3D RANGE IMAGING CAMERA SENSING FOR ACTIVE SAFETY IN CONSTRUCTION

Accident reports in the United States' construction industry show over 1,000 fatalities for each of the past eleven years. Most of these accidents are related to falls and close contacts to equipment or other harmful substances. Although these accident statistics would have been significantly worse if safety training and best practices had not been provided to workers, the assessment of critical situations often involves the experience and judgement of field personnel, such as of safety coordinators. The manifold of accidents and their repetitive nature, however, allows the conclusion that proper inspection of construction sites is often not performed accurately or safety coordinators are not on hand when needed. For these reasons, this research utilizes emerging technologies to assist in the safety decision making process. This paper presents a review of the safety problem in construction. It then focuses on automated data collection devices and data processing algorithms which can become part in an active safety system for construction applications. A research approach is presented to use and develop emerging sensing technologies for accident avoidance. The purpose was to apply a 3D Range Imaging Camera as part of active sensing technologies that allow fast and accurate range measurements. The collected range data was used to generate real-time feedback about the location of objects in the field-of-view of the sensor. The experiments and data analysis performed demonstrate that construction safety can be improved by using emerging technologies such as 3D Range Imaging Cameras. In a workforce-material-machine dominant environment such as construction, more research is necessary to further validate the developed methods in long-term studies and in outdoor environments.