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The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is an emerging technology that enables interaction of uniquely identifiable computing devices that can be embedded with other interfaces like machines and humans, linked via wired and wireless networks, to capture contextual data from the environment it has been exposed to and create an information network to provide new functionalities and digital business models.
The technologies behind IoT have existed for several years in the construction sector. IoT comes with features like remote access, office-to-field data exchange, cloud computing, and data storage to the construction industry.
The IoT platform provides construction equipment manufacturers and the end-user contractors with analytics and reports about several facets of their tasks and assets. This helps them to enhance the decision-making process and attain the best management of resources, fleets, and workers.
In the construction industry, the key to IoT is sensors. Sensors, installed with the capability of sending and receiving data, allow capturing information required to improve results with real-time data about the site and the workforce.
The IoT is allowing for the positioning of low power sensors that communicate cost-effectively. The sensors let the platform produce a detailed digital representation of the product itself. Consequently, experts based anywhere in the world can provide monitoring, troubleshooting, and repairs without needing to be physically present at the worksite or contractor’s location.
Also, the data collected from IoT-enabled products and systems provide detailed information on their most useful and most ignored features. IoT-enabled construction equipment, through the historical data, can help shape patterns of information to understand better the requirements of the customers and contractors, the environment in which they operate, and, ultimately, offer appropriate solutions as per their necessities.
The IoT platform provides detailed information that can be selected according to the need at the time. The information so collected (Big data), provides options for Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analysis.
Contents:
IoT for Safety and Security
The biggest challenges faced on a construction job site are safety and theft. As construction sites are vast, relying merely on manual security isn’t viable or practical. With IoT, the security strategy for a construction site can work on averting invasion and quick discovery as well as recovery from undesirable happenings.
Autonomous vehicles and UAVs (Unmanned aerial vehicles) like drones are being favored for site surveillance and monitoring of vast spaces. These drones can help gather accurate aerial images and survey maps of a site.
Through IoT-enabled tags, any material or theft of items is easily resolved as the sensors would send the notification about the current location of the materials or item. Mounting IoT-enabled tracker to such assets provides higher convenience and accuracy. The info collected from these trackers are easily actionable and reliable.
IoT for Maintenance and Machine Control
Several human-operated heavy machines are a part of construction work. This task can be simplified through IoT; with sensors, these machines can work more precisely and with minimal human effort. Further, equipment condition and maintenance related issues can also be supervised uninterruptedly through IoT sensors.
With the availability of real-time information, it becomes possible to know the status of every asset, to schedule maintenance stops, or refueling and turn-off idle equipment. Beyond this, sensors can also be used to monitor materials’ conditions, like the suitability of the temperature, or humidity of the item/environment, damage, handling issues, and expiration.
Augmented Reality
With the use of AR, operational instructions, or navigational and driving information, are witnessed over the IoT in real-time and are overlaid into the real-world view. Through IoT, inanimate objects such as smart glasses can be connected to the internet. Such devices include Microsoft HoloLens and google glass. These technologies are currently being applied to modeling and planning steps of construction.
Smart glasses can be used to reproduce a suite floor with all the furnishings; this can be peeled layer-by-layer, to study and plan the intricacies of the work behind the walls. Clients are also using smart glasses for sales so that residents can get an immersive and animated view of what their new facility feels and looks like.
Employees are also empowered on and off the job site since through connected smart-glasses, they can view work instructions while performing specific tasks, potentially improving their performance.
Building Information Modelling(BIM)
BIM can be optimized through generative design, prediction of cost overruns using appropriate features, risk mitigation through the identification of the biggest risk factor on a job site, application of reinforcement learning to project planning, autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, labor deployment optimization, off-site construction, and post-construction.
The facilities for which computer models have been used to direct real-life construction can be updated by placing sensors. The sensors would deliver information regarding how the materials are affected by varying climates and the passage of time. They can also supply information on possible changes in energy efficiency in roofing, how structures behave when there are earth tremors, or how a bridge bends under the weight of passing traffic.
FAQs
The Internet of Things(IoT) is an emerging technology that enables interaction of uniquely identifiable computing devices that can be embedded with other interfaces like machines and humans, linked via wired and wireless networks, to capture contextual data from the environment it has been exposed to and create an information network to provide new functionalities and digital business models.
Through IoT-enabled tags, any material or theft of items is easily resolved as the sensors would send the notification about the current location of the materials or item. Mounting IoT-enabled tracker to such assets provides higher convenience and accuracy. The info collected from these trackers are easily actionable and reliable.
With the availability of real-time information, it becomes possible to know the status of every asset, to schedule maintenance stops, or refueling and turn-off idle equipment. Beyond this, sensors can also be used to monitor materials’ conditions, like the suitability of the temperature, or humidity of the item/environment, damage, handling issues, and expiration.
Through IoT, inanimate objects such as smart glasses can be connected to the internet. Such devices include Microsoft HoloLens and google glass.
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