Finally, an efficient GA is designed to obtain the optimal lifting sequence that satisfies physical constraints.
Findings
The proposed optimization framework is validated in a physics engine with a pilot project, which enables better understanding. The results show that the framework can intuitively and automatically generate the optimal lifting path for each type of prefabricated building component. Compared with traditional algorithms, the improved path planning algorithm significantly reduces the number of nodes computed by 91.48%, resulting in a notable decrease in search time by 75.68%.
Originality/value
In this study, a prefabricated component path planning framework based on the improved A* algorithm and GA is proposed for the first time. In addition, this study proposes a safety-bounding box that considers the effects of torsion and slinging of components during lifting. The semantic information of IFC for component lifting is enriched by taking into account lifting data such as binding positions, lifting methods, lifting angles and lifting offsets.
The drive to digitalise the construction industry has led to attempts to mitigate health and safety (H&S) risks by employing digital technologies to manage construction safety. However, despite these efforts, the CI is still considered as a high-risk industry due to the frequency and severity of accidents recorded annually. This is because health and safety is best managed when integrated at the very onset of project planning in a collaborative project delivery system. However, the current consideration of health and safety at the construction stage results in lesser control and mitigation of hazards, and the underutilization of health and safety technologies. To fill this gap, this paper identified the integrated digital delivery (IDD) system as the optimal collaborative strategy for integrating H&S management into project delivery. As a result, a digital workflow guideline for managing construction site incidents was proposed. Also, considering the relationship between H&S performance and project delivery systems, a novel IDD-Health and Safety Management (IDD-HSM) framework was developed to enhance the integration of digital technologies for H&S management in a delivery system. This study makes distinctive contribution to knowledge by proposing guidelines for mitigating construction hazards through a novel IDD-HSM framework to establish a proactive real-time lifecycle approach to managing construction H&S. Prospective case applications of the digital workflow guidelines and the novel IDD-HSM framework have been presented in this study. However, it may require real life application and expert judgement to verify its validity and reproducibility.
İnşaat sektörü yeniliğe ve değişikliklere açık bir sektördür. Yapı üretim süreçlerine entegre olabilecek birçok enformasyon teknolojisi geliştirilmiş, yapı üretim süreçlerinin daha hızlı, sistematik ve kontrollü olarak yürütülmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda yapı üretim süreçlerinde kullanılan enformasyon teknolojilerinden Yapı Bilgi Modelleme (BIM) ve Sanal Gerçeklik (VR) teknolojileri yaygın olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. BIM süreçleriyle ve VR araçlarıyla yürütülen entegre projelerde yapı üretim süreçlerinde pek çok kolaylık sağlanmaktadır. Çalışmada yapı üretim süreçlerinde BIM ve VR entegrasyonunun kullanımının amaçlarını, güçlü ve zayıf yanlarını tespit etmek ve potansiyel tehdit ve fırsatlar bağlamında bir değerlendirme yapmak amaçlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda literatür taraması ve kullanıcı deneyimlerinin baz alındığı firma araştırması yapılmıştır.
Immersive virtual reality (IVR) allows viewing abstract concepts and entities in a three dimensional (3D) visuospatial environment. In this paper, we innovatively introduced IVR technology into the verification of the as-built state of electric line networks in buildings. On the one hand, using a reasoning-based estimation of electric networks as a starting point, we demonstrated the usability of IVR technology for verifying installed utilities in buildings. On the other hand, we established the communication between the Reasoner and the practitioner and also simulated the verification action of electric line networks in buildings in the real world. The principal findings of this work pave the way for a subsequent and systematic evaluation of the different reasoning strategies for estimating and generating the as-built state of building utilities.
As falhas nos controles de custos e prazos na construção civil podem ocasionar atrasos na entrega de obras, gastos excedentes, além da insatisfação do cliente e até mesmo prejuízos financeiros incalculáveis. Parte destes problemas se dá a falta de dados históricos, falta de inserção de tecnologia nos processos, muitas vezes pela dificuldade de aceitação e adaptação de novas tecnologias e processo. O presente trabalho investigou as lacunas existentes para que o avanço da chamada Construção 4.0. A pesquisa utilizou o método de estudo qualitativo e investigatório, ocorrendo através de estudo teórico, pesquisa com profissionais da área, além de considerar o conhecimento prático do pesquisador. Os resultados contribuíram para que fosse possível identificar os modelos utilizados por outras construtoras, identificar as necessidades atuais, além de identificar as tecnologias digitais que podem ser inseridas nos processos a fim de resultar na proposta de um modelo de planejamento, projeto e execução para aprimorar a construção civil com o apoio das tecnologias digitais.
The construction industry is known for its high accident rates. One hundred key factors affecting construction safety (fSCPs)—associated with general aspects of organisational management, materials and equipment, the construction site, and human aspects related to the worker and work team—have been identified. EXtended Reality (XR), which encompasses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies, is being used in construction safety management. XR offers multiple advantages, given its characteristics of visualisation, immersion, and interaction with digital models and real objects. XR’s potential safety uses are widely recognised, and several studies have tested these technologies for different applications. However, most such efforts have been focused on identifying functionalities, applications, and technological aspects of XR in general, rather than studying whether those uses affect the factors relevant to security management. This study examined the literature on XR experiences that have addressed fSCPs and analysed how these developments have been related to the construction sector’s methodologies and technologies, such as building information modelling (BIM).
Extended Reality (XR) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) are two promising technologies that have the potential to revolutionize the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. XR refers to the collective term for immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), while BIM is a digital tool that provides a detailed and comprehensive model of a building or infrastructure project. This review article presents an overview of the current state of research on integrating and implementing XR and BIM technologies in real project scenarios, highlighting the benefits of their use in various stages of the AEC industry. The literature review reveals that integrating these technologies can enhance collaboration, visualization, decision-making, and stakeholder communication. However, challenges such as technical limitations, lack of standardization, and high costs hinder their widespread adoption. Overall, the review suggests that integrating XR and BIM technologies can potentially improve the quality and efficiency of the AEC industry, but further research is needed to address the challenges and fully exploit their benefits.
Safety is one of the most important success factors in construction projects. Many advanced technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, construction robotics, and digital technologies, have been increasingly implemented to support safety activities on construction sites and improve workers' health. The objective of this paper is to investigate applications of existing and emerging construction safety technologies across different construction safety areas. A systematic review methodology was conducted to analyze 129 journal articles published from 2018 to 2023 related to construction safety technologies. The results of this study include a detailed categorization of advanced technologies in four construction safety categories: prevention through design, safety management, safety culture and awareness, and computing in construction safety. Additionally, a checklist of recommended technologies for specific construction safety improvement areas was developed. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by systematically categorizing and specifying the commonly used advanced technologies to address various construction safety problems.
ScienceDirect provided us with 50 days' free access to the article. Use the below link before January 28, 2024, to read or download the final article for free. https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1iE8N3IhXMxVFk
This paper discusses the challenge of using 3D models created during the design stage in the construction stage due to the need for segmentation or remodeling to incorporate activity concepts. To address this challenge, the paper proposes a methodology that uses the PointNet deep learning technique to automatically classify and segment design model elements into activity units for the construction stage while preserving attribute information. The authors introduce a module that utilize the bounding box concept to simplify the segmentation process after importing the 3D model into the 4D system used in the construction stage. This eliminates the need for separate CAD software and allows for direct segmentation into activity units within the 4D system and simultaneous simulation. The proposed methodology was applied to two real bridge projects and demonstrated increased 3D model reusability in the construction stage. The paper concludes that this approach can improve the usability of 3D models for construction projects.
The paper presents a dynamic fire signage system for simulating emergency evacuation in the case of fire through dynamic pathfinding towards the nearest and safest exit in a virtual environment. Conventional fire signs and fire escape plans are becoming outdated and less effective due to their static nature and inability to adapt to different emergency scenarios. Experimental studies have shown that dynamic signs can be effective in guiding users of any age and can highly influence their direction choices during evacuation. A VR tool for simulating emergency evacuation through dynamic pathfinding towards the safest and nearest exit was designed using a BIM model as a basis to create a virtual environment for the simulation. Newly created fire signals, referred to as Fire Signal Cubes (FSCs) were used. They were specifically developed and implemented for this project as input for the node database and pathfinding algorithm to define navigable spaces. The FSCs have from one to four active sides, depending on their position in the floor plan and their relation to pathways and exit doors. Each side of the FSC that faces a path, or an exit door is active, and the FSC can show the correct signal according to the input of the pathfinding algorithm that instantly calculates the safest escape path. The paper provides a detailed description of the methodology and presents the results of implementing the dynamic pathfinder using a BIM model of an office environment.KeywordsVirtual realitydynamic fire signalemergency evacuationBIMUnity
This paper establishes a structural relationship between BIM strategies in eleven (11) energy sustainability elements divided into management and technical aspects that impact a sustainable campus. The work established thirteen (13) benchmarks for independent variables and one (1) dependent variable. The exploratory research design used in this study led to the structural model development being the central focus of the study. A judgmental sampling technique was used to distribute a questionnaire survey among local engineers, assistant engineers, and technicians in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The research population survey employed 78 returned questionnaires. The analysis used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The result indicates that the management and technical aspects of Energy Sustainability Elements (ESE) significantly impact sustainable campus with path coefficients of 2.447 and 5.032, respectively. Furthermore, the findings have revealed that Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 were all positive and significant at the 0.05 level, indicating that these two hypotheses are valid and supported. This study provides valuable information and insights for Malaysian universities to achieve a sustainable campus by adopting building information modeling (BIM) strategies in the context of energy efficiency.
Keywords:Sustainable campus, energy sustainability, energy efficiency, building information modelling, PLS-SEM
Purpose
The replenishment of construction materials heavily relies on the functioning of heavy machinery, which often leads to confusion and negotiations among construction work groups regarding the allocation rights of these materials. When multiple groups require the same construction materials, they often struggle to determine whether the delivered materials are intended for their own use or if they have encroached upon supplies designated for others. Such uncertainties and negotiations frequently result in delays in construction progress and have the potential to escalate into conflicts. To minimize misunderstandings among work groups and mitigate the risk of severe safety consequences, it is crucial to understand the decision-making processes involved in the interaction between work groups.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a game theory approach to examine the interactions among work groups from a safety perspective. Quantum response equilibrium (QRE), as a specialized form of game with incomplete information, is assumed to govern the behavior of work groups in this study. By conducting a questionnaire survey, interactive scenarios were simulated. A resource overlap scenario for high-altitude construction is established, with the key factors being the importance of construction materials, the time required to supplement materials, whether managers are present and the climate within the groups. The model parameters were estimated using the expectation–maximization algorithm. Additionally, individual traits and safety awareness are surveyed in the questionnaire, further explaining the results of the game.
Findings
The findings indicate that the likelihood of conflicts between work groups under resource overlap can be quantified. The radical behavior of construction work groups exhibits a positive correlation with the importance of construction materials and the time required for material replenishment. Furthermore, the presence of a safety climate and the oversight of management personnel play a significant role in maintaining the composure of construction work groups. The expanded results of the questionnaire demonstrate that there is considerable room for improvement in workers' safety awareness, and management approaches can be further enhanced to prevent unsafe behaviors from occurring.
Originality/value
A novel game theory model was developed to evaluate the behavior of construction groups in situations of resource overlap. This model offers practical suggestions to improve safety performance and efficiency in construction projects.
Building construction is considered a complex, dynamic and highly hazardous process which embraces many factors that are potentially dangerous to workers. Many studies proved that the improvement of preventive and proactive measures-dynamically included in the building design, planning and construction-could reduce site accidents as well as increase the site productivity. In this context, process management models and information visualization techniques such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) seem to be devoted to strongly contribute to the advancement of the current safety management practices. For this reasons, the presented contribution starts with a short review of the adoption of BIM and BIM-related digital technologies for risk management together with VR application for Construction Health and Safety which aim to generate immersive environments from which workers can experience safe insights into the way the real construction site works. The main objective of this contribution is to review existing proposals in this field of construction health and safety as related to ICT technologies, especially BIM and Virtual Reality, in order to propose, at the end, a project framework able to guide future researches and applications on the use of BIM-enabled Virtual Reality for Safety purposes for site design validation and related workers' training.
The construction industry is a major economic sector, but it is plagued with inefficiencies and low productivity. Robotics and automated systems have the potential to address these shortcomings; however, the level of adoption in the construction industry is very low. This paper presents an investigation into the industry-specific factors that limit the adoption in the construction industry. A mixed research method was employed combining literature review, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Three focus groups with 28 experts and an online questionnaire were conducted. Principal component and correlation analyses were conducted to group the identified factors and find hidden correlations. The main identified challenges were grouped into four categories and ranked in order of importance: contractor-side economic factors, client-side economic factors, technical and work-culture factors, and weak business case factors. No strong correlation was found among factors. This study will help stakeholders to understand the main industry-specific factors limiting the adoption of robotics and automated systems in the construction industry. The presented findings will support stakeholders to devise mitigation strategies.
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
Learn how Single-Task Construction Robots (STCRs) can improve productivity in the construction industry with this cross-disciplinary text. This third volume in The Cambridge Handbooks in Construction Robotics series discusses the STCRs employed on construction sites since the development of the approach in the 1980s, presents current applications, and highlights upcoming trends in the construction automation and robotics field. Two hundred different types of STCR are presented, from the simplest models comprising simple manipulators and mobile platforms, to those utilizing more sophisticated technologies such as aerial robotics, swarm robotics, exoskeletons, additive manufacturing technologies, self-assembling building structures, and humanoid robotics. Real-world case studies demonstrate the different application scenarios for each approach, and highlight the key implementation and management issues. With an easy-to-follow structure, and including hundreds of color illustrations, it provides an excellent toolkit for professional engineers, researchers, and students.
As a result of progressive use of BIM in the AEC sector, the amount of diverse project information is increasing rapidly, thus necessitating interoperability of tools, compatibility of data, effective collaboration and sophisticated data management. Media-rich VR and AR environments have been proven to help users better understand design solutions, however, they have not been quite advanced in supporting interoperability and collaboration. Relying on capabilities of openBIM and IFC schema, this study posits that this shortcoming of VR and AR environment could be addressed by use of BIM server concept allowing for concurrent multiuser and low-latency communication between applications. Successful implementation of this concept can ultimately mitigate the need for advanced technical skills for participation in design processes and facilitate the generation of more useful design solutions by early involvement of stakeholders and end-users in decision making. This paper exemplifies a method for integration of BIM data into immersive VR and AR environments, in order to streamline the design process and provide a pared-down agnostic openBIM system with low latency and synchronised concurrent user accessibility that gives the "right information to the right people at the right time". These concepts have been further demonstrated through development of a prototype for openBIM-Tango integrated virtual showroom for offsite manufactured production of self-build housing. The prototype directly includes BIM models and data from IFC format and interactively presents them to users on both VR immersive and AR environments, including Google Tango enabled devices. This paper contributes by offering innovative and practical solutions for integration of openBIM and VR/AR interfaces, which can address interoperability issues of the AEC industry.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) and off-site construction (OSC) are increasingly applied in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry due to their many benefits to project stakeholders, such as enhanced design visualization, improved data exchanges, reduced construction waste, improved productivity, and higher product quality. Substantial research efforts have thus been devoted to these topics in recent decades, resulting in a large amount of literature regarding BIM and OSC. This research explores the state-of-the-art in BIM for OSC by means of a bibliometric-qualitative review method. The objective of this research is to uncover the synthesis between BIM and OSC and to identify research trends as well as gaps in knowledge that can be addressed in future research on BIM for OSC. Science maps are constructed by means of bibliometric analysis in order to objectively identify the main research topics of these two fields both separately and jointly based on identified academic publications from Scopus (i.e., 4395 publications on BIM, 2841 publications on OSC, and 113 publications on BIM for OSC). A qualitative review is further conducted on 77 screened research publications (including articles, reviews, conference papers) with a particular focus on BIM for OSC. Through quantitative analysis and in-depth discussion of BIM for OSC, research gaps are identified, and future directions are further proposed as follows: BIM-based generative design for prefabrication, cloud BIM-based data exchange for OSC, robotics and 3D printing for OSC, BIM-enabled big data analytics toward best OSC practice, benefits and its assessment model of BIM for OSC. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by synthesizing the state of the art of BIM for OSC and exposing the research needs in this area in order to improve AEC practice.
Since the early development for health purposes in 1950s, motion tracking systems have been strongly developed for several applications. Nowadays, using Micro Electro-Mechanics Systems (MEMS) technologies, these systems have become compact and light, being popular for several applications. Looking at the manufacturing industry, such as the automotive one, ergonomic postural analyses are a key step in the workplaces design and motion tracking systems represent fundamental tools to provide data about postures of workers while carrying out working tasks, in order to assess the critical issues according to ISO 11226 standard.
In the Industry 4.0 and digital revolution era, the world of manufacturing industry is experiencing an innovative reconfiguration of design tools and methodologies, with a different approach to the production processes organization.
The design philosophy is changing, integrating to engineering contribution interpretative aspects (design thinking), executive practices (design doing) and cognitive aspects (design cultures). The design becomes human–centered.
The new Virtual Reality technologies allow to validate performances of designed products and production processes by means of virtual prototypes in a virtual simulated environment. This approach generates several benefits to the companies, in terms of costs and time, and allows optimizing the assembly line design and related workplaces, by improving workers’ benefits too.
This paper proposes an innovative method to validate the design of workplaces on automotive assembly lines in a virtual environment, based on ergonomic approach, according to ERGO – Uas system, applied by FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) groups, that integrates UAS method for measurement and EAWS method for biomechanical effort evaluation.
Creating 3D virtual scenarios allows to carry on assembly tasks by virtual manikins in order to be evaluated from different points of view. In particular, data coming from the simulation can be used to assess several ergonomic indexes, improving safety, quality and design.
The analysis is supported by the use of a motion capture system, developed by the University of Campania and composed of wearable inertial sensors, that estimates the attitude of fundamental human segments, using sensor fusion algorithms based on Kalman filtering. In this way, it is possible to make a further design validation, assessing the EAWS index basing on posture angles trends evaluated.
This method can represent an innovation for human-centered design of workplace in developing new products, reducing costs and improving job quality.
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in building construction remains a worldwide problem in terms of workplace injury, illness and fatality statistics. Construction Safety requires care and planning throughout the project life-cycle, from the design phase to maintenance. Initial attempts to improve OHS consider the safety aspects in the design phase and the development of manual safety processes in the execution phase. The application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is currently experiencing rapid growth in construction operations, planning and management, as well as in Safety Management. Thanks to the use of this new tool, we can expect to see a change in the way that safety is addressed, as seen in the literature review, based on the large number of contributions in recent years. This study reviews the existing literature surrounding BIM and Construction Safety in order to explore both useful findings and the gaps in knowledge for future research. The main result shows that the growing implementation of BIM in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is changing the way safety can be approached. Potential safety hazards can be automatically identified and corresponding prevention methods can be applied using an automated approach.
The introduction of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in factory environment is leading the world of manufacturing industry to a change. Indeed, we talk about Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, that facilitates the vision of a Smart Factory in which systems become cyber-physical, interact between themselves, monitor and validate physical processes, creating a virtual copy of the physical world and making decisions based on complex numerical analysis. Virtualization and simulation of production processes generate several benefits, in terms of costs and time, optimizing the assembly line design and studying human-machine interaction. Regarding the last topic, this paper proposes an innovative method for ergonomic analysis of workplaces on automotive assembly lines in a virtual environment. The method can represent an innovation for human-centered design of workplace in developing new products, reducing costs and improving job quality thanks to a preventive ergonomic approach.
Construction safety management has been a popular issue in research and practice in recent years due to the high accident and death rates in the construction industry. The complexity and variability of construction sites makes safety management more difficult to implement than in other industries. As a promising technology, visualization has been extensively explored to aid construction safety management. However, a comprehensive critical review of the visualization technology in construction safety management is absent in the literature.
Depending on the specific design phase and relevant goals, engineers have various options to visualize machine tool development. This study examined two types of visualization (e.g. concerning complexity, colors, animations, vividness) using VR technology. Over 25 experts were asked to identify and assess hazards in two 3D-models that differed in complexity. Besides technical aspects, we tested whether psychological aspects such as sense of “being there” and the quality of the risk assessment were affected by the type of the 3D-representation. Furthermore the relations between the user‘s traits (e.g. conscientiousness, risk perception, etc.) and the properties of the 3D-models were explored.
Construction safety culture is becoming a typical proactive safety performance measurement and strategy for safety improvement. However, there is no accepted industry wide definition for safety culture. There is also no clear distinction between safety culture and safety climate. So far, little research has investigated how safety programs can be developed to improve safety culture and climate, which in turn can be used to assess the effectiveness of these programs. This paper presents a study that examined the multilevel safety culture and climate to assess a newly launched safety program. Specifically, three different questionnaires were used to survey 71 top executives, 229 site management personnel, and 350 field workers, respectively. This study found wide acceptance of the program across all three groups, strong management accountability in enforcing safety, and a positive general safety climate among workers. The results demonstrated the program's overall effectiveness in building positive safety culture and climate despite a few identified weaknesses. Based on these findings and insightful employee feedback, this paper offers generalized recommendations to help industry practitioners develop high-quality safety programs. The presented survey instruments and analysis methods can also be used to holistically assess safety programs and related safety culture and climate. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Construction workers’ ability to identify and assess risks is acquired through training and experience and is among the key factors that determine their behaviour and thus their safety. Yet researchers have questioned the effectiveness of conventional safety training. This research tested the hypotheses that safety training in a virtual reality (VR) construction site would be feasible and more effective, in terms of workers’ learning and recall in identifying and assessing construction safety risks, than would equivalent training using conventional methods. Sixty-six subjects were provided training in construction safety and their safety knowledge was tested prior to the training, immediately afterward, and one month later. Half of the subjects received traditional classroom training with visual aids; the other half were trained using a 3D immersive VR power-wall. Significant advantage was found for VR training for stone cladding work and for cast-in-situ concrete work, but not for general site safety. VR training was more effective in terms of maintaining trainees’ attention and concentration. Training with VR was more effective over time, especially in the context of cast-in-situ concrete works. Given the need for improved training and the advantages of training using VR, incorporation of VR in construction safety training is strongly recommended.
This paper presents possibilities of application of the immersive VR and the haptic technologies during the complex process of design and virtual prototyping of the manufacturing workplaces characterized with a high level of ergonomic quality. Two case studies are presented: a workplace for stud welding and a set of two workplaces, for hole drilling and manual assembly. In the first case study, haptic device with force feedback effect was used to improve ergonomics of main operator activities. In the second case study, immersive approach was used, namely Head-Mounted Device, tracking and gesture recognition systems, to test and improve ergonomics of the whole workplace. Application of VR techniques allows to present the virtual prototype of the workplace in its real operation environment, limiting the need for use of real mock-ups. Therefore, Virtual Reality allows to conduct a number of analyses related to designed prototypes, such as: dimensions of devices and possibilities of adjustment to height of the human operator, and arrangement of control and signaling devices according to the rules of ergonomic design. To conduct these analyses, full interaction between user and workplace must be programmed, including collision detection, kinematics of the devices and possibilities of activating their various functions in relation with other objects in the virtual scene.
With recent rapid advancement of visualization technologies, recognized research work for improving construction safety management practices has been conducted for identifying safety risks as well as worker onsite training. However, most of the previous studies were limited to reflect the site safety management process, which normally consists of planning–education–inspection phases. This study proposes a framework for a novel safety management and visualization system (SMVS) that integrates building information modeling (BIM), location tracking, augmented reality (AR), and game technologies. A prototype system has been developed and tested based on an illustrative accident scenario. The potentials and technical limitations of the prototype SMVS have been evaluated by site safety experts. A case study was also implemented, whose results show that the SMVS has a great potential to improve the identification of field safety risks, increase the risk recognition capacity of workers, and enhance the real-time communication between construction manager and workers.
ABSTRACT To provide a safe and productive environment, project managers need to plan for the work spaces required by construction activities. Work space planning involves representing various types of spaces required by construction activities in three dimensions and across time. Since a construction schedule consists of hundreds of activities requiring multiple types of spaces, it is practically impossible to expect project managers to specify manually the spatio-temporal data necessary to represent work spaces in four dimension. This paper presents mechanisms,that automatically generate project-specific work spaces from a generic work space ontology and a project-specific IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) based 4D production model. The generation of these work spaces leads to a space-loaded production model. Work spaces know,to which activities and construction methods they belong, when, where and for how long they exist and how much volume,they occupy. A space-loaded production model enables richer 4D
Although the importance of organisational factors in human error has been acknowledged, the influence of organisational factors in the area of work behaviour in construction industry has rarely been examined. The first step of investigation should begin with identifying the relevant contributing factors affecting at-risk work behaviours. Thus, the aim of this research is to identify important organisational factors that will reduce at-risk work behaviours. The implications of these findings are further used to quantify and investigate the role of organisational factors as an integral feature of safety intervention. Case studies are used to identify and categorize organisational factors. This identification process begins with literature reviews as commonly performed. The literature related with organisational factors was used as a primary source to investigate the influences of organisational factors on at-risk work behaviours. Hence, semi-structured interviews and reviews of the company's documents were conducted involving safety experts and workers to gain experiential and practical knowledge. The obtained results identified seven important factors of Thailand construction industry: communication, culture, management commitment, leadership, organisation learning, empowerment, and reward system. The implications of particular applications from these factors are considered as critical features for handling work behaviours. In addition, empirical findings provide particularly insight factors from expertise in a practical way. Validations with previous publications of some factors are also discussed. The identified contributing determinants from empirical findings can be expected to be influential at different levels within an organization. Consequently, the proposed hypothetical casual models enables determination of disparity in their influences of organisational factors when considering interventions to reduce at-risk work behaviour or to promote safe work behaviours.
Santrauka
Organizacinių veiksnių įtaka žmonių klaidoms buvo pripažįstama ilgą laiką, tačiau tų veiksnių poveikis saugiai elgsenai statybos pramonėje yra mažai ištirtas. Pirmasis tyrimo žingsnis turėtų būti veiksnių, darančių įtaką rizikingai elgsenai, nustatymas. Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti organizacinius veiksnius, kurie leistų mažinti rizikingą elgseną darbo vietose. Tai leis tirti ir kiekybiškai vertinti organizacinių veiksnių vaidmenį užtikrinant saugą. Organizaciniai veiksniai nustatomi ir skirstomi kategorijomis nagrinėjant pavyzdžius. Apžvelgiama literatūra, kuri naudojama kaip pirminis informacijos apie organizacinius veiksnius šaltinis, atliekama pusiau struktūrinta saugos ekspertų ir darbuotojų apklausa, apžvelgiami įmonės dokumentai. Gauti rezultatai leido nustatyti septynis reikšmingus veiksnius, būdingus Tailando statybos pramonei: komunikacija, kultūra, vadybininkų įsipareigojimai, vadovavimas, organizaciniai mokymai, galių suteikimas, apdovanojimų sistema. Nagrinėjama šių veiksnių reikšmė užtikrinant saugią elgseną darbo vietoje. Teigiama, kad empirinės žinios, sukauptos straipsnyje aprašomame tyrime, leis nustatyti veiksnių įtaką skirtingais organizacijos lygmenimis. Straipsnyje siūlomi modeliai leis vertinti organizacinių veiksnių įtakos rizikingai elgsenai darbe nevienodumą ir skatinti saugią elgseną.
Reikšminiai žodžiai: organizaciniai veiksniai, saugaus darbo elgsena, Tailando statybos
In order for the construction industry to improve its poor safety performance it needs to learn from its mistakes and put the lessons learned to good use. This need calls for effective feedback mechanisms that can transmit information derived from incident investigation to be utilized in safety planning. The feedback should be at two levels; first, feedback to the Safety Management System that had failed, and second, feedback to the safety planning of future projects. The first level of feedback can be achieved by basing the investigation on an incident investigation model that explicitly identifies system failure. The second level of feedback can be achieved if both incident investigation and safety planning share the same incident causation model, such that the information from each process can be retrieved and utilized in the other process smoothly. One prerequisite to fulfill the two levels of feedback is the development of an incident causation model. In this paper, the modified loss causation model (MLCM), which is able to meet the above-mentioned purposes, will be presented. The MLCM is developed based on an extensive literature review and application on 140 actual accident cases obtained from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower, Occupational Safety Department. In this paper, the model's application will be demonstrated through a case study, which involves codification of investigation information based on an actual incident report, and a safety planning process based on a hypothetical case.
Implementation of the emerging information technologies in the construction industry has been relatively slow in comparison with other industries. Many research and development projects conducted by academia have not been tested and implemented successfully in the real practices. Considering this issue, the VIRtual CONstruction site (VIRCON) research project, funded by the UK government, was developed. VIRCON is a strategic decision support system for practical use to manage construction schedules, and in particular space planning. The successful development of the system was based upon the industrial requirements, real-life project data, and finally evaluated by the industrial collaborators. This paper briefly introduces the VIRCON system and thoroughly reports on the industrial user evaluation. The aims of the evaluation were to establish the usefulness and usability of the individual VIRCON tools, and to indicate the potential commercialisation and implementation of VIRCON tools in real practices. Ten collaborators from the construction industry evaluated VIRCON through a real-life case study. The space planning approach and visualisation features developed in this project were found practical and communicative.
Research Question: The Last Planner System (LPS) and Location-Based Management System (LBMS) both aim to achieve the lean goals of decreasing waste, increasing productivity and decreasing variability. Q1: How to best link these two systems together to achieve better project performance? Q2: can the LBMS control mechanisms be integrated with LPS? Q3: Can phase pull scheduling be integrated with LBMS? Purpose: The purpose of this research is to develop a process and best practices to combine the benefits of LPS and LBMS. Research Method: Skanska Finland has used LPS and LBMS together. Because the planning and controlling methods in different industries can vary, a series of workshops was conducted at a hospital project on the US West Coast, and three other US companies were interviewed, to discover the factors specific to industries where activity-based scheduling systems dominate. These three sources of information were combined to the latest case study results on the stand-alone use of LBMS and LPS. Findings: The paper proposes processes to integrate LPS and LBMS in pre-bid master scheduling, pull phase scheduling, look-ahead scheduling, and weekly planning. Limitations: The proposed processes need to be tested in practice. Implications: The hypotheses for future research are that after implementing the proposed process, H1: schedule conformance will improve, H2: project durations will shrink, H3: productivity will increase, and H4: cascading delay chains will show a decrease. Value for practitioners: General Contractors or Construction Managers can begin to use the proposed processes in order to decrease durations and increase productivity.
Monitoring construction site activities is a critical concern to most stakeholders (owners, contractors, architects, engineers, suppliers, etc.) in a construction project. Successful projects are often determined by the level of awareness of project status or work task performance. Thus, information has inherent value for real-time or near real-time decision making. Good resource procurement and resource allocation of workforce, material, and equipment comes in play when job site conditions can be efficiently and effectively assessed. Semi-or automated technologies in the data collection and assessment process can assist in making fast and confident decisions. This paper introduces an emerging technology called Ultra Wide Band (UWB) for real-time location sensing and resource tracking. The technology, its use as data collection tool, preliminary data processing algorithms, experiments, and results are presented in the context of active work zone safety and material location tracking. Many more application areas exist where UWB might impact the field and project management level to overall benefit the construction industry's competitiveness.
The construction industry is characterized as one with a poor safety culture globally. To achieve better site safety performance, emphasis has been placed on implementing effective safety programs. The main aim of this paper is to identify the Critical Success Factors that influencing safety program performance in Malaysian construction projects. In order to accomplish the aim of this study, the following objective was taken into consideration which is to study the factors contributing to the success of implementing safety program in construction projects. The study was carried out within Penang and Kedah States; it was basically focused on the respondents who involve in construction. Of 40 sets questionnaires were distributed, only 36 sets questionnaire returned and analyzed. After all the raw data obtained, the data were then inputted and analyzed with the software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 17). The results of this study showed that good communication shall be treated as the most important factor, followed by clear and realistic goals, safety committee/safety officer, sufficient resource allocation and continuous participation of employee. On the other hand, work load/pressure was perceived as the least important factors. Apparently, these five factors have been given appropriate consideration in the construction sites and should be implied if it is not emphasized in construction industry in Malaysia.
Workers' health behaviour includes habits or actions related to physical exercise, nutrition, smoking, and drug or alcohol consumption. Unhealthy behaviour, and especially alcohol consumption, has been considered a source of accidents and injuries among construction workers. However, unhealthy behaviour can also be seen as a result of the safety and risk conditions of these jobs. The purpose of this paper is to contrast the role of unhealthy behaviour as a source or as an outcome of safety and risk in the construction sector. Data was collected from 180 workers belonging to a Spanish construction company. Two path models representing these two hypotheses were tested. The model in which unhealthy behaviour is an antecedent of injuries did not fit the data (Chi square=73.798, df=3, p<0.001). Results support the hypothesis of unhealthy behaviour as a result of safety and risk factors through the mediating effect of the experience of tension (Chi-square=4.507, df=2, p=.212). This model not only corroborates the stressful nature of exposure to risk and the absence of supervisors' safety response, but it also makes it possible to consider injuries as a cause of tension that, in turn, affects the employees' unhealthy behaviour.
Building construction is considered a complex, dynamic and highly hazardous process which embraces many factors that are potentially dangerous to workers. Many studies proved that the improvement of preventive and proactive measures -dynamically included in the building design, planning and construction- could reduce site accidents as well as increase the site productivity. In this context, process management models and information visualization techniques such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) seem to be devoted to strongly contribute to the advancement of the current safety management practices. For these reasons, the presented contribution is based on the assumption that a more nuanced approach for construction worker’s safety training is warranted and the authors propose a safety training protocol based on BIM-enabled virtual reality activity simulations. The protocol addresses three methodological issues: (1) Planning in terms of training typologies and related Health and Safety contents to be implemented in the VR construction site scenarios; (2) Management regarding the solution to integrate BIM and game technologies to deliver VR training experiences; (3) Administration in terms of definition of standardized rules to define a safety training schedule in a given construction project. The research gives a contribution to reduce the currently existing knowledge gap regarding how BIM and VR can be simultaneously integrated in real projects for construction safety training by using standardized rules to be extensively reproduced in different construction projects.
While unavoidable, inspections, progress monitoring, and comparing as-planned with as-built conditions in construction projects do not readily add tangible intrinsic value to the end-users. In large-scale construction projects, the process of monitoring the implementation of every single part of buildings and reflecting them on the BIM models can become highly labour intensive and error-prone, due to the vast amount of data produced in the form of schedules, reports and photo logs. In order to address the mentioned methodological and technical gap, this paper presents a framework and a proof of concept prototype for on-demand automated simulation of construction projects, integrating some cutting edge IT solutions, namely image processing, machine learning, BIM and Virtual Reality. This study utilised the Unity game engine to integrate data from the original BIM models and the as-built images, which were processed via various computer vision techniques. These methods include object recognition and semantic segmentation for identifying different structural elements through supervised training in order to superimpose the real world images on the as-planned model. The proposed framework leads to an automated update of the 3D virtual environment with states of the construction site. This framework empowers project managers and stockholders with an advanced decision-making tool, highlighting the inconsistencies in an effective manner. This paper contributes to body knowledge by providing a technical exemplar for the integration of ML and image processing approaches with immersive and interactive BIM interfaces , the algorithms and program codes of which can help replicability of these approaches by other scholars.
The lack of adequate consideration of the underlying factors affecting the methods of building assembly often results in inefficiencies in the uses of building materials, equipment and manpower. These inefficiencies are further compounded by the nature of the construction industry, which traditionally involves complex processes that result in wastages during production. To address this problem, this study integrates the principles of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) and Lean Construction to develop a design assessment and optimization system to assist designers in the selection of alternative building design elements and materials in a building information model. This assessment and optimization system rely on metrics derived from production data associated with the ease of assembling, ease of handling, the speed of assembling and the wastage during assembly or construction of a building element or material. This paper presents the development of BIM-OfA assessment logic and its application for assessment and optimal selection of building envelop through the extension of Building Information Modelling (BIM). The system demonstrates its adequacy as an indicator of construction and material efficiency, its integration with BIM further enhances the practicality of using production data such weight of components, number of on-site workers and number of parts, for buildability assessment to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
Immersive Virtual Reality-based collaborative BIM 4D simulation can offer a unique, supportive environment for conducting constructability analysis meetings in the construction industry. While many research works have addressed various aspects of VR-based 4D simulation, there is still no comprehensive and neutral framework to help both practitioners and experts to identify the main challenges to address. This paper proposes four main complementary steps with which to define the VR environment, to develop the 4D model, to prepare and transfer the model in the VR system and to conduct constructability analysis meeting. In the current state of the framework, the 4D-based constructability analysis is more about the collaborative use of 4D rather than the collaborative generation and interaction with the 4D model. Each step of the framework is supported by appropriate methods and tools. A collaborative personas-based case study helps to evaluate the framework and to show how it can be used. Compared to recent related works, the proposed framework is more structured and comprehensive, providing a structured approach using concepts from multiple scientific areas.
Advances in robotics now permit humans to work collaboratively with robots. However, humans often feel unsafe working alongside robots. Our knowledge of how to help humans overcome this issue is limited by two challenges. One, it is difficult, expensive and time consuming to prototype robots and set up various work situations needed to conduct studies in this area. Two, we lack strong theoretical models to predict and explain perceived safety and its influence on human-robot work collaboration (HRWC). To address these issues, we introduce the Robot Acceptance Safety Model (RASM) and employ immersive virtual environments (IVEs) to examine perceived safety of working on tasks alongside a robot. Results from a between-subjects experiment done in an IVE show that separation of work areas between robots and humans increases perceived safety by promoting team identification and trust in the robot. In addition, the more participants felt it was safe to work with the robot, the more willing they were to work alongside the robot in the future.
Workplace layout affects worker wellbeing and is linked to productivity, physical fatigue and production costs. So far, workplace optimization is based on observational methods and software simulations which may not be insightful, while full size prototypes signify high costs and implementation time. This work proposes a method to analyse and enhance industrial workplaces using immersive virtual reality. The system allows the tracking of multiple users virtually performing assembly tasks inside a CAVE system and the visualization of KPIs (e.g. completion time, traveled distance, ergonomics) for supporting decision making by production engineers. A case study is used to demonstrate the approach.
This paper presents a novel construction project planning model that allows more-efficient and more-realistic planning than current methods. Unlike scheduling methods such as the critical path method (CPM), the proposed model represents spatial entities on the construction site, such as work areas and safety buffers. The model uses Boolean operators to allow the codification of the actual constraints that guide construction projects and to create a single integrated temporal-spatial model. Singularity functions are used for the mathematical definition of the constructs and their relationships, providing a flexible modeling framework. The model is implemented in a real-world case study with input data from building information modeling, demonstrating its feasibility and usefulness.
Construction is a high hazard industry which involves many factors that are potentially dangerous to workers. Safety has always been advocated by many construction companies, and they have been working hard to make sure their employees are protected from fatalities and injuries. With the advent of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR), there has been a witnessed trend of capitalizing on sophisticated immersive VR/AR applications to create forgiving environments for visualizing complex workplace situations, building up risk-preventive knowledge and undergoing training. To better understand the state-of-the-art of VR/AR applications in construction safety (VR/AR-CS) and from which to uncover the related issues and propose possible improvements, this paper starts with a review and synthesis of research evidence for several VR/AR prototypes, products and the related training and evaluation paradigms. Predicated upon a wide range of well-acknowledged scholarly journals, this paper comes up with a generic taxonomy consisting of VR/AR technology characteristics, application domains, safety scenarios and evaluation methods. According to this taxonomy, a number of technical features and types that could be implemented in the context of construction safety enhancement are derived and further elaborated, while significant application domains and trends regarding the VR/AR-CS research are generalized, i.e., hazards recognition and identification, safety training and education, safety instruction and inspection, and so on. Last but not least, this study sets forth a list of gaps derived from the in-depth review and comes up with the prospective research works. It is envisioned that the outcomes of this paper could assist both researchers and industrial practitioners with appreciating the research and practice frontier of VR/AR-CS and soliciting the latest VR/AR applications.
Current construction scheduling lacks an integrated planning approach that considers not just the time aspect of resources but also the physical workspace in which they interact. Therefore, this research creates a mathematical model to support allocating time and workspace with concurrent activities and under safety constraints. A time-space chart represents crew movements along work paths on a site with two dimensions; time is measured on the third axis. Total project duration is minimized by expressing work paths as singularity functions. These range-based expressions are extended to the third dimension to determine distances between activities and compact them. The approach ensures that temporal and spatial buffers between work paths are maintained. It links scheduling with site layout planning and safety management, which allows generating a work plan that is both efficient to achieve and safe to execute. Model feasibility is validated by applying it to a case study of a major real-world construction project.
Globalization places increasing requirements to quality and competitiveness of products in the automotive industry. This is forcing manufacturers to look for reserves to increase the safety and efficiency of production processes. In the past two decades many companies have used such advanced methods as simulation to identify the causes of inefficiency of technological processes, among them, analyzing of the process ergonomic parameters. Special software packages are based on applying the accurate three-dimensional models of the person for build virtual production. This approach is more economical than experimenting in real systems and significantly accelerates the analysis of ergonomic parameters because it can be done in parallel with technological preparation of a production but not after it has started. The paper demonstrates the capability of simulation models in optimizing and boosting the efficiency of a technological process, diminishing the work load on the staff in assembly area and risk of performance loops caused by jobrelated accidents and musculoskeletal disorders.
As a major organizational antecedent of worker safety behavior (WSB), management behavior is drawing more and more academic attention because it tends to be the root cause of occupational safety accidents. The current behavior-based safety (BBS) practices in construction do not sufficiently take management behavior into consideration, which leads to superficial and nonpersistent intervention impacts on unsafe behavior. In academia, the relationship between management behavior and employees' individual behavior in construction has not been clearly studied and precisely depicted. This paper is aimed at discovering those management behaviors which can significantly impact worker safety behavior in construction projects and depict the exact impacting paths. Supervisors were on the focus because they interact with workers most profoundly and frequently among all levels of the management. Two dimensions of supervisory behavior were identified, namely (1) training and preventive action, and (2) reactive and supportive action. Group-level safety climate was used as the mediator along the influencing paths. A 3-month strictly controlled questionnaire survey was undertaken in the Hong Kong construction industry to collect empirical data. Results obtained from confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling showed that both direct and indirect impacts of supervisory behavior on worker safety behavior exist. Reactive and supportive action has a direct impact on worker safety behavior, but no impact on safety climate. Training and preventive action can influence different aspects of safety climate of the construction sites (like supervisory environment and workers' involvement), and thus improve safety conditions in a more profound (and comprehensive) manner than reactive and supportive action. This paper establishes the detailed empirical links among operational management behavior, group-level safety climate, and worker safety behavior in the construction settings, which can give significant insights into the development of safety management theories and practices. This can further help practitioners design enhanced BBS intervention approaches which can have a more sustainable and persistent impact on worker safety behavior. Specific recommendations and suggestions are provided for future BBS practices in construction.
Workspace planning is critical for effective construction planning and control, and workspace modeling is an essential part of computer-aided workspace planning. The existing construction four-dimensional (4D) models, which have gained popularity in construction as an effective tool for planning, control, and communication, lack efficient means to capture the dynamic nature of workspaces to avoid potential workspace conflicts in future construction. This paper presents a life-cycle approach to workspace modeling and planning by first investigating the dynamic nature of the workspace requirements of construction activities and then introducing a conceptual framework to format space usages into life-cycle workspace evolution patterns. Specifically, an object-oriented data structure was designed and implemented to incorporate workspace representation into construction product models, and a workspace identification and adjustment method was created to facilitate the creation of construction workspaces. This newly created approach was tested in an implementation case study of a campus garage project with a number of application scenarios and was proven to be effective and convenient for modeling the dynamic workspace evolution associated with typical construction activities. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
When constructing and updating the built environment, ensuring the safety of all parties involved is of utmost importance. Traditionally, safety has been measured and managed reactively, where actions are taken in response to adverse trends in injuries. Alternatively, safety-related practices can be measured during the construction phase to trigger positive responses before an injury occurs. Despite the potential benefits of such strategies, few have been identified in the literature and there has yet to be an organized effort to codify and investigate these methods. A mixed-methods research approach was used to (1)clearly identify and define elements of the safety management process that can be measured and monitored during the construction phase, (2)describe resource requirements for measurement, monitoring, and response, and (3)describe specific management actions required when any indicator fails to satisfy a desired value. To produce internally and externally valid and reliable results, data were triangulated from case studies, content analysis of award-winning projects, and focused discussions among construction safety experts. In total, over 50 proactive metrics were identified, 13 of which were selected as top priority by expert professionals. Use of these indicators has been connected to exceptional safety performance in industry-leading organizations. The implication of the findings is that very strong safety outcomes can be expected if contractors build upon a robust safety management foundation with the use of these methods of project safety control.
This paper presents a systematic Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based approach for Prospective Safety Performance Evaluation (PSPE) on construction sites, with causal relationships and interactions between enablers and the goals of PSPE taken into account. According to a sample of 450 valid questionnaire surveys from 30 Chinese construction enterprises, a SEM model with 26 items included for PSPE in the context of Chinese construction industry is established and then verified through the goodness-of-fit test. Three typical types of construction enterprises, namely the state-owned enterprise, private enterprise and Sino-foreign joint venture, are selected as samples to measure the level of safety performance given the enterprise scale, ownership and business strategy are different. Results provide a full understanding of safety performance practice in the construction industry, and indicate that the level of overall safety performance situation on working sites is rated at least a level of III (Fair) or above. This phenomenon can be explained that the construction industry has gradually matured with the norms, and construction enterprises should improve the level of safety performance as not to be eliminated from the government-led construction industry. The differences existing in the safety performance practice regarding different construction enterprise categories are compared and analyzed according to evaluation results. This research provides insights into cause-effect relationships among safety performance factors and goals, which, in turn, can facilitate the improvement of high safety performance in the construction industry.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Construction safety is a national and worldwide issue. This paper contributes in solving this problem by applying automated safety rule checking to Building Information Models (BIM). Algorithms that automatically analyze a building model to detect safety hazards and suggest preventive measures to users are developed for different cases involving fall related hazards. As BIM is changing the way construction can be approached, the presented work and case studies extend BIM to include automated hazard identification and correction during construction planning and in certain cases, during design. A rule-based engine that utilizes this framework is implemented on top of a commercially available BIM platform to show the feasibility of the approach. As a result, the developed automated safety checking platform informs construction engineers and managers by reporting, why, where, when, and what safety measures are needed for preventing fall-related accidents before construction starts. The safety area reviewed is fall protection. An example case study of such a system is also provided.
The construction industry is plagued by occupational risky situations and poor working conditions. Occupational risk assessment (ORA) on workplace sites is the first and key step to achieve adequate safety levels, particularly to support decision-making in safety programs. Most construction safety efforts are applied informally under the premise that simply allocating more resources to safety management will improve safety on site. Moreover, there are many traditional methods to address ORA, but few have been adapted and validated for use in the construction industry, particularly in the design stage, for which traditional approaches do not give adequate answers. This paper presents a state-of-the-art on ORA traditional methods, for the construction industry, discussing their limitations and pointing advantages of using fuzzy sets approaches to deal with ill-defined situations.
Construction safety and health management has improved significantly following the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. In response to this legislation, contractors began implementing safety programs to reduce occupational safety and health hazards on construction sites. Researchers recently found that the current process of selecting specific elements for a safety program is informal. This paper describes the results of a recent study designed to determine the relative effectiveness of safety program elements by quantifying their individual ability to mitigate construction safety and health risks. In order to determine the effectiveness of individual safety program elements, the following research activities were performed: (1) an appropriate safety risk classification system was created using an aggregation of relevant literature; (2) highly effective safety program elements were identified in literature; and (3) the ability of each safety program element to mitigate a portion of each of the safety risk classes was quantified using the Delphi method. The results of the research indicate that the most effective safety program elements are upper management support and commitment and strategic subcontractor selection and management and the least effective elements are recordkeeping and accident analyses and emergency response planning. It is expected that the data presented in this paper can be used to strategically select elements for a safety program, target specific safety and health risks, and influence resource allocation when funds are limited.
With extensive case studies for illustration, this is a practitioner's guide to an entirely new production system for construction management using Flowline scheduling. Covering the entire process of presenting a comprehensive management system – from design, through measurement, scheduling, and visualization and control – its emphasis is on reducing cost and increasing quality. Drawing its components together into a management system, the authors not only include theory and explanations of how and why it works, but also examine and present a suite of methods for successful project implementation.
Perfect as a how-to guide for researchers and advanced construction students to discover the simple application of the new techniques, and invaluable for acquiring the practical tools for planning and controlling projects.
Numerous workers, equipment, material, temporary facilities, as well as permanent structures share the limited space during construction. Since space constraints may affect productivity and the critical path, it is essential to organize the available space efficiently and minimize space conflicts. This study considers space availability due to time and scheduling, productivity loss due to space constraints and path interference, as well as the possibility of alternative space to resolve these conflicts and optimize space usage. Herein, computer-aided design is integrated with scheduling software for the dynamic identification of space conflicts on the jobsite. Follow-up supple-mental decision criteria are then provided for conflict analysis and resolution. A prototype decision support system that combines the criteria was developed to solve this significant and complex problem more efficiently and precisely. A case study demonstrates the use and development of this system, which is very helpful to engineers and project managers.
Many accidents occur world-wide in the use of construction plant and equipment, and safety training is considered by many to be one of the best approaches to their prevention. However, current safety training methods/tools are unable to provide trainees with the hands-on practice needed. Game technology-based safety training platforms have the potential to overcome this problem in a virtual environment. One such platform is described in this paper - its characteristics are analysed and its possible contribution to safety training identified. This is developed and tested by means of a case study involving three major pieces of construction plant, which successfully demonstrates that the platform can improve the process and performance of the safety training involved in their operation. This research not only presents a new and useful solution to the safety training of construction operations, but illustrates the potential use of advanced technologies in solving construction industry problems in general.
DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2004)130:4(598) Four-dimensional (4D) models link three-dimensional geometrical models with construction schedule data. The visual link between the schedule and construction site conditions is capable of facilitating decision making during both planning and construction stages. The emphases of these 4D developments have often been placed at the level of construction components. Practical features assisting site management are at times lacking in the following areas: generation of site usage layouts; estimation of quantities of construction materials; and, cost evaluation. In order to pinpoint the above deficiencies, the objective of this work is to enable visual study of the effects of job progress on the logistics and resource schedules. This paper presents a 4D visualization model which is intended both to help construction managers plan day to day activities more efficiently in a broader and more practical site management context, and to thereby add to our knowledge and understanding of the relevance of modern computer graphics to the responsibilities of the construction site manager. A brief site trial of the software is described at the conclusion of the paper. Author name used in this publication: K. W. Chau
Hazard recognition and risk perception in construction
- A Perlman
- R Sacks
- R Barak
A. Perlman, R. Sacks, R. Barak, Hazard recognition and risk perception in construction, Saf. Sci. 64 (2014) 22-31, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.11.01.