Automated Collection of Mixer Truck Operations Data in Highly Dense Urban Areas
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135, Issue 1
Abstract
Our research has investigated the feasibility of directly sourcing autonomous operations data from a construction-vehicle positioning system, so as to enable productivity analysis and simulation modeling in the practical context of ready mixed concrete production and delivery. In this paper, we first review research efforts related to applying radio frequency identification tags and global positioning system for tracking construction resources and acquiring operations data in the field. We then describe the technical design and system components of an automated data collection (ADC) solution to accumulating concrete delivery operations data, which is extended from a construction-vehicle positioning system tailored for highly dense urban areas. We further elaborate on how our ADC system captures, transforms, and analyzes data of mixer truck operations. Truck-tracking experiment results based on field trials are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of data sourced from our ADC system with respect to: (1) analyzing truck-waiting time versus truck-unloading time on site; and (2) predicting truck’s plant-to-site travel time. In conclusion, the ADC solution resulting from this research not only allows sophisticated analysis of mixer truck resource utilization at concreting sites situated in highly dense urban areas, but also provides an accumulation of input data that will enable concrete plant operations simulation modeling.
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Acknowledgments
This work described in this paper was substantially supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDA/C No. B-Q 806; Project No. UNSPECIFIEDPolyU 5141/04E). The writers thank Dr. Yongrong Sun, associate professor of college of automation at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, for his help in developing the integrated vehicle positioning system. The writers also thank the editor in charge and anonymous paper reviewers for their help in improving content and form.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 1 • January 2009
Pages: 17 - 23
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 13, 2007
Accepted: Jun 20, 2008
Published online: Jan 1, 2009
Published in print: Jan 2009
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