Internet-of-things (IoT)-based data collection and analytics for onsite scaffolding project management

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Scaffolding, as a type of temporary structure on construction sites, provides access for tradespeople to certain areas of a structure to perform construction activities. Depending on a project's size, the scaffolding budget can account for a substantial amount of the total direct work budget. Failure in the management of scaffolding activities can result in cost overrun and schedule delays in the projects. Meanwhile, scaffolding management is challenging by its nature, e.g., ad-hoc trivial daily activities with various material components consumed at different locations. This makes scaffolding management difficult, from tracking ongoing activities and materials, to effectively utilizing the tracked information for project management. To improve the current industry practice of scaffolding management, timely and accurate data acquisition mechanisms are necessary to record scaffolding data to further form productivity metrics for project management purposes. Therefore, this research project intends to develop a data-driven framework for onsite scaffolding data acquisition and utilization of analytics to provide decision support information for project management. The research team at the University of New Brunswick will collaborate with Hinton Scaffolding Solutions (Ontario, Canada) to develop Internet-of-things (IoT)-based solutions that incorporate machine learning and statistical methods to form productivity metrics for project earned value analysis (EVA). Specifically, the research project will: (1) develop IoT-based mobile applications for scaffolding data collection; (2) develop data cleaning and classification mechanisms; (3) develop productivity analysis modules using Bayesian updating and regression modeling; (4) develop EVA based on the developed productivity metrics; and (5) develop dashboard systems for data visualization. This project will provide project insights for the partner company through data analytics and will equip the company's operations team with agile digital solutions for continuous data collection and project monitoring. The project will contribute to Canada's construction digital technologies innovation, which ultimately increases the efficiency, safety, and quality of the industry with improved competitiveness.