Wearable technology for personalized construction safety monitoring and trending: Review of applicable devices
Introduction
The high rate of fatalities in the construction industry remains a major concern of both practitioners and researchers. Out of 4386 total worker fatalities in private industry in 2014, 899 were in construction, indicating that over one in five worker deaths are construction related [1], [2]. Among industry sectors, workers in construction face the highest risk of occupational injuries and illnesses [3]. Despite the adoption of safety procedures and programs such as those developed and required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the rates of fatal and nonfatal construction injuries and illnesses have plateaued the past 10 years.
Given the high proportion of fatal and non-fatal accidents occurring in the construction industry, construction companies constantly seek novel strategies that promote safety [4]. Because of the transient and dynamic nature of construction, organizations must be able to quickly adapt to change by effectively capturing, storing, and disseminating new strategies that prevent injuries [5]. Thus, new technologies may be candidates for safety advancement. Although technology has undoubtedly played a major role in the improvement of construction processes, its application for personalized construction safety monitoring has not been fully explored [6].
In this paper, we review the various applications of wearable technology for personalized construction safety monitoring and trending. The specific objectives were to identify, catalog, and analyze attributes of wearable technology and resulting data thought to be capable of predicting construction safety performance and management practices.
Section snippets
Literature review
Due to the hazardous working environments at construction sites, workers frequently face potential safety and health risks throughout the entire construction process [7]. Construction safety has been traditionally measured and managed reactively by taking actions in response to adverse trends in injuries [8]. However, active monitoring of workers' physiological data with wearable technology may allow for measurement of heart rate, breathing rate and posture [6]. This section contains the review
Methods
This research was conducted by first reviewing the present state of knowledge of wearable technologies across industries, codifying literature and specifications related to each candidate technology systems and sensors, and describing the human factors implications of the technologies in accordance with prevailing theory. The construction safety and health hazards were reviewed to identify the metrics that can be captured and processed by the wearable technologies to measure and monitor safety
Results and discussion
The results of this review study are presented and discussed in different sections based on the research methodology framework. Critical findings of each review, including the wearable technology systems and sensors thought to be the most promising for applications in construction safety monitoring and trending, are presented.
Conclusion
This paper provides a review of the applications of wearable technology for personalized construction safety monitoring and trending. A comprehensive evaluation of the features of wearable technology and the resulting safety metrics thought to be capable of predicting safety performance and management practices is presented. The review showed that a wide variety of wearable technologies is being used in other industries to enhance safety and productivity while few applications are observed in
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