Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes special report study entitled: Material lifting system. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes special report study entitled : Material lifting system. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Current planning and scheduling techniques are carried out in an unstructured form with considerable reliance on planners judgement, imagination and intuition. The final product of such techniques is typically a lengthy textural and tabular report and/or symbolic network. This serves as an abstract rather than visual modeling of the real construction process. The availability of advanced computer hardware and software allows us, today, to develop new planning and scheduling techniques to overcome the current limitations. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is a computing system which makes extensive use of computer graphics. The use of CAD systems in construction presents a great opportunity for integrating engineering and construction processes in a more cost effective way. The combination of computer graphics, animation, and 3D computer modeling can be extremely effective for real-time simulation and visualization to support engineering and construction from the conceptual design to the construction process. This thesis presents a new planning and scheduling system. The system combines a construction scheduling network with 3D computer models to form a Visual Scheduling Simulation (VSS) of the construction process. The VSS system simulates, or put into motion, construction activities so they can be viewed at a graphics display. The VSS system allows the user to view the actual and planned construction sequence. The user has the option to view either: planned schedule; actual schedule; or both schedules shown side by side for quick visual comparison. The user has the option to visually simulate the entire construction project, or any specified time period. This simulation can be viewed for a partial segment or the entire configuration of the project. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

During the past 10 years, construction was the leading industry of occupational fatalities when compared to other goods producing industries in the US. This is partially attributed to ineffective safety management strategies, specifically lack of automated construction equipment and worker monitoring. Currently, worker safety performance is measured and recorded manually, assessed subjectively, and the resulting performance information is infrequently shared among selected or all project stakeholders. Accurate and emerging remote sensing technology provides critical spatio-temporal data that has the potential to automate and advance the safety monitoring of construction processes. This doctoral research focuses on pro-active safety utilizing radio-frequency location tracking (Ultra Wideband) and real-time three-dimensional (3D) immersive data visualization technologies. The objective of the research is to create a model that can automatically analyze the spatio-temporal data of the main construction resources (personnel, materials, and equipment), and automatically measure, assess, and visualize worker's safety performance. The research scope is limited to human-equipment interaction in a complex construction site layout where proximities among construction resources are omnipresent. In order to advance the understanding of human-equipment proximity issues, extensive data has been collected in various field trials and from projects with multiple scales. Computational algorithms developed in this research process the data to provide spatio-temporal information that is crucial for construction activity monitoring and analysis. Results indicate that worker's safety performance of selected activities can be automatically and objectively measured using the developed model. The major contribution of this research is the creation of a proximity hazards assessment model to automatically analyze spatio-temporal data of construction resources, and measure, evaluate, and visualize their safety performance. This research will significantly contribute to transform safety measures in construction industry, as it can determine and communicate automatically safe and unsafe conditions to various project participants located on the field or remotely.