RESEARCH

RGC Early Career Scheme (ECS): “Improving Construction Workers’ Attitudes towards Safety Training with Virtual Reality Perspective Taking of Victims of Construction Site Accidents (Collaborator, HK$ 741,961)”, 2021-2023

The proposed project aims to improve the attitudes of construction workers towards safety trainings (with IVR and with traditional media such as PowerPoint slides). The project uses an innovative approach that allows trainees to experience the perspective of a victim of a construction accident via an IVR simulation before they begin safety training. Perspective taking with IVR has a long tradition in the field of media psychology and has been shown to be effective in many contexts.

SSBRE Teaching Development Grant (TDG): "Project Live-Experiencing Construction Site Visit in Classroom (Co-I, HK$ 260,000)", 2020-2021

This project proposes to use two smart sensors, 360 cameras and a 3D laser scanner, to acquire key information of construction site environments and spatiotemporal processes and activities. This project will include the development of a web-based digital platform providing multiple functions that students can exploit to obtaining the construction knowledge in an effective and active manner. In addition, it is expected that the successful accomplishment of this project can help current construction education to move away from a teacher-centered learning process into a more collaborative student-centered one.

RGC General Research Fund (GRF): “Understanding the Situation Awareness of Mobile Construction Equipment Operators through Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation (PI, HK$ 534,500)”, 2020-2022

Fatal accidents on construction sites are highly associated with human errors, including errors made by mobile equipment operators. Often these errors are caused by operator’s poor situation awareness. In order to understand the root causes of such errors, it is essential to understand what operator situation awareness (SA) actually is, and thence, how it might be enhanced. This research study will investigate mobile equipment operator SA at construction sites using immersive virtual reality (IVR) presented through a head-mounted display, especially focusing on forklift operations.

International Collaborative R&D Programme funded by Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA): “Automated DB-free Visual Analytics Platform for Enhancing Construction Productivity by 20% (Co-I, HK$ 1,004,000 (Co-I’s share))”, 2019-2021

The purpose of this research is to develop an automated DB-free visual analytics platform for enhancing construction productivity by 20%.The developed platform automatically extracts on-site information such as work types, input resources, work in progress, and work amount from jobsite CCTV images, and further analyzes operational productivity of construction works (e.g., working hours, hourly work amount, as-planned vs. as-built, idle time, and factors negatively affecting productivity). Thereby, it is possible to intelligently support project management tasks such as cost/time estimation and resource allocation.

RGC General Research Fund (GRF): “Automated Fall Risk Detection Associated with Falls on the Same Level by Using Wearable Insole Pressure Sensors (PI, HK$ 642,421)”, 2019-2021

Falls on the same level are the leading cause of non-fatal injuries in construction. To prevent these injuries, it is important to eliminate any intrinsic (e.g., worker age, fatigue) and extrinsic (e.g., unsafe conditions) risk factors that could lead to a loss of balance in a timely manner. This study aims to develop a wearable sensor (i.e., pressure insole sensor)-based approach to detect 1) slips, 2) trips, 3) unexpected step-downs and 4) twisted ankles that are major loss of balance events.

University-Government-Industry (UGI) initiative (BRE-Able Engineering Collaboration): “Wearable System for Worker’s Productivity, Safety and Health Monitoring (PI, HK$ 499,100)”, 2018-2019

This research project proposed a method for automatic and non-intrusive monitoring of workers activities, work demands and locations by combining wearable technologies such as a wristband equipped with HR and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors, and location tracking sensors. During the project period, the research team have developed and tested, 1) algorithms for activity analysis based on IMU data from a wristband; 2) physical demand measurement based on heart rate data from a wristband; and 3) a beacon-based location tracking system. From field tests at two different construction sites by Able Engineering Company Limited, it has been found that the proposed approaches successfully enable us to automatically monitor workers activities, physical demands and locations.

RGC Early Career Scheme (ECS): “Automated Ergonomic Risk Assessment for Construction Workers (PI, HK$ 495,252)”, 2017-2020

Construction workers are exposed to a high risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) due to physically demanding manual handling tasks in awkward postures. Previous research efforts have developed diverse postural ergonomic assessment methods to identify the risk of WMSDs by classifying and analyzing working postures. However, the use of these methods are constrained in construction practice because of time-consuming and manual procedures, observation errors, and the lack of trained experts. In this regard, this research proposes a vision-based approach to automating existing postural ergonomic assessment methods.

Teaching Development Grant (TDG): “Interdisciplinary and collaborative learning through a BIM-based immersive virtual environment in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) education (Co-I, $492,600)”, 2017-2018 (completed)

The proposal sets out to give students who will become the next generation of AEC professionals an immersive virtual space in which to collaborate as members of an interdisciplinary team in planning, designing, and constructing a building with 3D immersive virtual environments and a set of BIM tools during all phases of the project cycle.

MOLIT (funding from South Korea): “Development of Internet of Things (IoT) - based Multi-Function Smart Window by Integrating Solar PV Blind and Active Ventilation System toward Zero Energy Building (Co-I, HK$ 480,801)”, 2017-2018 (completed)

Construction site visits are interactive experiences that enhance students’ understanding of real construction practices. Site visits create an interactive learning environment for students and provide exposure to a real-world spatiotemporal experience of a construction project. This project aims to develop a new type of platform that simulates realistic and immersive representation of construction site visits for students in a digital environment using 360° camera/video and 3D laser scanning sensors.

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