Building information modeling in combination with real time location systems and sensors for safety performance enhancement

The misuse (including nonuse) of personal protective equipment (PPE) directly catalyzes the changes from incidents to critical accidents and diseases. However, to date, the main control over PPE use is through manual visual inspections, which is time-consuming and more often than not biased. Moreover, the current applications of technologies such as RFID have not guaranteed the proper use of PPE on site. This study introduces a novel approach towards automated remote monitoring and assessing how the PPEs are worn through integrating pressure sensors and positioning technologies. In order to realize such automated control, potential technologies are reviewed and a wireless network architecture composed of end nodes, repeaters/checkpoints and coordinators is considered. The real time location system (RTLS) and virtual construction are developed for worker's location tracking to decide whether the worker should wear helmet and give a warning, while the silicone single-point button is designed to show whether the PPE is used properly for further behavior assessment. The process of data synchronization and fusion of location coordinates and pressure data is described in detail and the system is tested in an open area experiment to prove its feasibility.