Alberto Giretti

Design and first development of an automated real‐time safety management system for construction sites

Abstract This paper reports a feasibility study which addressed the development of a new, advanced system mainly devoted to automatic real‐time health and safety management on construction sites. The preliminary analyses and experiments described in this paper concern two of the most important functionalities which must be included in the systems final release. The first functionality consists in real‐time position‐tracking of workers involved on construction sites and the second ‐ in a software tool for the prevention of non‐authorized access to dangerous zones. This research step is part of a vaster, ongoing research project, addressing the development of a new generation of advanced construction management systems which allow real‐time monitoring and coordination of tasks, automatic health and safety management, on‐site delivery of technical information and the capture of “as‐built” documentation. This paper focuses mainly on the development of a reliable methodology for real‐time monitoring of the po...

Metadata in Architecture Education - First Evaluation Results of the MACE System

The paper focuses on the MACE (Metadata for Architectural Contents in Europe) system and its usage in architecture education at the university level. We report on the various extensions made to the system, describe some of the new functionality and give first results on the evaluation of the MACE System. Several universities were involved with significant student groups in the evaluation, so that the indications described here are already highly trustable. First results show that using MACE increases student performance significantly.

Bayesian Networks for Supporting Model Based Predictive Control of Smart Buildings

Optimal behaviour is one the most desired features of contemporary technological systems. Challenges like secure operation, energy efficiency, and reliable performance call for the optimised behaviour of any systems that operate and interact in our living environment. The challenge in achieving optimised performances resides in the uncertainty that qualifies the environment surrounding technical systems. Whatever model drives the systems’ behaviour, it must be able to face unforeseen events, to manage the vagueness of the sensing apparatus and the errors of the control devices. Bayesian statistics is one of the theoretical backgrounds that support the construction of systems which are able to act effectively inside complex environments. Bayesian statistics is grounded on the fundamental premise that all uncertain‐ ties should be represented and measured by probabilities. Then, the laws of probabilities apply to produce probabilistic inferences about any quantity, or collection of quantities, of interest. Bayesian inference can provide predictions about probability values pertaining time series or can model parameters in terms of probability distributions that represent and summarize current uncertain knowledge and beliefs. Bayesian inference uses a kind of direct causal or model-based knowledge to provide the crucial robustness needed to make the optimised behaviour of technical systems feasible in the real world [1]. Once this kind of models have been built, then theoretically sound evidence propagation algorithms are used to update the belief set about the external environment and about the system performance, on the basis of acquired evidence. This is the fundamental mechanism that drives the construction and the operation of intelligent systems based on Bayesian inference. This chapter describes a sample engineering application of this approach on a large scale. It concerns the design and the development of an intelligent building energy management system (smart BEMS) that is able

A Spatio-Temporal Bayesian Network for Adaptive Risk Management in Territorial Emergency Response Operations

For this reason the availability of a Bayesian model is the only solution capable of allowing emergency squads to exploit the backward propagation of Bayesian networks and perform real-time diagnoses. In other words, once the user sets the desired state for the output variable(s), the network is able to work out the most likely state values for the corresponding input, thereby helping to discern how to act optimally in order to control the spread of fire. The same tool may also be used for scenario analyses.

Set up of an Automated Multi-Colour System for Interior Wall Painting:

It is shared that construction projects are getting bigger and more complex, hence also the productivity of the construction industry must be improved, while preserving its labour from hazardous job sites. Such requirements can be accomplished by the adoption of robotized products, which, however, need to be quickly developed and marketed. In this paper, first the issue of a new miniature laboratory for developing lightweight and well-coordinated robotized systems is pursued, then a novel robot device for high quality multi-colour interior wall painting carried by a robot arm is developed and successfully tested. Thanks to the new 1:6 scaled down laboratory and its six degree of freedom robot arm on an hexapod for horizontal moves, we tested the opportunity to introduce also in the building sector miniature robots that can change the ergonomics standardly adopted by construction workers. It is analyzed how and why switching from full size to miniature robots is convenient in construction. In addition, a new system adding further features to robotized painting has been conceived. Our new multi-colour spraying end-tool was developed and fixed on the robot arm, in order to be able to reproduce coloured artworks. Finally, a methodology to reproduce colours from digital format of artworks is presented, showing how accurate and efficient is this new robotized spraying device.

Interoperable Approach in Support of Semi-Automated Construction Management

Construction progress monitoring has always been a major concern for managers. Several are the advantages provided by a reliable approach in this field, among which we cite efficient project performance control and quality control, timely on-site inspections, better control of health and safety prescriptions against job injuries and fatalities, which are still too high. This paper addresses the development of a semi-automated approach for construction management, based on two main features: on one side a project management oriented re-organization of project’s information based on interoperable BIM (Building Information Modeling) and 4D modeling protocols, which aims to facilitate the control at the execution phase; on the other side a monitoring platform for real-time collection of data, relative to work progress and resources usage, by means of low intrusive technologies. Preliminary experiments on the capability by the low intrusive and real-time monitoring system to acquire and filter the data collected on resources usage are carried out. In addition, a general framework implementing several high-level logics is proposed. Its application would lead to seamless production of reports, to a semi-automated control of materials procurement, that is to say with limited or no human intervention. Preliminary application cases are shown, too. Among the expected benefits, not only economic savings for builders, but also better quality of recorded data and real-time availability of information have been pointed out.

A Real-Time and Non Intrusive Structural Health Monitoring System for Buildings

The constant innovation in the development of sensing devices for detecting health status of buildings, highlights the importance of this professional field. In fact, correct diagnosis would prevent many pathologies, driving maintenance interventions towards timely and well targeted operations. This paper describes the development of a monitoring system prototype, conceived to be very low intrusive, that can be applied also on existing buildings, without any need to predispose chases for power or communication cables. Its adoption is expected to be useful not only for standard health status monitoring of buildings during their lifecycle, but also for automated monitoring of old buildings during the conduction of works for their renovation. As a matter of fact in this case accidents due to unexpected collapses during work execution are very common, hence the static condition of buildings should be continuously checked automatically and alerts sent in case of high risk of failures. The sensors under development have been programmed in such a way to be able to monitor rotations and send alerts in case critical thresholds are overcome.

Applying Formal Methods to Case Based Design AIDS

Case based reasoners have been applied to design support in order to overcome the lack of complete domain theories and the complexity of the design space. Most of the case based design aiding systems make use of large unstructured chunks of knowledge. The use of unstructured knowledge has been proved quite effective in the early phases of design. Moreover a complete design support needs the integration of autonomous problem solvers (e.g. for case adaptation and design evaluation) which, in turn, require a structured knowledge representation. In this paper we propose some noteworthy aspects of the application of a formally defined knowledge representation schema to the development of a Case Based Design Aiding system. For this purpose we propose a computational framework for case based design support, that uses a terminological language as the basic knowledge representation tool. The terminological language is used to represent domain objects, relations and design intentions. On the basis of the formal features of the knowledge representation schema we define a set of domain independent procedures for searching, retrieving and adapting cases.

On the Design of Intelligent Buildings for Ambient Assisted Living

This contribution concerns the integration of Ambient Assisted Living and, more in general, of automation technologies in the standard building performance frame. To date there is a mismatch between what users expect from an intelligent built environment and what the suppliers are able to deliver. This is mainly because the potential advances introduced by intelligent building organisms do not encompass the whole building life cycle. In order to achieve real effectiveness, the automation technologies must be harmonized with the building performance framework that drives the traditional building design science.

A Proactive System for Real-Time Safety Management in Construction Sites

The purpose of this paper is presenting a new advanced hardware/software system, boasting two main features: first it performs real time tracking of workers’ routes in construction sites; then it implements an algorithm for preventing workers to be involved in hazardous situations. This research step is part of a wider ongoing research concerning the development of a new generation of advanced construction management systems, allowing for real-time monitoring and coordination of tasks, automatic health and safety management, on-site delivering of technical information, capture of as-built documentation. Exploiting the high accuracy provided by the UWB system responsible for position tracking and successfully tested in previous research, our software interface is able to graphically reproduce (and store) the travel patterns of workers. Moreover, it constantly checks if they are accessing hazardous areas, using an algorithm based on a predictive approach: it is conceived to predict in advance whether any worker is approaching a forbidden area, in fact performing virtual fencing. This approach could be easily extended to other applications, too. Some preliminary tests simulated in the DACS laboratory are described and the obtained results discussed.