Advances in Construction Safety: Emerging Technologies and Equipment Innovation

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 329

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, Jeounju University, Jeonju 54907, Republic of Korea
Interests: BIM (building information model); architectural spatial analysis; construction management; IoT technology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The construction industry remains one of the most hazardous industrial sectors worldwide, with persistent safety challenges despite continuous regulatory and managerial efforts. In recent years, rapid advancements in emerging technologies and innovative construction equipment have created new opportunities to fundamentally transform safety management practices across construction sites.

In this Special Issue of Buildings, titled “Advances in Construction Safety: Emerging Technologies and Equipment Innovation”, we aim to explore how cutting-edge technologies are reshaping the prevention, monitoring, and management of safety risks in construction environments. This Special Issue invites contributions that examine the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative technological solutions designed to enhance worker protection, reduce accidents, and improve overall safety performance.

Key topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for hazard detection and risk prediction;
  • Use of Internet of Things (IoT) and real-time monitoring systems for construction safety management;
  • Robotics and automation for hazardous task mitigation and worker assistance;
  • Wearable technologies and smart personal protective equipment (PPE) for worker health and safety;
  • Digital twins and simulation-based approaches for safety planning and decision-making;
  • Human–machine interaction and ergonomics in safety-critical construction operations;
  • Evaluation of innovative safety equipment and technologies through field studies and experiments;
  • Integration of emerging safety technologies with existing safety regulations, standards, and management systems.

This Special Issue seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of current advances and future directions in construction safety technologies, offering both theoretical insights and practical guidance for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working toward safer and more resilient construction environments.

Prof. Dr. Sungil Ham
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • construction safety technologies
  • smart construction equipment
  • wearable safety devices
  • smart construction equipment
  • wearable safety devices
  • AI-based risk detection
  • IoT and real-time monitoring
  • robotics and automation in construction
  • digital twins for safety management

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2507 KB  
Article
BIM-Based Safety Design Guide Systems Using Rule Checking and LLM Approaches for Preventing Construction Accidents
by Chijoo Lee and Sungil Ham
Buildings 2026, 16(11), 2200; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16112200 - 29 May 2026
Viewed by 153
Abstract
This study developed a building information modeling (BIM)-based rule checking and safety design guide system that can automatically provide construction and safety rules to designers so they can prevent construction accidents. The study begins with an in-depth analysis of national construction accident data [...] Read more.
This study developed a building information modeling (BIM)-based rule checking and safety design guide system that can automatically provide construction and safety rules to designers so they can prevent construction accidents. The study begins with an in-depth analysis of national construction accident data in the Republic of Korea, including statistics on accident types, causes, and frequency obtained from official sources such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor and related governmental reports. Based on this analysis, priority accident types, particularly fall-related accidents, were identified and used to define the scope of safety rule development. The first function of the system is to generate safety rules and automatically display the safety design guide in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) model. For this function, this study developed a sub-Coordination View of Model View Definition (MVD) based on the IFC instance, which extracts the objects’ shape- and attribute-related information from the target objects of the IFC model and displays the relationships between those objects in a diagram. The MVD viewer’s convenience and speed can reduce development costs. It can provide specific safety design guides, such as automatically modeling virtual fences in areas prone to fall accidents. The second function is to use large language models to display objects that must be considered in safety design without generating rules. The system function is an assistive language–data bridge. Since it does not create safety rules, it can further reduce time and effort for system development and prevent various construction accidents because there is no need to create rules. Full article
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