• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.673-673
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• 2015

Earthwork is an operation that provides space for structures, and it takes up a large portion of the construction costs in a construction project. In large-scale earthwork, numerous types of construction equipment are used in the operation. The types of equipment should be selected based on the field conditions and the construction methods. These construction vehicles are constantly changing positions during the earthwork operation. Therefore, the equipment operators require effective communication to ensure the efficiency of the earthwork operation. All equipment operators should exchange information with the other equipment operators. Information should be exchanged continuously to support decision making and increase productivity during the earthwork operation at the construction site. This paper investigates the attributes required for an information interface between construction vehicles during an earthwork operation. This paper 1) discusses the importance of an information interface for construction vehicles in order to increase productivity during an earthwork operation, 2) analyses the types of attributes that need to be communicated between construction vehicles, and 3) provides a database that has been built for attribute control. The database built for the information interface between construction vehicles will enhance communication between vehicle operators. Table I shows the typical attributes that should be shared between the excavator operator and the dump truck operator. This information needs to be shared among the operators, as it helps them to plan the earthwork operation in a more efficient manner. A database has been developed to store this information in an entity relation diagram. A user-interface display environment is also developed to provide this information to the operators in the construction vehicles. The proposed interface can help exchange information effectively and facilitate a common understanding during the earthwork operation. For example, the vehicle operators will be aware of the planned volume, excavated volume, transportation time, and transportation numbers. As a part of this study, mobile devices, such as mobile phones and google glasses, will be used as hands-on communication tools.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.167-174
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• 2017

Earthwork is to level or excavate the ground to provide a space for installing structures. A large number of construction equipment such as excavators, dozers, and dump trucks are put into the earthwork operation. The equipment operators need to constantly communicate with each other during the operation. In the earthwork operation, therefore, the process should be analyzed on the equipment operation to improve the effectiveness of communication. The objective of this study is to understand the earthwork process, and improve the effectiveness of data interface by adopting the smart glass technology. In the study, the general process of earthwork is modeled using a process diagram. The data that is generated during the process is modeled using a class diagram. A database is developed to store and reuse the data. The smart glass technology is adopted to develop a data interface during the earthwork operation. The result of the prototype showed that the technology can improve the data interface during excavation overcoming the shortcomings of hand or sound signals.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.245-247
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• 2015

The Building Information Model (BIM) is gaining wide popularity in the construction industry. This attempt is, however, limited to a predefined operation of structural facilities. The application of BIM can be extended to include undefined operations in earthwork construction. The objective of this paper is to introduce the concept of an earthwork BIM environment that is currently under development in the Construction System Laboratory at Pusan National University. First, this paper defines the concept of earthwork BIM. Second, it discusses the key aspects of earthwork BIM, including 1) geographical information, 2) equipment configuration, and 3) equipment position. In the future, the 3D BIM environment will be tested at an actual construction site to determine its applicability, and it will be extended to include construction equipment such as bull dozers and pay loaders.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.699-706
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• 2015

Earthwork is executed to provide a space for facility structures, and plays an important role in the construction operation. Contractors usually put a combination of construction vehicles to execute the earthwork operation. These construction vehicles need to interface with each other for productivity improvement. The objective of this study is to prototype an earthwork supportive system for information interface between construction vehicles. The study is conducted in a sequence of 1) analysis of information interface during earthwork; 2) data modeling of earthwork attributes; and 3) development of a prototype for the earthwork supportive system. The output screen images of the prototype show that the earthwork supportive system can improve communication between construction vehicles by facilitating information interface during earthwork.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1191-1202
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• 2013

The former researches on earthwork automation were mainly focused on GPS and sensor application, environment modelling, equipment path planning, work information management, and remote control etc. Recently, reducing $CO_2$ emission becomes one of main focuses for an automation research. In the case of earthwork operations, many kinds of construction machines or robots are involved, which can cause high level of $CO_2$ in a construction site. An effective earthwork plan and construction machine operation can both increase productivity and safety and decrease $CO_2$ emission level. In this research, some automation concepts for green earthworks are suggested such as a 3D construction site model, a 3D earthwork distribution based on two different earthwork methods, and an earthwork package construction method. A excel-based simulator is developed to generate the 3D earthwork distribution and to estimate the level of $CO_2$ emission for the given earthwork.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.78-86
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• 2020

Dozer is an expensive construction equipment and has a significant performance impact on earthwork performance. A machine guidance system has been applied to dozer equipment as a solution that can improve the performance. The system can provide earthwork-related information to equipment operators so that earthworks can be carried out with minimum support from surveyors. Construction Equipment Machine guidance has the function of supporting earthwork according to an earthwork plan by providing excavation-related information to machine operators. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance improvement of a machine guidance system for an dozer earthwork operation, and to compare the machine guidance method with the traditional method. The performance has been evaluated in two folds: 1) productivity and 2) accuracy. The productivity shows the quantity of earthwork for a given unit time. The accuracy shows the deviation of grading level from the designed level on the construction drawing for earthwork. The machine guidance system has been applied to a testing bed in a construction site. Data comparison analysis showed that the earth earthwork had 46.59% improvement in productivity as well as 46.96% improvement in accuracy, and is expected to provide a tool for applying smart constrction to the earthwork operation.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.537-539
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• 2015

considerate operation is a major issue in the equipment-intensive operation. Identifying an optimal equipment combination is important to achieve low-energy operations. An Earthwork operation planning system, which measures the energy consumption of construction operations by taking into account construction equipments' engineering attributes (e.g., weight, capacity, energy consumption rate, etc.) and operation conditions (e.g., road condition, attributes of materials to be moved, geometric information, etc.), is essential to achieve the low-energy consumption. This study develops an automated computerized system which identifies an optimal earthmoving equipment fleet minimizing the energy consumption. The system imports a standard template of earthmoving operation model and compares numerous scenarios using alternative equipment allocation plans. It finds the fleet that minimizes the energy consumption by enumerating all cases using sensitivity analysis. A case study is presented to verify the validity of the system.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.1194-1201
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• 2022

The existing literature has witnessed the importance of productivity assessment and deducing factors affecting it. However, yet many models have shown limitations in practical applications in actual construction sites for process planning due to uncertainty and lack of data. This research presents a productivity assessment and database generation framework using simulation and compares the results with RSMeans to derive appropriate equipment combinations alternatives for earthwork operations. Data of 15 different conditions was collected from 5 different construction sites. Prediction accuracy above 90% were achieved for the simulation models with average error rate of 7.4%. The construction productivity assessment framework presented in this study is expected to be highly applicable to operation planning for earthwork operations.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.101-109
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• 2016

During road construction, minimizing haul and return distances as well as keeping a balance between cut and fill quantities are two of the key tasks for earthmoving operation planning. The result of the earthwork planning has a significant impact on the construction cost and duration. Although there have been research efforts regarding optimized earthwork planning using linear programming, the current practice of selecting earthwork planning methods typically depends on a field manager's intuitive and/or experimental knowledge. Furthermore, there is no system considering earthwork influential field factors including the transportation distance, the earthwork quantity, and the recycling ratio of earth volume. Therefore, this research focuses on the development of such a model for planning the optimized earthwork to increase the efficiency of a road construction. The proposed model is developed based upon the transportation problem method which is a part of Linear Programming. The application result of optimization model on a case study shows that the duration and cost for earthwork ha sbeen reduced approximately 19% and 11% respectively

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to suggest the optimized transfer algorithm of earthwork considering the precluded area such as the lake, bogs. The earthwork transfer plan in massive cutting and banking should be established because of affecting the construction cost highly. Until now, there was the study about the optimized earthwork transfer model considering the OR(Operating Research). but isn't the study about the model considering the precluded area such as the lake, bogs. In most cases, the engineer adjusts the earthwork transfer path considering the precluded area, manually. The presented model suggests to calculate various visibility paths with $A^*$algorithm after converting the precluded area to polygon topology. By using this paths, the minimum cost path to optimize the earthwork transfer can be obtained. In this study, the validity of the model was proved as implementing the system for the optimized earthwork transfer considering the precluded area.