Regarding the technological progress in our everyday lives, it won’t last much longer until entering a construction site feels like entering the latest Marvel movie. Today, there are more and more technological devices arising, intended to increase efficiency and safety on the jobsite. We selected the top tech trends at the construction site that we would like to introduce to you. Due to the mass of information on this topic, we split it into separate blogposts, each introducing one top trend, starting today with No. I: WEARABLES.

Trend No. I WEARABLES

Wearables collect information, receive information, exchange information. Based on this information, humans can make better decisions. Wearables thus are supposed to support us in our everyday lives. The most commonly known wearable nowadays is the smart watch. However, not only at home can we benefit from wearables but also at the construction site. Sophisticated technologies can be used to increase, for example, efficiency and safety.

The diversity of applications is amazing. Devices like smart helmets, smart vests, smart glasses, smart armbands are slowly finding their way to modern construction sites and provide workers as well as site managers with whole new possibilities. Only: what exactly are those ‘smart’ gimmicks and what do they do?

Examples of wearables at the construction site

Smart helmets, like the Daqri smart construction helmet, are mainly used to capture and record real-time information on the user’s surrounding. By means of cameras and sensors, the helmet assesses information like valve readings, thermal data or information on the environment. As such, it is even able to reconstruct a terrain or a facility in 3D and store it. Also, the helmet can store documents, photos, videos, sketches and display them right on the spot. This sort of augmented reality also enables users to see the insides of structural elements, such as the interior of a pipe for example. Files or other kinds of information can further be exchanged among multiple helmet users to get an entire model of the whole construction site.

Smart vests, developed by RMIT University Melbourne, are designed to enhance worker’s safety. By means of sensors, the vest continuously measures vital signs of the user, such as body temperature and heart rate. The collected data are then wirelessly transferred to the smartphone app via Bluetooth. In case of any anomaly, the user gets immediately alerted via the app.

Construction workers are commonly known to be at higher risks of death or injury than any other occupation. For this reason, wearables like this smart vest can be essential lifesavers in situations that the worker does not necessarily perceive as dangerous. The vest also alerts e.g. in cases of heat related illness, which can easily lead to heat strokes or damages of organs or the nervous system.

Smart glasses, such as Daqri smart glasses, come with a great variety of applications. We have already discussed some of them in a prior blogpost on trends in road construction and earthmoving. Another way to use them is for remote support and maintenance. This might work as follows:

Smart armbands, such as Myo Gesture Control Armband, function as a wireless control for other technological devices, such as smart glasses, drones or cameras. It reads the electrical activity of your muscles and the motion of your arm and translates it into a given action of the connected device. Just when this armband first got attention by the construction industry, we introduced it in a blogpost as a new technology that would quickly evolve due to its huge potential for ease of work and increase in efficiency. For more information and a video on how it works, have a look at the blogpost, which describes the use of a Myo Armband at the construction site.

Wearable exoskeletons, i.e. wearable robotics become more and more common at the construction site of the future. As such, Ekso Bionics, for example, developed an exoskeleton for the construction worker. It facilitates weightless work by supporting heavy hand tool use. It thereby offers protection and support against fatigue and injury and increases accuracy. Watch this video to get an impression of how it works:

How can commonly used devices like smartphones or smart watches contribute to construction work?

What if you were able to connect your smartphone or your smart watch or even smart glasses with your construction machine? What if your smart device displayed collected data of your machine, wherever you are and wherever you go? What if they helped to keep an overview of all processes running on your construction site at the same time?

MOBA wanted to get some answers to these questions and developed a solution to connect wearables with one of its systems. The results were first presented at bauma 2016: MOBA connected a smartphone, smart watch and smart glasses to PAVE-IR, the system that visualizes asphalt temperature during road construction. By this means, important installation data is collected by the system and if needed simultaneously displayed at the smart device. The operator, foreman or site manager is then able to remotely keep an overview over what happens during the asphalt installation. He or she can immediately intervene, if necessary, without even being on- site. In the future, new developments and continuous progress will provide even more opportunities.

Advantages

The interaction with such smart technologies does not require much effort. Some wearables are even devices that people carry anyway or that are easily carried. They are time-efficiently integrated into the usual workflow while providing additional value for operator, foreman and site manager. Integrating such innovations into everyday construction will thus provide remote access and increase usability, efficiency, safety and time savings – dependent on their application.

What more advantages can you think of that wearables provide us with? What other examples of wearables at the construction site do you know? Which ones do you think have the most potential for a widespread use in the future?

Curious?

To stay up to date on the wearable developments of MOBA, don’t forget to check out upcoming posts in this Community, MOBA’s Product Platform, the news section on MOBA's website and MOBA’s social channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Google+, Xing or Pinterest