Innovative Production and Construction

Transforming Construction through Emerging Technologies

Peng Wu, Xiangyu Wang

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789813272507
• Topic: Architektur
• Subtopic: Nachhaltigkeit in der Architektur

Throughout the 38 chapters, this must-have volume outlines essential information about the implementation of emerging technologies, from building information modeling and 3D printing, to life cycle assessment and information technology in construction and engineering projects.

It covers practical case studies to demonstrate the implementation of emerging technologies in a compact style, ensuring that practitioners can adopt these methods to realize immediate benefits in productivity, safety and performance improvement.

Contents:

• Implication of a Construction Labour Tracking System for Measuring Labour Productivity (Sara Shirowzhan, Samad M E Sepasgozar, Fahim Ullah and Pavneet Singh Minhas)
• Towards Conceptualization of SocioBIM-based Post-occupancy Evaluation Framework for Learning Spaces (Olatunji Abisuga, Changxin Wang and Imriyas Kamardeen)
• Critical Barriers to BIM Adoption in the Chinese Architectural, Engineering and Construction Industry (Xianbo Zhao and Josua Pienaar)
• Automatic Detection of Positions and Shapes of Various Objects at Construction Sites from Digital Images Using Deep Learning (Naoto Nishimura, Nobuyoshi Yabuki and Tomohiro Fukuda)
• Daylight Assessment and Energy Consumption Analysis at an Early Stage of Designing Residential Buildings Integrating BIM and LCA (Mohammad Najjar, Assed Haddad and Karoline Figueiredo)
• Ex post Impact Evaluation of PPP Projects — The Project Success Evaluation Pyramid Model (Jose O Romero and Ajibade A Aibinu)
• Psychological Contracts in Construction: Two Case Studies (Yongjian Ke)
• An Exploratory Model on Greenhouse-Gas Emissions and Costing Assessment in Building Operation Stage (Vivian W Y Tam, Khoa N Le, Cuong N N Tran and I M Chethana S Illankoon)
• Applicability of Casa Azul Certification as Sustainability Tool Available in Brazil — Case Study: Condo Neo Niterói (Camila Dinamarco, Assed Haddad, Vivian W Y Tam and Ana Evangelista)
• Review on Green Building Rating Tools Used in Australia (I M Chethana S Illankoon, Vivian W Y Tam, Khoa N Le and Cuong N N Tran)
• Freeform Printing: A Sustainable, Efficient Building Alternative (Kevin Sweet, Armano Papageorge and Tim Miller)
• A Reconceived Digital Workflow: A Case Study (Kevin Sweet and Tonya Sweet)
• Drivers and Barriers to the Adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) By Construction Firms in South Africa (Amanda Mtya and Abimbola Windapo)
• The Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Understanding Building Material Price Dispersion in South Africa (Abimbola Windapo and Alireza Moghayedi)
• Assessment of Open BIM Standards for Facilities Management (S A Azzran, K F Ibrahim, Joseph H M Tah and F Henry Abanda)
• An Investigation of the Benefits and Challenges of Adopting Alternative Building Materials (ABM) in the Construction Industry (Oluwaseun Dosumu and Clinton Aigbavboa)
• Exploitation of BIM in Planning and Controlling the Construction Phase On-site Carbon Emissions: A 6D BIM Case Study (Ramy Al Sehrawy, Bimal Kumar and Omar Amoudi)
• Energy Efficiency in Australia: Occupant Behaviour (Vivian W Y Tam, Laura M M C E Almeida and Khoa N Le)
• An Economical Approach to Geo-Referencing 3D Model for Integration of BIM and GIS (Junxiang Zhu, Jun Wang, Xiangyu Wang and Yi Tan)
• Biomimicry Approaches for Innovative Sustainable Solutions in the Construction Industry (Olusegun A Oguntona and Clinton O Aigbavboa)
• Antecedents of BIM Training Effectiveness Amongst AEC Firms in New Zealand (James Rotimi, Chris Aransanmi, Funmilayo Rotimi, Chamila Ramanayaka and Abimbola Komolafe)
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reporting Practices in the Australian Construction Industry (Bo Xia, Nur Zainal, Robin Drogemuller, Linlin Xie, Yong Liu and Xiaoyan Jiang)
• Application of DMAIC Approach to Improve the Centralized Procurement Process in Construction Logistics Enterprises (Zhongya Mei, Maozeng Xu and Yi Tan)
• Deepwater Oil and Gas Project Performance: A Study of Cultural Intelligence (Quek Tiang Beng, Abdul-Rahman Hamzah and Shavarebi Kamran)
• BIM- and IoT-Based Data-Driven Decision Support System for Predictive Maintenance of Building Facilities (Weiwei Chen, Jack C P Cheng and Yi Tan)
• Feature-Based Comparison of International Green Neighbourhood Assessment Systems (H Karimipour, Vivian W Y Tam and Khoa N Le)
• A Study of Information Technology Adoption for Real-Estate Management: A System Dynamic Model (Fahim Ullah and Samad M E Sepasgozar)
• Critical Review of Design for Maintainability Research in Buildings (Pramesh Krishnankutty, Bon-Gang Hwang, Ming Shan and Lei Zhu)
• Are Underground Residential Buildings Feasible? A Preliminary Investigation for Innovations (Bon-Gang Hwang, Pramesh Krishnankutty, Ming Shan and Kristie Sze Ni Wong)
• Economic-Efficiency Analysis of Rawalpindi Bypass Project: A Case Study (Yasir Mehmood, Hafiz Zahoor and Fahim Ullah)
• BIM-based Operation and Maintenance Management System for Smart Industrial Parks — A Case Study in China (Xiaoyan Jiang, Kang Hu, Xinhua Zheng, Bo Xia, Martin Skitmore and Yong Liu)
• Study on Subcontract Decision-making of International Construction Enterprises Considering Spillover Effect (Jianbo Zhu, Qianqian Shi, Zhaohan Sheng and Peng Wu)
• Research on Technologically Managed Integrated Systems of Steel Box Girder Manufacturing in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge of China (Yumin Qiu and Zhaohan Sheng)
• A Critical Review of System Dynamics Modelling in Construction Management Research (Mingqiang Liu, Yun Le, Yi Hu and Bo Xia)
• Human Error Identification and Analysis for Shield Tunnel Construction (Jue Li and Hongwei Wang)
• Research on Multi-Level Principal–Agent Relationships and Government Behavior Analysis of Decision-making in Megaprojects (Huimin Liu and Lanjun Wang)
• Review of Building Maintenance Practices and Sustainability at the Government Level (Peng Wu, Xin Hu and Xiangyu Wang)
• A Process Model of Information Sharing and Knowledge Integration for Project Performance (Qian Li, Jiayuan Ya and Heap-Yih Chong)
• Index

Readership: Professionals working in civil engineering or undergraduate engineering students. Building Information Modelling;Construction Management;Project Management;Information Technology00

Chapter 1

Implication of a Construction Labour
Tracking System for Measuring
Labour Productivity

Sara Shirowzhan, Samad M. E. Sepasgozar*,
Fahim Ullah and Pavneet Singh Minhas

Faculty of Built Environment, The University of New South Wales,
Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
*[email protected]

Abstract

Tracking systems are known as valuable approaches for monitoring vehicles and heavy equipment in infrastructure construction and mining sites. Tracking job-site equipment and monitoring the workforce during construction are critical for improving productivity. The current locating practices are based on real-time positioning sensors by alerting staff when entering specific areas within construction sites. However, this approach has not been fully used for measuring labour productivity, and there is much room for improvement. In addition, not much attention has been given to individuals’ two-way communication (e.g. among workers, site engineers and supervisors) in conjunction with tracking them in an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) environment for productivity purposes and the daily performance evaluation. The aim of this chapter is to implement an online tracking system for indoor positioning using radio communication systems, called the Construction Labour Tracking System (CLTS), and integrate it with GIS. The CLTS is used for monitoring labour in the working area and processing the data for identifying heat maps of the crowded areas of a construction site at various time intervals. The CLTS process includes determination of the functionalities of the system components and the interrelationships between them and GIS. A series of field experimentations were carried out at a selected building. The results of this ongoing study show that CLTS has the capability to monitor the approximate position of workers in detail. The developed CLTS tool is highly valuable to construction project managers because it increases the quality of the collected data and enables them to measure labour productivity on construction sites.

Keywords: Construction Labour Tracking System; Geographic Information Systems; Online Tracking Systems.

1.Introduction

The construction industry lagged behind other industries in technology implementation (CII, 2008; Sepasgozar et al., 2016). However, recently the construction industry has experienced many internal and external forces for improving productivity, safety and increasing sustainability. The recent publications show that there is a growing interest to utilize new technologies for different purposes in the construction industry (Sepasgozar et al., 2016). Hooper and Haris (2010) describe a wide range of technologies which pioneers in the construction industry have already started to use. These technologies include building information modelling (Sepasgozar et al., 2015), virtual and augmented reality, mobile and wearable technologies, real-time locating systems (LSs) including Radio-frequency Identification (RFID)- and Global Positioning System (GPS)-guided plant and machinery, LiDAR technologies (Shirowzhan and Trinder, 2017) and sensors embedded into buildings and infrastructure and robotics. In particular, locating and tracking systems have been utilized in construction and mining sites for monitoring and controlling purposes. These technologies are generally known as highly effective tools for tracking and monitoring the location of individuals and vehicles in different businesses, such as healthcare, hospitality, mining and construction. For example, the Veterans Affairs Department of the US Government intends to spend $550 million for implementing advanced LSs to improve efficiency and monitor their employees in hospitals. LSs emerge as one of the latest key technological advancements in modern times. It is an effective way to identify and track the location of an object in both indoor and outdoor environments (Li et al., 2016). To date, various LSs and its adaptive models have been developed, tested and made commercially available for general and public use. The LSs responsible for reshaping the digital world have not been explored much in the field of construction (Vähä et al., 2013). The exploration, till date, is investigative or tentative in nature and detailed real-time and real-life case project-based investigations are missing.

LSs can be used for tracking and reporting the current position of an individual, equipment or pieces of materials to facilitate the data tracking and aid the subsequent management (Ding et al., 2013). It is considered as a groundbreaking innovation in the construction industry that has changed and modified its traditional hardcore practices over the last decade or two (Guo et al., 2017). LS can be defined as an amalgamation of hardware and software systems that automatically and in real time determines the coordinates of an object within a target area (Li et al., 2016). The LS-collected data can be used for both real-time purposes as well as for further analysis after a dataset is collected. Generally, an LS consists of receiver sensors and remote tags that communicate with the sensors for signal reception. The location of an object is determined by the received signal strength and its arrival time (Jiang et al., 2015). Some modern types of LS are based on visual positioning and do not require the tags. It can be used in both indoor and outdoor environments. The indoor applications are more suited towards construction and hence targeted in this chapter.

LS has multiple applications in construction. It is often constrained by the expense of the equipment and associated expertise requirements, otherwise the applications can be far more than the currently existing ones. Previously, it has been used for tracking the location of materials. According to Grau et al. (2009), LS-based materials tracking can improve traditional tracking time from 36.8 to 4.56 min. This resulted in a saving of $121,507 over the project life. Jang and Skibniewski (2009) argue that materials tracking based on LS save up to 64% of labour costs in a two-year construction project.

Despite LS receiving good attention recently, its practical applications and deployments are limited mainly due to the sophisticated and costly equipment and lack of operational understanding. The implementation side is targeted in this chapter, and a model is presented to show the potential implications and usage of CLTS tool.

2.Review of the Implementation of Tracking Systems

LS usage is on an increase globally and it is being adopted and utilized in various industrial sectors. The construction sector, although one of the leading global GDP contributors, is at the lowest when it comes to utilization of LS technologies. The use of construction LS is mainly exploratory and experimental in nature, and its practical applications are limited so far.

2.1.Definitions and technology types

LS is used in various shapes and technologies in construction. Modern-age LS comes in several types starting from the traditional GPS systems to the more advanced and latest 360 cameras and laser scanners. Different types of LS are mentioned and described along with their applications in construction in Table 1. The table lists LS under three key headings: starting from the more traditional geospatial technologies to modern imaging and the latest interactive technologies.

2.1.1.Geospatial technologies

Geospatial technologies are an amalgam of traditional and modern LS technologies. It offers a completely different way of mapping to manage our communities, towns, suburbs and industries. In the last decade and a half, these technologies have evolved into a network of national research, scientific study, security, cyber control and commercially operated satellites that are usually complemented by powerful desktop GIS tools (Jiang et al., 2015). Additionally, a recent innovation, aerial remote sensing platforms, including drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles are used for commercial use. These are of higher use offering more competitive advantages in remote areas or coverage of larger sites, especially road networks. With the increased use, high-quality reliable hardware and data are now available to new audiences including corporations, universities, construction solution providers and other non-governmental organizations (Omar and Nehdi, 2016). These technologies are invading multiple fields and sectors at a rapid pace and are initiating quality debates over topics, such as water body estimation and monitoring, industrial engineering, flood water monitoring, agricultural monitoring, biodiversity conservation, urbanization check and deforestation, forest fire suppression, green plots monitoring, humanitarian relief and others. There are now a variety of types of geospatial technologies potentially applicable in construction, including the GIS, RFID, UWB, GPS and other sub-types. In construction, these have been successfully used and tested in inventory and machinery tracking, project progress and labour tracking, earth moving operations, and project schedule control and monitoring (Grau et al., 2009; Jiang et al., 2015; Guo et al., 2017).

Table 1. Real-time locating technologies and their usage in construction.

2.1.2.Imaging

Imaging technology is mainly the application of methods and materials to create, duplicate or preserve images. The images, whether mobile or stationary, are used to generate 3D models and replicate the otherwise unreachable or occupied sites. It is not only restricted to plain images, but modern imaging incorporates both mobile devices and videos as well. Ranging from the traditional 2D plain images to the latest laser-scanning and drone-mounted cameras capable of detecting heat and thermal radiations, modern imaging has transformed construction operations (Omar and Nehdi, 2016). The advanced 3D cameras are even capable of recording moving objects that are later converted into point clouds ready to act and serve as BIM models. It has many types, but the most common ones that are focused in this chapter are photogrammetry, laser scanning, videogrammetry, automated drones and range images (Ding et al., 2013; Li et al., 2016).

2.1.3.Interactive technologies

Interactive technologies are one of the latest innovations making its way into construction. It facilitates digital interaction between people, allowing for user content creation and manipulation based upon their instincts. Software systems designed for interactive technologies support users task performance in a collaborative manner that is more pleasing, involving and playful in nature (Guo et al., 2017). It allows for a two-way flow of information through an interface between the user and the technology; the user usually communicates a request for data or action to the technology with the technology returning the requested data or result of the action back to the user (Grau et al., 2009). The aim of these technologies is to replicate the near-real or virtual environment of the construction site to detect and observe the potential problems in advance and plan for its nonoccurrence on site. These technologies exist in various types, such as VR, AR and 360 cameras (Grau et al., 2009, 2017; Sepasgozar et al., 2015).

3.Applications in Construction

This section discusses the application of LSs in construction and develops a framework for implication based on the previous literature. Ding et al. (2013) presented a real-time safety early warning system to prevent accidents and improve safety management in underground construction using the “internet of things” (IoT) and RFID-based labour tracking system for the metro tunnel project in China. The results indicated a significant improvement in underground construction safety management efficiency in the form of real-...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• About the Editors
• Contents
• Chapter 1: Implication of a Construction Labour Tracking System for Measuring Labour Productivity
• Chapter 2: Towards Conceptualization of SocioBIM-based Post-occupancy Evaluation Framework for Learning Spaces
• Chapter 3: Critical Barriers to BIM Adoption in the Chinese Architectural, Engineering and Construction Industry
• Chapter 4: Automatic Detection of Positions and Shapes of Various Objects at Construction Sites from Digital Images Using Deep Learning
• Chapter 5: Daylight Assessment and Energy Consumption Analysis at an Early Stage of Designing Residential Buildings Integrating BIM and LCA
• Chapter 6: Ex post Impact Evaluation of PPP Projects — The Project Success Evaluation Pyramid Model
• Chapter 7: Psychological Contracts in Construction: Two Case Studies
• Chapter 8: An Exploratory Model on Greenhouse-Gas Emissions and Costing Assessment in Building Operation Stage
• Chapter 9: Applicability of Casa Azul Certification as Sustainability Tool Available in Brazil — Case Study: Condo Neo Niterói
• Chapter 10: Review on Green Building Rating Tools Used in Australia
• Chapter 11: Freeform Printing: A Sustainable, Efficient Building Alternative
• Chapter 12: A Reconceived Digital Workflow: A Case Study
• Chapter 13: Drivers and Barriers to the Adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) By Construction Firms in South Africa
• Chapter 14: The Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Understanding Building Material Price Dispersion in South Africa
• Chapter 15: Assessment of Open BIM Standards for Facilities Management
• Chapter 16: An Investigation of the Benefits and Challenges of Adopting Alternative Building Materials (ABM) in the Construction Industry
• Chapter 17: Exploitation of BIM in Planning and Controlling the Construction Phase On-site Carbon Emissions: A 6D BIM Case Study
• Chapter 18: Energy Efficiency in Australia: Occupant Behaviour
• Chapter 19: An Economical Approach to Geo-Referencing 3D Model for Integration of BIM and GIS
• Chapter 20: Biomimicry Approaches for Innovative Sustainable Solutions in the Construction Industry
• Chapter 21: Antecedents of BIM Training Effectiveness Amongst AEC Firms in New Zealand
• Chapter 22: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reporting Practices in the Australian Construction Industry
• Chapter 23: Application of DMAIC Approach to Improve the Centralized Procurement Process in Construction Logistics Enterprises
• Chapter 24: Deepwater Oil and Gas Project Performance: A Study of Cultural Intelligence
• Chapter 25: BIM- and IoT-Based Data-Driven Decision Support System for Predictive Maintenance of Building Facilities
• Chapter 26: Feature-Based Comparison of International Green Neighbourhood Assessment Systems
• Chapter 27: A Study of Information Technology Adoption for Real-Estate Management: A System Dynamic Model
• Chapter 28: Critical Review of Design for Maintainability Research in Buildings
• Chapter 29: Are Underground Residential Buildings Feasible? A Preliminary Investigation for Innovations
• Chapter 30: Economic-Efficiency Analysis of Rawalpindi Bypass Project: A Case Study
• Chapter 31: BIM-based Operation and Maintenance Management System for Smart Industrial Parks — A Case Study in China
• Chapter 32: Study on Subcontract Decision-making of International Construction Enterprises Considering Spillover Effect
• Chapter 33: Research on Technologically Managed Integrated Systems of Steel Box Girder Manufacturing in the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge of China
• Chapter 34: A Critical Review of System Dynamics Modelling in Construction Management Research
• Chapter 35: Human Error Identification and Analysis for Shield Tunnel Construction
• Chapter 36: Research on Multi-Level Principal–Agent Relationships and Government Behaviour Analysis of Decision-making in Megaprojects
• Chapter 37: Review of Building Maintenance Practices and Sustainability at the Government Level
• Chapter 38: A Process Model of Information Sharing and Knowledge Integration for Project Performance
• Index