Struck-by accidents are the leading cause of injuries in highway construction work zones. Despite numerous safety interventions, injury rates remain high. As workers’ exposure to traffic is sometimes unavoidable, providing warnings can be an effective way to prevent imminent threats. Such warnings should consider work zone conditions that can hinder the timely perception of alerts, e.g., poor visibility and high noise level. This study proposes a vibrotactile system integrated into workers’ conventional personal protective equipment (PPE), i.e., safety vests. Three experiments were conducted to assess the feasibility of using vibrotactile signals to warn workers in highway environments, the perception and performance of vibrotactile signals at different body locations, and the usability of various warning strategies. The results revealed vibrotactile signals had a 43.6% faster reaction time than audio signals, and the perceived intensity and urgency levels on the sternum, shoulders, and upper back were significantly higher than the waist. Among different notification strategies used, providing a moving direction imposed significantly lower mental workloads and higher usability scores than providing a hazard direction. Further research should be conducted to reveal factors that affect alerting strategy preference towards a customizable system to elicit higher usability among users.

This research proposes a novel conceptual framework that combines the concepts of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Ambient Intelligence (AmI). The proposed framework aims to shed light on the importance of considering the needs and the social interactions of various building occupants in different types of buildings and designing HBI strategies accordingly. Specifically, we take educational buildings as a case that is less explored in the HBI research and apply the proposed framework, investigating how HBI strategies and interactions should be designed to address the needs of students, as primary occupants. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted among students in a flagship smart engineering building at Virginia Tech. Qualitative coding and concept mapping were used to analyze the qualitative data and determine the impact of occupant-specific needs on the learning experience of students. “Finding study space” was found to have the highest direct impact on the learning experience of students, and “Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)” was found to have the highest indirect impact. The results show a clear need to integrate occupant needs in designing HBI strategies in different types of buildings. Finally, we discuss new ideas for designing potential Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) to address the identified needs.

Most decision making in construction projects is accomplished by human beings based on manually collected information. This process is labor-intensive, error-prone, and heavily reliant on the knowledge and experience of the decision makers as well as the quality and reliability of the available information. Cyber-physical systems (CPS) offer the potential to transform traditional data collection approach and strengthen the coordination between cyber models and physical assets in a construction project. This paper describes a knowledge-based CPS architecture that aims at augmenting human decision making in construction. Domain knowledge, such as site policies, safety rules, and workflow logic, is elicited and compiled in an ontology-based knowledge hub. With the support of bi-directional cyber-physical communication, the knowledge hub inquiries relevant data from cyber models and physical assets, integrates real-time project data, and synthesizes context-specific information to facilitate human decision-making. This paper outlines the key challenges and technical requirements for creating the knowledge hub and its linkages with traditional CPS systems. It also presents two deployment scenarios in highway and building construction projects to demonstrate the realization a knowledge-based cyber-physical system and its potential in facilitating coordination and improving project performances in safety and efficiency.

The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in the US faces increasing labor shortages while accumulating downward productivity trends. Previous research efforts have sho... Practical ApplicationsThis study introduces an innovative web-based system featuring VIVA to address the pressing labor shortage and diminishing productivity in the AEC industry. VIVA seamlessly in...

A multi-platform Virtual Reality (VR) approach is proposed to complement the traditional approaches for construction safety training. Visual simulations of a highway construction project were developed and presented through the developed platforms, aiming at giving students immersive experience of actual construction environments. The simulated worksite scenarios included active traffic, multiple worker roles and heavy equipment, and was rendered at different times of day and weather conditions. We used this material in an undergraduate class activity with 50 students. During a session in our visualization lab, students experienced the scenarios presenting day shift, afternoon shift with adverse weather and night shift and were asked to develop daily report of their job site observation. The scenrios were presented via the following platforms: TV projection, Mobile Phone, Head-Mounted Display (HMD), and CAVE projection room. The results demonstrates that the multi-platform immersive experience has the potential to significantly improve hazard recognition skill of construction students.