Much Work Remains
The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the safety improvement potential when using real-time location tracking of workers, equipment, and material on a busy and congested work site. The sensors worked as designed, and the proximity warning, alerts, tracking and monitoring, and remote real-time data visualization tests were very successful. Workers surveyed after each trial said they generally found the PPU nonintrusive. Based on post-trial reports, the equipment enhanced work site safety, recorded previously unreported incidents, and prevented possibly two fatalities (Figure 7).
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| 7. The field team. A Georgia Tech professor, students, and volunteers performed the field surveys. Source: CII |
Further improvements in the operation of the PPU/EPU are possible, particularly with regard to signal propagation in the construction site environment, such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, mounting position and orientation of the devices on workers and equipment, obstacles (metal or wooden) in the construction field, and multipath effects during signal transmission. Further work is required to reduce the size and weight of the PPU and optimize the placement of sensors on workers. The location signals could also be used for accident reconstruction, monitoring confined spaces, keeping workers out of danger areas, and tracking work processes to improve construction efficiency.
What follows these very successful field trials? We hope the encouraging results will motivate a company willing to invest in further development of the real-time tracking and visualization technology and bring an integrated product to market. It is not overly dramatic to say that lives will be saved when this technology becomes standard practice on every work site.
— Larry Green is senior safety, health, and environmental consultant for DuPont Global Operations and Engineering. Gary Tominack is corporate director, safety engineering & field services for Day & Zimmerman. Dr. Jimmie Hinze, Holland Professor in the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction and Director of the Center for Construction Safety and Loss Control at the University of Florida, and Dr. Jochen Teizer, assistant professor and director of the RAPIDS Construction Safety and Technology Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, were the principal investigators for this project. Members of the Real-time Pro-active Safety in Construction Research Team include: Chanel T. Carter, Bechtel Group Inc.; Dennis Cobb, ConocoPhillips; Clay Gardenhire, The Shaw Group Inc.; Tony C. Palma, Ontario Power Generation; Calvin Price, SNC-Lavalin Inc.; Manny Vahanian, U.S. General Services Administration; and Jason Valliere, SNC-Lavalin Inc. Other organizations and companies that provided assistance on the project were ProTran1, Leica Geosystems, the National Science Foundation, The Shaw Group Inc., XYZ Solutions, VWM Construction Co., Southern Company, and Evans Construction Co.
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