Role of mobile technology in the construction industry - A case study

The construction industry is facing a number of pressures to decrease costs, improve productivity and have a competitive edge in terms of quality of service and customer satisfaction. Recent advancements in mobile technology provide new avenues for addressing this situation. This paper presents the role of emerging mobile technologies and, in particular, the development of a mobile facsimile solution that assists collaborative communications between parties on or away from the construction site. This paper first identifies potential use cases for mobile technologies in the construction industry and highlights the issues that would hamper their adoption. It discusses the modelling of the problems related to the workflow of a construction process with the aid of a focus group formed with various construction industry representatives in New Zealand. The various problem-solving processes adopted by the industry practitioners at different functional levels are analysed and the findings summarised. Finally, this paper describes the development of one such mobile solution, called ClikiFax, which could address some of the issues and pressures prevailing in the context of the New Zealand construction industry. Copyright © 2009, Inderscience Publishers

Blockchain for energy efficiency training in the construction industry

The construction sector faces the urgent need to prioritize energy efficiency due to an increasingly stringent regulatory landscape in response to the climate change agenda. Central to this transition is the pivotal role of education in equipping professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills. Educational solutions have emerged as powerful tools for promoting awareness and interventions to mitigate climate change. This article provides a case study that highlights the successful utilisation of computer technology in delivering digital solutions to advance energy education and promote more informed energy practices in the construction industry. The utilisation of digital technologies can enhance collaborative efforts in energy efficiency training, which is of critical significance in ensuring the security, sovereignty, transparency, immutability, and decentralisation of interventions related to energy education. This paper presents a framework that utilises Blockchain technology to facilitate training labelling and authenticity based on smart contracts and mobile passports to provide a secure and efficient solution for the delivery of training and education in the energy domain. Our research examines the challenges and opportunities related to energy efficiency training within the construction industry. By integrating industry-specific insights, exemplifications, and case studies, we provide an in-depth understanding of the interconnection between energy efficiency education and digital solutions with the unique context of the construction industry. We underscore the importance of leveraging digital platforms as educational tools to foster a deeper understanding and adoption of energy-efficient practices. We demonstrate that educational solutions play a pivotal role in driving awareness and interventions for mitigating climate change, greatly empowering individuals and organizations to adopt energy-efficient practices and to address sustainability objectives

Evaluating critical success factors for implementing smart devices in the construction industry: An empirical study in the Dominican Republic

Purpose: The decentralisation of information and high rate of mobile content access in the construction industry provides an ideal scenario for improvement of processes via the implementation of the paradigm of the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart devices are considered as the objects interconnected in the IoT; therefore they play a fundamental role in the implementation of digital solutions during the execution of construction projects. This paper is aimed at assessing the critical factors for a successful implementation of smart devices in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical study was performed in the Dominican Republic. This country, located at the heart of the Caribbean presents an economy that strongly relies on the construction industry. Following a systematic approach, a qualitative data collection and analysis was performed based on semistructured interviews and content analysis to professionals of construction companies in the Dominican Republic, enquiring the concept of smart devices and critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing the devices in the industry. Findings: The key success factors obtained from the contestants were Leadership, technology awareness, company size, usability of proposed solution, cost of implementation and interoperability. Originality/value: This paper provides information to clients of the construction sector regarding the benefits of embedding smart devices into their business activities. Furthermore, this study provides a better understanding of the key factors to be considered by construction organisations when embedding smart devices into their projects. This study also provides recommendations for distinct stakeholders of the construction sector, such as policymakers, clients and technology consultants. Policymakers should especially consider factors such as technology awareness and leadership to develop the right policies for the integration of the IoT in construction projects. Technology consultants should be aware of the latest case studies of successful implementation of smart devices and IoT systems in the world in order to adapt and implement smart devices and IoT in their projects

An assistive robotics control system based on speech semantic recognition

Since 90’s era, many researchers and organizations are working on assistive technologies to ease the disabilities people to move around freely, independence, comfort and have the capabilities to enjoy life to the fullest. Nowadays, most of assistive technologies such as manual wheelchairs are propelled by patients sitting on the chair and physically turning the large rear wheels with hand or need helpers to push the chair by handles from behind of the wheelchair. Meanwhile, most of voice command wheelchair unable to deal with an unknown word and cannot take spontaneous speech data from the native speakers. Thus, this project proposes a method of control system for an assistive robotic based on speech semantic recognition through hardware implementation. Consequently, the purpose of this project is to develop a system based on speech semantic or meaning or the interpretation of a word, sentence, or others language form that can be used for an assistive robot. The mobile robot is represented as a wheelchair and a home prototype floor plan is represented as a house with four rooms (living room, toilet, kitchen and bedroom). The mobile robot moves according to the semantic of user commands and the commands are given on Android application Arduino Bluetooth Controller. This Android application is used to catch the command using Google Voice and send the command through Bluetooth HC-05 that connected to the Arduino. Moreover, the obstacle avoidance sensor used for this project is SHARP IR Distance Measurement sensor that standby when their obstacles in front of this mobile robot and the navigation system of this mobile robot are using Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The effectiveness of this mobile robot has been tested using qualitative method by gathered 12 respondents to test this mobile robot on the floor plan. The total effectiveness of this mobile robot is 83%. This mobile robot is still effective but there are some parts that are still missing and need to be improved. Finally, the main contribution of this project is to help physically handicapped people such as patients who cannot move their feet by controlling using speech meanings through helpful robotics applications

Agricultural information dissemination using ICTs: a review and analysis of information dissemination models in China

Open Access funded by China Agricultural UniversityOver the last three decades, China’s agriculture sector has been transformed from the traditional to modern practice through the effective deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Information processing and dissemination have played a critical role in this transformation process. Many studies in relation to agriculture information services have been conducted in China, but few of them have attempted to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of different information dissemination models and their applications. This paper aims to review and identify the ICT based information dissemination models in China and to share the knowledge and experience in applying emerging ICTs in disseminating agriculture information to farmers and farm communities to improve productivity and economic, social and environmental sustainability. The paper reviews and analyzes the development stages of China’s agricultural information dissemination systems and different mechanisms for agricultural information service development and operations. Seven ICT-based information dissemination models are identified and discussed. Success cases are presented. The findings provide a useful direction for researchers and practitioners in developing future ICT based information dissemination systems. It is hoped that this paper will also help other developing countries to learn from China’s experience and best practice in their endeavor of applying emerging ICTs in agriculture information dissemination and knowledge transfer

An Examination of Manufactured Housing as a Community- and Asset-Building Strategy

An increasing share of lower-income families, the same population targeted by community-development organizations, are opting to live in housing that was built off-site in a factory to meet the performance standards of the national HUD manufactured-housing code. However, most community-development practitioners are just beginning to come to terms with the implications of manufactured housing for their work.This paper explores advantages and disadvantages of manufactured housing for those entities whose mission is community development and asset building. Several challenges are presented for practitioners: First, working to educate consumers while also creating financing processes that ensure manufactured home buyers obtain credit on the best terms for which they can qualify. Second, using the increased scrutiny under the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 to advocate for states to enforce more rigorous installation standards and increased accountability. Third, working to overcome land-use controls which prevent manufactured homes from being placed in communities in need of affordable housing, as well as areas with more potential for appreciation. Fourth, working with designers and planners to develop innovative designs and housing developments, while maintaining manufactured housing's affordability advantages.Finally, equal effort must be devoted to address the difficult conditions of many lower-income people -- owners and renters alike -- living in older, and often deteriorating, mobile homes. While a few of these families and individuals could be relocated to new and better quality homes with the help of subsidies, resource limitations suggest the need to create cost-effective methods to eliminate health and safety problems by upgrading or rehabilitating this extremely affordable element of the nation's housing inventory.As a companion to this paper, an exhaustive literature review has been compiled

‘I Don’t Trust the Phone; It Always Lies’:Trust and Information and Communication Technologies in Tanzanian Micro- and Small Enterprises

Despite its importance in African enterprise, the issue of ¿trust¿ is absent in information and communication technology for development scholarship. This article examines three case study subsectors of the Tanzanian economy to shed light on some of the complexities surrounding the sudden interface between traditional, established communication, and the increasing use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). It seems from the case studies that, whereas mobile phones are indeed creating new forms of network in the twenty-first century, they are still far from being Africa's dominant form of network as Støvring (2004, 22) contends. The case studies reveal the overlap between social interaction and business in an African economy. Trust emerges as a common theme, and I discuss how important an issue it is in relation to the new form of communication that ICT provides for entrepreneurs in Africa. I suggest that, in relation to ICT in developing countries, trust might at this stage be separated from the more slippery concept of social capital that it is frequently associated with elsewhere. I then reflect on the implications of this for future research into ICT and its business and nonbusiness applications in developing countries. I conclude by suggesting that the need for direct, personal interaction through face-to-face contact¿a traditional pre-ICT aspect of African business culture¿is unlikely to change for some tim

A study of BIM collaboration requirements and available features in existing model collaboration systems

Established collaboration practices in the construction industry are document centric and are challenged by the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Document management collaboration systems (e.g. Extranets) have significantly improved the document collaboration in recent years; however their capabilities for model collaboration are limited and do not support the complex requirements of BIM collaboration. The construction industry is responding to this situation by adopting emerging model collaboration systems (MCS), such as model servers, with the ability to exploit and reuse information directly from the models to extend the current intra-disciplinary collaboration towards integrated multi-disciplinary collaboration on models. The functions of existing MCSs have evolved from the manufacturing industry and there is no concrete study on how these functions correspond to the requirements of the construction industry, especially with BIM requirements. This research has conducted focus group sessions with major industry disciplines to explore the user requirements for BIM collaboration. The research results have been used to categorise and express the features of existing MCS which are then analysed in selected MCS from a user’s perspective. The potential of MCS and the match or gap in user requirements and available model collaboration features is discussed. This study concludes that model collaborative solutions for construction industry users are available in different capacities; however a comprehensive custom built solution is yet to be realized. The research results are useful for construction industry professionals, software developers and researchers involved in exploring collaborative solutions for the construction industry