The Concept of Digital Twin for Construction Safety

“Digital twins” as models for information-driven management and control of physical systems have emerged over the past years in multiple industrial sectors and recently also in construction. However, in the domain of construction safety, a digital twin remains undefined, with little or no consensus among researchers and practitioners of two essential aspects: (1) the connection between the physical reality of a construction site (the “physical” twin) and the corresponding computer model (the “digital” twin), and (2) the most effective selection and exploitation of real-life data for supporting safe design, planning, and execution of construction. This paper outlines the concept for a Digital Twin for Construction Safety (DTCS), defining three essential steps in the digital twin workflow: (1) safe design and planning for hazard prevention, (2) risk monitoring and control for proactive prediction and warning, and (3) continuous performance improvement for personalized- or project-based learning. DTCS should be viewed as a system-based approach enhancing the overall safety performance rather than exclusively integrating sensing information or safety knowledge in Building Information Modeling (BIM) for safety purposes. The result is an outline of our vision of the DTCS and a description of its components. Additionally, we point toward future research on the topic.