A Digital Twin Model for Advancing Construction Safety

Information-driven management and control of physical systems have emerged over the past decade in multiple industrial sectors and more recently also in construction. Such models are called “Digital twins”. However, in the domain of construction, and in particular in its specialty discipline safety, a digital twin (DT) remains rather undefined. Little or no consensus exists among researchers and practitioners of two essential aspects: (a) the connection between the physical reality of a construction site (the “physical” twin) and the corresponding computer model (the “digital” twin) and (b) the most effective selection and exploitation of real-life data for supporting safe design, planning, and execution of construction. This paper outlines the concept for a Digital Twin for Construction Safety (DTCS), defining four essential steps in the DT workflow: (1) safe design and planning for hazard prevention, (2) conformance checking for ensuring compliance, (3) risk monitoring and control for proactive prediction and alerting, and (4) continuous performance improvement for personalized- or project-based learning. DTCS should be viewed as a system-based approach enhancing the overall safety performance rather than exclusively integrating sensing information or safety knowledge in Building Information Modeling (BIM) for safety purposes. The result is an outline of our vision of the DTCS and a description of its modules in essential safety applications. Additionally, we point towards future research and development on this topic.