By Steve Rizer
There are some interesting results to report regarding a recent study of wireless sensor networks for indoor construction operations -- results that are expected to provide a reference for future research on the selection of indoor positioning technologies.
For the study, researchers Osama Moselhi and Magdy Ibrahim of Concordia University in Montreal experimented with Wireless Local Area Networks, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Synapse SNAP. They conducted 21 experiments that yielded 1,752 data sets for analysis. Results indicated that Synapse SNAP outperformed the other wireless technologies.
In a paper they wrote announcing the findings of their research, Moselhi and Ibrahim asserted that emerging wireless sensor network technology “offers a great potential in supporting current project-management practices. Deploying wireless sensor networks on construction sites can lead to significant time and cost savings by providing accurate and near-real-time data to project-management personnel. Continuous monitoring of labor usage, materials placement, and equipment performance provides valuable data for assessing progress of construction operations and assists in improving safety and security on jobsites.”
The problem, though, has been that the Global Positioning System is not suited for indoor applications because there is a lack of line-of-sight to satellite signals, according to the researchers, who work in Concordia’s Building Engineering Department.
The paper, submitted to the 31st International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, can be accessed at http://www.iaarc.org/publications/fulltext/isarc2014_submission_12.pdf.
The ConstructionPro Network member version of this article includes a complete transcript of ConstructionPro Week's interview with Moselhi and Ibrahim about their research.
