Swarm nodes for automated steel installation tracking: A case study

Abstract Monitoring the installation of building components offers great opportunities for enhancing not only the productivity but the performance of construction operations. Existing approaches and technologies still suffer from low level automation and lack of adaptability to material installation processes. This paper examines the feasibility of automatically tracking the installation of building components using proximity data obtained from swarm nodes. Proximity data were collected from tagged steel components during the installation process and compared with that obtained from the design model. Experiments were conducted to determine the accuracy of the swarm nodes. The error obtained from the experiments was used to set a buffer or tolerance around the components for accurately capturing the installation status in the developed system. This result has demonstrated that the application of swarm nodes has the potential to automatically track the installation of building components.