Construction Safety Monitoring: How Can Data Help?

Construction sites are challenging environments for employee safety. They are busy places: many people come and go throughout the construction process. Large volumes of heavy materials are present too, along with hazardous substances and professional equipment. 

Practices and regulations are in place to mitigate the dangers especially workers face on site. The KEKO Consortium is seeking solutions on how to use data collected at the construction site to improve its safety aspects. We believe many solutions used for safety applications elsewhere are applicable at construction sites too. However, if you would like an idea about what we are most interested in, here are three areas that will grab our attention in your submission.

Real-Time Digital Twin and Safety

One of the goals of KEKO is to use their platform to create a digital twin model of a given building and compare as-designed data with input from the ongoing construction (i.e. an “as-built” model). The digital twin has applications for productivity and workflows, along with the later life-stage of buildings. Monitoring safety is another great application for the digital building twin, the difference being it is used during construction rather than used for learning to improve later construction projects. 

Worker Tracking Against Hazards

Some of the most common accidents that happen at construction sites involve workers falling from a height, getting struck by vehicles or equipment, or being exposed to hazardous substances. To reduce these risks even further, tracking people at the construction site can help recreate a digital picture of where an accident happens and why. The data can be further used to plan general safety and evacuation protocols, monitor construction site humidity, temperature, and air quality to reduce the impact of environmental conditions. Of course, these solutions all need to comply with the European data protection regulation, GDPR. 

Scaffolding Simulation

Construction scaffolding has to account for not just people but heavy materials being carried across them. As they are temporary structures, they cannot be built too heavily, making them vulnerable to extreme weather and run-ins with vehicles. 

Using simulation, we can better analyze where scaffolding experiences the most stress. With this knowledge we can draft guidelines for a specific construction site, redesign scaffolding that poses a risk, and who knows, in the future develop more advanced and safer scaffolding for construction sites. 

Are you working on stress sensors that could be applied to temporary structures? Does your tech solution help in stress analysis? Is it applicable for a real-time digital building twin? Let us know about your solution today!