Current Projects:

Field Demonstration and Performance Specification of a Thermal-Based Intelligent Compaction Technology

Sponsor: USDOT-Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

The adoption of Intelligent Compaction (IC) technology in asphalt road construction yields both environmental and economic advantages compared to traditional methods. Unlike non-IC rolling practices, IC allows for corrective actions during installation, reducing fuel consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG)/CO2 emissions, and operational costs. While various companies offer IC systems, its application in the asphalt roadbuilding sector is relatively recent. The utilization of West Virginia University's (WVU) IC technology, applicable to all commercially available IC compaction equipment, has substantial potential to lower technology costs, boost market adoption, maintain asphalt performance, and positively impact the environment. The project's field demonstration and performance specifications will furnish essential real-world data, demonstrating the system's capabilities over time in full-scale deployment. These documented findings play a crucial role in technology transfer, facilitating the translation of research outcomes and early-stage intellectual property into foundations for new product development for public benefit.

Collaborator: Virginia Tech

Impacts of Drone Distractions on Working Safety at Heights in Construction

Sponsor: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

The increasing utilization of drones in construction projects introduces new safety concerns, particularly the risk of drone-induced distraction when operating in close proximity to human workers. This distraction poses a heightened threat to safety, potentially increasing the likelihood of falls, slips, and trips, given that distraction is a major contributing factor to such incidents. This project aims to investigate the impact of drones (both visually and acoustically) on the attention and safety of workers at elevated positions in construction fields. The research will explore whether the presence of a drone diverts workers' visual attention, potentially hindering their ability to recognize hazards like leading edges and unguarded openings on floors. Additionally, the study will assess whether the presence of a drone requires workers to exert extra effort to maintain balance when working on sloped surfaces. Through this investigation, the project seeks to establish quantitative relationships that delineate the influence of flying drones on the distraction and safety of construction workers at elevated positions.

Collaborator: UW-Madison

Image-Based Vehicle Height Measurement for Prevention of Low Clearance Infrastructure Collisions

Sponsor: USDOT-Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

There are a considerable number of old low clearance bridges and tunnels throughout the United States, which cause accidents associated with crashes of trucks on these structures. This project is to develop a pragmatic vehicle warning system for avoidance of low clearance collision based on the PI’s prior work and state-of-the-art deep learning and single view geometry in computer vision. The research will address hurdles in estimation due to vehicle shadows, irregular vehicle shapes (e.g., a flatbed carrying a tarped load), and vehicle occlusions (e.g., part of a vehicle is blocked by another one), maximizing the potential for overheight vehicle detection and collision warning in real traffic settings.

Development of a Virtual Weigh-In-Motion System for Enhanced Pavement System Management

Sponsor: USDOT-Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

This project leverages the data collected by WIM and streams captured by the traffic surveillance video from the state DOTs to develop a low-cost, powerful Virtual Weigh-In-Motion (V-WIM) system based on analytical, computer vision, and machine learning techniques. In addition to WIM that captures weights of passing vehicles, the proposed V-WIM system provides functions including vehicle detection, speed measurement, identification of vehicle’s axle configurations, recognition of vehicle types, and measurement of volumes of different types of vehicles that have passed the installation location of the system within certain period of time. The developed system eliminates the need of the induction loop installation in the pavement for vehicle presence detection.

Collaborator: Virginia Tech

Development and Dissemination of Education Modules and Tools for CIAMTIS Advanced Research Concepts

Sponsor: USDOT-Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

This collaborative initiative aims to create and disseminate educational modules and resources focusing on advanced research concepts within CIAMTIS. These resources will encompass various tools, including system dynamics modeling that illustrates the integration of condition assessment and health monitoring of infrastructure with innovative approaches to infrastructure management and financing. Additionally, the project intends to produce an education and workforce development kit, utilizing 3D printing to create a scaled representation (1/40 scale) of integrated infrastructure components such as road pavement, bridges, and traffic control infrastructure. This kit is designed for use in undergraduate courses. Furthermore, the project involves the development of a virtual/augmented reality demonstration kit, complete with an application programming interface (API) module. This kit is intended for utilization in graduate courses, enhancing learning experiences through simulation and asset management software.

Collaborator: Virginia Tech

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Inspection of Tack Coats and Ancillary Highway Structures

Sponsor: USDOT-Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

This project will investigate the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to accelerate and improve the inspection of tack coats and ancillary structures. The research team will take a data-driven approach to identify the key assessment needs and data products in support of DOT inspection workflows, and to implement these criteria to dictate the development of the necessary algorithms and UAV hardware.

Collaborators: Virginia Tech, George Mason University

Automated Path Tracking and Mapping for Economical, Real-Time, and Knowledge-Based Roller Control in Pavement Compaction Operations

Sponsor: USDOT-Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS)

This project aims to develop algorithms that exploit thermal imaging modality to automatically track and map paths for economical, real-time roller control in pavement compaction operations. The developed technology promises to be low-cost and addresses issues in places where GPS signal is a problem to the existing IC devices. If successful, the outcome of this project will help state DOT pavement management offices and paving companies better monitor, control, and document the quality of the pavement operations undertaken by roller operators. See our publication and video ( 1 and 2).

Interchangeable Walkway and Liaison Services to Aid in the Measurements and Dissemination of the Coefficient of Friction (CF) of Footwear on Slope Roof Surface

Sponsor: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Slips and falls remain very important safety issues among roof construction workers. A majority of the fatal and non-fatal injuries result from slips on sloped roof surfaces while residential roofers engage in tasks such as walking on the sloped roof surface, working with awkward postures, and applying repeated motions and/or forceful actions in the installations of roof materials. As a thrust to address the roofer safety issue, this project aims to develop an interchangeable walkway to aid in the measurements of the coefficient of friction (CF) of footwear on slope roof surface and provide liaison services for dissemination of the research outcomes among the industry.

Past Projects:

• Prediction of Pavement Performance via Integrated Pavement Health and Traffic Monitoring with Deep Learning and Predictive Modeling
  
• FW-HTF-P: Collaborative Research: Exoskeleton-Assisted Worker Performance Augmentation in Construction
  
• Evaluation of IoT-Enabled Pavement Response Monitoring for Transportation System Management
  
• Combined Structural Health and Traffic Monitoring using Fiber Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing
  
• Development of a Cost-Effective Sensing System for Real-time Traffic Data Acquisition in Support of Pavement Management
  
• Design and Construction of a Loading Device for the Measurements of the Coefficient of Friction (CF) of Footwear on Slope Roof Surface
  
• Measuring Current Traffic Safety Culture via Social Media Mining
• Holographic Visual Interaction and Remote Collaboration in Construction Safety and Health
• Evaluation of Intervention Methods for Reducing MSDs among Roofers
  
• Development of a Guidebook for Determining the Value of Research Results
  
• V-Helmet: Image-Based Real-Time Localization of Site Workers for Automated Construction Safety Management
• Photogrammetric Modeling for Construction Operations Simulation: From Two-Dimensional Site Photos to Four-Dimensional Simulation Models