Literature Review of Digital Twins Applications in Construction Workforce Safety

Abstract

For many decades, safety has been a challenge in the construction sector. Despite extensive efforts to improve overall safety, the sector’s casualty rate still remains high. In practice, dynamic and complex construction processes may lead to on-site risks and safety plans being overlooked, likely leading to a variety of safety accidents. Nowadays, under the guidance of the digital twins (DT) concept, the advent of state-of-the-art sensing and visualisation technologies has offered the possibility to improve construction health and safety in the workplace. To understand the research advances of these technologies, identify their gaps and challenges, and propose solutions to further advance the industry’s safety, we conducted and report a thorough review on the state-of-the-art technological studies, and elaborate upon the key findings in detail. For instance, despite DT being proven to be effective in improving construction workforce safety, the construction industry has yet to fully exploit and streamline these innovations in practice. Overall, this review provides insights into technological clustering, improvement strategies, as well as workforce safety, which can benefit from formulating effective digital technology paradigms.

Digitization, Digital Twins, Blockchain, and Industry 4.0 as Elements of Management Process in Enterprises in the Energy Sector

“…To get closer to the digital twin, nuclear power plant operators need to be able to connect data from suppliers, customers, simulators, and on-site information [74]. Digital twins (DT) is the concept of creating a digital replica (digital twin) of a physical object (physical twin) and synchronizing data between a physical twin and a digital twin to monitor, simulate, and optimize a physical object [75]. A digital twin is realized thanks to the possibility of realtime data processing and constant updating of the state of facilities and processes.…”

Deep Learning-Based Applications for Safety Management in the AEC Industry: A Review

“…Future research can integrate DL with other novel technologies, such as AR and virtual reality (VR) [135,136], building information modeling (BIM) [137][138][139][140], 5G technology and the Internet of things (IoT) [64], into real-time SHM and JSM to extract information from the massive amounts of data continuously received from wireless sensor networks. Such research can further expand the scope of SHM and JSM through various advanced sensors to provide decision-making assistance accurately.…”

Generative Design in Building Information Modelling (BIM): Approaches and Requirements

“…Secondly, downstream technologies such as 3D printing or robotic arms in construction [ 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 ] can be integrated to automatically construct the GD solutions generated beforehand. Moreover, GD-BIM demonstrates promising potential in smart engineering composites [ 122 , 123 , 124 ] as well as artificial intelligence aided optimization [ 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 ]. Thus, an entire automated process from site analysis, design exploration, construction information generation, to design construction would be established, which could considerably save manpower and improve the buildability of designs.…”