Management of safe distancing on construction sites during COVID-19: A smart real-time monitoring system

Abstract

The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a great threat to the world. One mandatory and efficient measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on construction sites is to ensure safe distancing during workers’ daily activities. However, manual monitoring of safe distancing during construction activities can be toilsome and inconsistent. This study proposes a computer vision-based smart monitoring system to automatically detect worker breaching safe distancing rules. Our proposed system consists of three main modules: (1) worker detection module using CenterNet; (2) proximity determination module using Homography; and (3) warning alert and data collection module. To evaluate the system, it was implemented in a construction site as a case study. This study has two key contributions: (1) it is demonstrated that monitoring of safe distancing can be automated using our approach; and (2) CenterNet, an anchorless detection model, outperforms current state-of-the-art approaches in the real-time detection of workers.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on construction safety in China and the U.S.: A comparative study

“…Furthermore, previous studies proposed many specific technical strategies. For example, Goh et al (2022) developed an intelligent monitoring system based on computer vision, which can be used to detect workers who violate the safety distance rules automatically. Araya (2021) proposed an agent-based modeling method to evaluate the impact of using two shifts to reduce COVID-19 transmission among construction workers.…”

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Perception on Job Stress of Construction Workers

“…For instance, Raoufi and Fayek (2022) suggested best practices for construction organizations to control and mitigate pandemic challenges [ 11 ]. Goh et al (2022) proposed a smart real-time monitoring system to ensure safe distancing during workers’ daily activities [ 12 ]. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the economic, financial, and operational consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, while few have investigated the occupational health and safety of construction workers during the pandemic [ 13 ].…”