Leading Safety Indicators and Automated Tools in the Construction Industry

Abstract

Hong Kong is one of the cities with the largest number of skyscrapers. In this paper, we study the factors that lead to construction accidents on sites by interviewing the relevant parties. In the second part of the research, we extract the causes of accidents from court case report. Last but not least, we include a single case study from one of the largest construction companies in Hong Kong where robotics, drones, three-dimensional printing, virtual reality, wearable robotics and so on are applied on construction sites. It aims to study whether innovative tools can provide solutions to improve safety performance on sites.

A bibliometric review of the status and emerging research trends in construction safety management technologies

“…Augmented reality enhances reality by using technology to do so (Patrucco et al 2010). Health and safety managers use both technologies to review safety tie-off points and create a genuine health and safety work experience through virtual drills, instructions, and health and safety scenarios viable for construction health and safety training (Li and Leung 2017;Zhang et al 2017).…”

Applications of digital technologies for health and safety management in construction

“…Teizer et al (2007) revealed that through the application of emerging technologies in health and safety, construction workers could be provided with layers of protection. Previous research efforts have explored the interaction and collision between heavy equipment and workers on construction sites (Li and Leung, 2017). The awareness of workers and visibility of equipment operators decreases because of the repetitive nature of construction activities (Teizer et al, 2007).…”

“…Numerous studies have identified automation and robotics as effective technologies with good prospects to enhance proactive workers' safety on construction sites (Zhou et al, 2011). Automated platforms have been developed for the construction of high-rise structures (Li and Leung, 2017). This building system requires less labour and aims to reduce and eliminate injuries caused by over-exertion (Teizer, 2015).…”

“…Adopting robotic systems is a current trend for accelerating and automating construction tasks (Chu et al, 2013;Bock et al, 2012). Controlled by computers on-site and dependent on advanced detection and control, robots are employed in the autonomous installation and gathering of heavy construction materials, which usually require enormous labor, and to construct structures such as skyscraper towers (Niu et al, 2017;Jung et al, 2013;Li and Leung, 2017). One of the pioneer automation systems was a masonry robot that used seam adhesive to glue bricks and could lay brick walls up to 8m long.…”

“…This allows for effective means to visualize and communicate the impact of major construction activities in existing facilities that could be overlooked when viewing through traditional techniques (Zhang et al, 2017). Virtual Reality also creates a genuine health and safety work experience viable for construction health and safety training (Li and Leung, 2017). These benefits health and safety training as exercises on health and safety can be carried out in the absence of a qualified safety administer by merely simulating the training environment on a personal computer (ibid).…”