Design and implementation of an identification system in construction site safety for proactive accident prevention

• Published in: Accident analysis and prevention Vol. 48; pp. 193 - 203
• Main Authors: Yang, Huanjia, Chew, David A.S., Wu, Weiwei, Zhou, Zhipeng, Li, Qiming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2012
• Subjects: Accidents, Occupational - prevention & control; Computer Communication Networks; Construction Industry - instrumentation; Construction Industry - standards; Construction site; Feasibility Studies; Humans; Precursor; Proactive prevention; Program Development; Protective Devices; Radio frequency identification; Safety Management - methods; United States; Wireless sensor network; Wireless Technology; United States; Proactive prevention; Wireless sensor network; Construction site; Precursor; Radio frequency identification
• ISSN: 0001-4575; 1879-2057
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2011.06.017

► We design an identification system for proactive accident prevention on construction site. ► Case study is used for technical requirement analysis that leads to the system design. ► Information of training and inspection, access control and operation authority are tracked. ► System design is based on WSN, RFID and a ZigBee RFID sensor network architecture. ► The system can be reference design to improve safety performance on construction site.
Identifying accident precursors using real-time identity information has great potential to improve safety performance in construction industry, which is still suffering from day to day records of accident fatality and injury. Based on the requirements analysis for identifying precursor and the discussion of enabling technology solutions for acquiring and sharing real-time automatic identification information on construction site, this paper proposes an identification system design for proactive accident prevention to improve construction site safety. Firstly, a case study is conducted to analyze the automatic identification requirements for identifying accident precursors in construction site. Results show that it mainly consists of three aspects, namely access control, training and inspection information and operation authority. The system is then designed to fulfill these requirements based on ZigBee enabled wireless sensor network (WSN), radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and an integrated ZigBee RFID sensor network structure. At the same time, an information database is also designed and implemented, which includes 15 tables, 54 queries and several reports and forms. In the end, a demonstration system based on the proposed system design is developed as a proof of concept prototype. The contributions of this study include the requirement analysis and technical design of a real-time identity information tracking solution for proactive accident prevention on construction sites. The technical solution proposed in this paper has a significant importance in improving safety performance on construction sites. Moreover, this study can serve as a reference design for future system integrations where more functions, such as environment monitoring and location tracking, can be added.