<p dir="ltr">Construction workers often suffer from excessive stress from working in dynamic and complex hazard-rich environments. These workers are subject to experiencing diverse external stressors, which can increase their involvement in risk-taking behaviors by increasing human error, referring to individuals’ misperceptions and misjudgment. Task, social, and environmental stressors are the most common external stressors that can negatively impact workers’ safety performance. Task stressors mainly occur when the projects fall behind schedule which puts workers under productivity and mental demand. In addition, workers are exposed to social stressors due to the inherently social environment of construction job sites requiring collaborative efforts. Such workers also suffer from environmental stressors as they mainly need to perform construction tasks outdoors in extreme environments. There is a paucity of research to empirically examine how such external stressors may affect workers’ situational awareness and risk-taking behaviors. Therefore, the overall goal of this dissertation is to <i>examine the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence of changes in workers’ decision dynamic in the construction industry when exposed to task (e.g., productivity pressure and mental demand), social (e.g., peer pressure), and environmental (e.g., heat stress) stressors.</i></p><p dir="ltr">To accomplish this, a series of studies were conducted to investigate the effects of task, social, and environmental stressors on workers’ situational awareness and hazard identification skills. To do so, taking advantage of novel technologies, this study developed immersive mixed reality (MR) and augmented virtuality (AV) simulating high-risk construction tasks. Such environments were integrated with several wearable sensing technologies to measure individuals’ cognitive responses and decision dynamics while completing the tasks under different stressors. The findings demonstrated that external stressors reduce worker situational awareness, impair their cognitive processes, and negatively affect their safety performance.</p><p dir="ltr">Such findings were then utilized to develop an intelligent and comprehensive AI-based predictive system to identify at-risk workers imposed to external stressors. This system translates physiological, cognitive, and biomechanical metrics into AI-identified predictors of three types of external stressors; localizes workers, and assesses risks of being injured in real-time which will then dictate the urgency of providing any intervention. These analyses are then used to identify and propose tailored safety interventions.</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation contributes to the existing body of knowledge by adopting innovative approaches to empirically study the extent to which external stressors may affect workers’ decision dynamics by examining the changes in their situational awareness, risk-taking, and safety performance measures. In addition, this work contributes to practice by raising awareness about the adverse effects of several cognitive biases due to such stressors, such as risk compensation, cognitive tunneling, and impaired attentional distribution, which can undermine the efficacy of safety interventions in the construction industry. It highlights the critical role of these cognitive biases in safety practices and the necessity of educating safety professionals and workers about how psychological factors can impact safety on the job site and potential ways to mitigate these potential negative impacts. Further, the developed AI-based predictive system breaks new ground by identifying at-risk workers, assessing potential risks, and recommending safety interventions.</p>

The construction sector is considered one of the most hazardous industries in the world. The reason for this is due to several factors. Earlier literature shows that a construction site can be dynamic as different types of objects or people are in constant motion. Difficulties arise when trying to predict safety hazards on-site. Collisions between objects or falling from a height are examples of hazardous situations that can occur onconstruction sites. In a construction environment, there are also static risks related to, for instance, dust, unsafe substances, and chemicals from paints, fuels, and solvents. Simultaneously, society is in an era of digitalization and innovation with, among other things, artificial intelligence (AI), drones, building information modeling (BIM), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), digital twins, internet of things (IoT), automation, robotics and sensor-technologies on the topic. These tools have the potential to improvecurrent safety management methods. At the same time, the attitudes towards the construction industry are associated with traditional working methods where digitalization and new technology are perceived to be moving at a slow pace.Technologies and digital methods for securing construction sites have mainly been investigated in controlled research settings and test projects. The research gap lies in the fact that there is not enough knowledge regarding the implementation of technologies and digital methods in more authentic construction site environments. The study aims to identify different technologies and digital tools within construction safetymanagement in the Swedish context. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a general understanding of the topic and to broaden the perspective on existing attitudes and behaviors toward digital tools and technologieswithin construction safety management. In this thesis, the focus is on construction sites during the production phase with their respective personnel. Other parts of the construction project process, such as the planning and design stages, are taken into account by exploring how these stages can contribute to safer constructionsites. To obtain empirical material, methods based on qualitative research have been suitable where semi-structured interviews and fieldwork have been conducted. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used as a theoretical framework for the results and a thematic analysis has been used as a data analysis approach.The thesis has examined how construction sites can become safer with the help of digitalization and new technology. Attitudes and behaviors towards the implementation of digital tools and technology have also been investigated. The results indicate that there are different attitudes towards the implementation of digital tools and technologies concerning safety management in both the design and planning phase and the production phase. To summarize the results, many of the interview participants were positive towards using digital tools and technologies for safety purposes. However, they were also skeptical about the success of implementation due to factors such as cost, risks, traditional methods, and attitudes and behaviors. The attitudes and behaviors, in turn, affect the actual usage of construction safety management implementations.In this thesis, we hope to broaden the perspective on how digital tools and technology could contribute to safer construction sites and the attitudes and behaviors towards the matter. / Byggsektorn anses vara en av de mest riskfyllda branscherna i världen. Anledningen till detta beror på flera faktorer. Tidigare studier visar att en bygg- och anläggningsplats kan vara dynamisk då olika typer av föremål eller människor är i ständig rörelse. Svårigheter kan därmed uppstå i arbetet med att förutse säkerhetsrisker på plats. Kollisioner mellan föremål och fall från höjder är exempel på olyckor på byggarbetsplatser. I en bygg – och anläggningsmiljö finns det också statiska risker relaterade till exempelvisdamm, farliga ämnen och kemikalier från färger, bränslen och lösningsmedel. Samtidigt befinner sig samhället i en era av digitalisering och innovation med bland annat artificiell intelligens (AI), drönare, building information modeling (BIM), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), digitala tvillingar, internet of things (IoT), automation, robotik och sensorteknik, vilka uppmärksammas på bred front. Dessahjälpmedel har potential att driva utvecklingen av arbetsmiljö - och säkerhetsarbetet inom byggbranschen. Samtidigt förknippas attityderna till byggbranschen med traditionella arbetssätt där digitalisering och ny teknik upplevs gå långsamt.Idag finns det många tekniker och digitala metoder för att säkra bygg- och anläggningsplatser. Detta har dock främst undersökts i kontrollerade forskningsmiljöer och testprojekt. Forskningsgapet ligger i det faktum att det inte finns tillräckligt med kunskap om implementering av teknik och digitala metoder i mer autentiskabygg- och anläggningsplatser. Studien syftar till att identifiera olika tekniker och digitala verktyg inom byggarbetsmiljö och säkerhet i den svenska kontexten. Syftet med denna uppsats är att ge en allmän förståelse för ämnet och att bredda perspektivet på befintliga attityder och beteenden gentemot digitala verktyg och tekniker inom byggarbetsmiljö och säkerhet. I detta examensarbete ligger fokus på byggarbetsplatser under produktionsfasen. Andra delar av byggprojektprocessen, såsom planerings- ochprojekteringsfaserna, beaktas genom att undersöka hur dessa skeden kan bidra till säkrare byggarbetsplatser. För att få fram empiriskt material har metoder baserade på kvalitativa undersökningar varit lämpliga där semistrukturerade intervjuer och fältarbete har genomförts. Technology acceptance model (TAM) har använts som ett teoretiskt ramverk för resultaten och tematisk analys har använts för att redogöra för empirin.I denna studie har det undersökts hur bygg – och anläggningsplatser kan bli säkrare med hjälp av digitalisering och ny teknik. Attityder och beteenden till implementering av digitala verktyg och teknik har också undersökts. Resultaten tyder på att det finns olika attityder till implementering av digitala verktyg och tekniker gällande byggarbetsmiljö och säkerhet i såväl planering- och projekteringsfasen som produktionsfasen. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att många av intervjudeltagarna var positiva till att använda digitala verktyg och tekniker i arbetsmiljö – och säkerhetssyfte. Men de var också skeptiska till framgången med implementeringen på grund av faktorer som kostnader, risker, traditionella metoder, attityder och beteenden. Attityderna och beteendena påverkar i sin tur den faktiska användningen av nya implementeringarför arbetsmiljö och säkerhetshantering. I den här uppsatsen hoppas vi kunna bredda perspektivet på hur digitala verktyg och teknik kan bidra till säkrare byggarbetsplatser och attityder och beteenden i frågan.

Automation of mobile construction and agricultural equipment has gained wide acceptance based on increases in productivity, safety, and precision; while also helping upskill operators. On construction equipment, after-market automation of earthmoving crawler dozers and graders has driven a conversion of machines to electro-hydraulic (EH) implement control and integration into digital worksites. Unlike the aforementioned machines, conversion of the excavator into a semi or fully autonomous machine presents significant challenges due to kinematics, variable loads, non-linear multi-function of implements, safety, and robustness. The present work demonstrates the retrofit of a pilot-operated 21-ton excavator and development of automated controls to address these challenges. The operator pilot joysticks and existing hydraulic system were retained, while adding capability for autonomous functionality with integrated hardware, controls, and kinematic solvers within a production viable environment. Autonomous features for path planning, multi-function actuator velocity control, EH controls, and safety were developed to prove the value of precise and low latency control hardware for EH excavator operation.