Road construction safety has traditionally focused on drivers as they travel by the work zone. But a new effort by researchers at the University of Dayton is working to improve safety inside the orange barrels.
WYSO’s Mike Frazier spoke with Hui “Jack” Wang, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Dayton. His team is working on a system of advanced sensors to detect hazards before they hurt workers on a job site.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hui “Jack” Wang: We call it Integrated Acoustic and Vision Sensing System for Worker Safety Early Warning. So our aim is to enhance the job site situational awareness of our workers and also the site project managers. The system can identify the location of potential hazards, like slow-moving heavy equipment during the noisy and maybe the low visibility conditions so that workers who may be close to that heavy equipment can be reminded and alarmed so that they can pay attention to the surrounding environment and avoid potential injury.
Mike Frazier: So it's like an extra set of eyes and ears for the workers to keep them safe.
Wang: That's true, yes. This is a sensor array, so Vision means we have thermal cameras and also the visible-light cameras. During good visibility conditions, probably both cameras can be effective. But under the very low visibility conditions like during the night shift and also maybe foggy and rainy conditions, probably a thermal camera is more effective. If there's an obstacle or some kind of object blocking a site, probably the microphone array can triangulate the location of the potential hazards without seeing it. That would be kind of secondary. Or sometimes it even can be the primary equipment for identifying hazards.
Frazier: Now, how will workers actually be protected with this array of sensors? How will they know if there's a problem?
Wang: We know the location of each worker using Bluetooth devices and the GPS-referenced beacon, so we know where the workers are and we know where the hazards are, so we can compute a kind of high-risk map of the job site in real time. So if any worker is in the high-risk zone, we just send a signal to them like some kind of vibration like a cell phone vibration. So let's say we can attach it to the variable sensors like a smartwatch. We can give the worker some haptic signal or even some sound signal like earbuds so they are told to basically watch out and be careful.
Frazier: So they're wearing earbuds and they have vibration items on them to tell them that there is a hazard and that they need to do something to fix it.
Wang: I think for earbuds probably the sound is good enough like some alarm sound, but there could be some secondary alert like your smart watch or let's say some variable equipment like a cell phone so it can vibrate and tell the worker. Yes, two different ways.
Frazier: Will this system help mitigate any issues regarding accidents caused by traffic?
Wang: You mean the outside intrusion, right? If a car runs into the work zone?
Frazier: Yes.
Wang: Okay, yes. We do take this into consideration. Right now, our solution is to integrate some kind of a smart traffic cone or smart barrel. We can add some calibrated cameras to measure the speed of the incoming vehicles and also the direction of the incoming vehicles, far away and in front of the work zone. We know the incoming vehicles' speed and distance. If any vehicle's direction is problematic or the speed is too fast, then we will have some early warning.
Frazier: Why is such a system important?
Wang: Safety is a major concern of the workforce. Each year those kinds of injuries can cost a huge amount of money but also give a negative impact on a lot of families. It's an economical problem, also a societal problem. If we can contribute to this field and improve workforce safety, especially work zone safety, I think this is a very, very impactful thing for the good of society. Research for the common good, which is also the value of the University of Dayton. Research for the common good.
