Sensing and warning-based technology applications to improve occupational health and safety in the construction industry

Abstract

Purpose Sensing- and warning-based technologies are widely used in the construction industry for occupational health and safety (OHS) monitoring and management. A comprehensive understanding of the different types and specific research topics related to the application of sensing- and warning-based technologies is essential to improve OHS in the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current trends, different types and research topics related to the applications of sensing- and warning-based technology for improving OHS through the analysis of articles published between 1996 and 2017 (years inclusive). Design/methodology/approach A standardized three-step screening and data extraction method was used. A total of 87 articles met the inclusion criteria. Findings The annual publication trends and relative contributions of individual journals were discussed. Additionally, this review discusses the current trends of different types of sensing- and warning-based technology applications for improving OHS in the industry, six relevant research topics, four major research gaps and future research directions. Originality/value Overall, this review may serve as a spur for researchers and practitioners to extend sensing- and warning-based technology applications to improve OHS in the construction industry.

Visualizing intrusions in dynamic building environments for worker safety

“…(Heinrich, 1931) To overcome the limitations of BBS trainings and to monitor worker behaviors in real-time for minimizing the nearmisses, sensing and warning-based technologies (Jia et al, 2019;Awolusi et al, 2018;Lin et al, 2019;Chen and Lu, 2019;Gheisari and Esmaeili, 2019) are utilized in the existing literature for the development of intrusion warning and proximity detection systems (Dong et al, 2018;Heng et al, 2016;Fang et al, 2018;Naticchia et al, 2013;Pradhananga and Teizer, 2013). The developed systems based on sensing and warning-based technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), location estimation using 802.11, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) are used for; 1) acquiring spatio-temporal data of workers and the site environment to understand mobility dynamics of workers and operational machinery in relation to the site environment, 2) executing safety risk assessment methods on the acquired sensor data, 3) generating accurate and timely warnings to the construction workforce (construction workers and machinery operators) for triggering Health and Safety (H&S) interventions to improve personal behavior during hazard proximity conditions, and 4) disseminating the information of near-misses to site supervisors and H&S managers for quick actions for maintaining site safety (Antwi-Afari et al, 2019). The objective of these systems is not only to construct proactive surveillance methods for site supervisory staff and H&S professionals for protecting the H&S of frontline workers while working in hazardous situations on sites but also indirectly lowering the costs of construction projects by reducing the occurrences of accidents on sites (Teizer et al, 2010;Antwi-Afari et al, 2019).…”

“…The developed systems based on sensing and warning-based technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), location estimation using 802.11, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) are used for; 1) acquiring spatio-temporal data of workers and the site environment to understand mobility dynamics of workers and operational machinery in relation to the site environment, 2) executing safety risk assessment methods on the acquired sensor data, 3) generating accurate and timely warnings to the construction workforce (construction workers and machinery operators) for triggering Health and Safety (H&S) interventions to improve personal behavior during hazard proximity conditions, and 4) disseminating the information of near-misses to site supervisors and H&S managers for quick actions for maintaining site safety (Antwi-Afari et al, 2019). The objective of these systems is not only to construct proactive surveillance methods for site supervisory staff and H&S professionals for protecting the H&S of frontline workers while working in hazardous situations on sites but also indirectly lowering the costs of construction projects by reducing the occurrences of accidents on sites (Teizer et al, 2010;Antwi-Afari et al, 2019). The spatio-temporal datasets collected for the development of the systems as mentioned above consist of ordered sequences of discrete-time triples in the form of 〈latitude, longitude, timestamp〉 called as trajectories (Zheng, 2015).…”

Autonomous Detection System for Non-Hard-Hat Use at Construction Sites Using Sensor Technology

“…As the quality of life improves, the expectations for and interest in occupational safety are increasing, yet the accident rate in the construction industry has remained the highest among all industries over the past 10 years [1]. Moreover, workers in the construction industry have incurred the largest number of occupational accidents, including injuries and illness [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Despite global attempts to prohibit construction workers from misusing personal protective equipment (PPE) such as hard hats on the jobsite, this still causes a large proportion of industrial accidents [8][9][10][11].…”

Development of an IoT-Based Construction Worker Physiological Data Monitoring Platform at High Temperatures

“…Globally, there has been increased concern regarding workers’ safety and health because of many cases of illness and accidents at work [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In the construction industry, which mainly takes place outside and requires high levels of physical activity, the number of casualties is the highest among all industries [ 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”