(2010) iSafe Safety Field Inspection System
Exploring a new way for construction safety audit
Occupational safety is an important issue in construction. Although technology innovations are benefiting the different areas of construction, safety, still being challenged by fatalities in the industry, has not fully taken advantage of these innovations. Besides, safety audit data collected by contractors internally have mostly been used for meeting discussions only and not been further utilized for active learning. Additionally, the paper-based audit method is not well structured and often leads to repeated efforts and inconsistency among the data records. In this research, we proposed a safety audit system, iSafe, to facilitate the safety audit process on site and to collect high-quality data records for violation pattern analysis. The system went through three stages of design and development with the participation of safety subject experts from the greater Seattle area. An iPad 2 based prototype system was developed for field use and evaluation. A questionnaire survey was administered for the initial assessment of iSafe and the system is currently undergoing a three month field evaluation phase with the participation of three general contractors. The design and development of the system has been previously reported and the paper will limit its discussion to the strategies used during prototype deployment.
Related Publication:
Lin, K.Y., Tsai, M.H., Gatti, U., Lin, J., Lee, C.H., and Kang, S.C., (first published online on Sep.16, 2014) “A User-centered Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Tool to Improve Safety Inspections”, Automation in Construction, Vol. 48, 2014, pp. 53 – 63.
Lee, C.H., Lin, K.Y., Kang, S.C., (2012), “iSafe: An Innovative iPad System for Construction Site Safety Audits”, in the proceedings of the International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE) 2012, June 27 – 29, 2012, Moscow, Russia.
Lin, K.Y., Tsai, M.H., and Kang, S.C., (2011) “The Development of an Innovative Tool Kit to Support Construction Field Inspections”, in the proceedings of CIB W099 Safety and Health for Construction 2011, August 24 – 26, 2011, Washington DC, USA.
