Continuous monitoring of construction sites using mobile machinery - a case study

Regularly monitoring construction sites is essential for progress tracking and safety evaluation during a construction project. Conventional methods rely on periodic surveys and manual data collection through site personnel. Additionally, current research investigates the use of unmanned ground/aerial vehicles. However, both approaches present limitations, such as time and labor inefficiency, or unreliable navigation and susceptibility to harsh outdoor conditions. In this paper, we present a novel approach for site monitoring by augmenting mobile construction machinery with sensors and leveraging their mobility onsite. To validate this approach, a wheel loader was equipped with a setup consisting of LiDAR, Camera, and GNSS sensors and deployed it over multiple months during a real road construction project. This paper analyzes the setup’s performance during outdoor operation and the quality of the collected data for the implementation of automated and continuous mapping. Afterward, the encountered challenges and advantages of our approach are discussed. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using mobile machinery for this task and are a first step for an automated site monitoring system.