Project Description

Construction projects are characterized by the large amount of data that needs to be collected, processed, and exchanged among the different project participants. Collection of construction inspection data, in particular, allows field personnel to monitor project performance with the ultimate goal of improving productivity and lowering costs. The accomplishment of these two goals could lead to better construction project management and performance that could in turn reduce the time required for project delivery.

Current practices for recording and filing of field inspection data are mainly paper-based. This manual process using paper forms is a time consuming and tedious task. Not only is the clerical expense of this process very high, but also the organization and review of the information commands an inordinate amount of time by a project manager, of which most managers posses very little. Continuous evolvement and improvements of mobile computing such as iPADs and Android Tablets, software technologies, including more powerful processors, smaller storage devices, higher quality displays, and wide availability of third party application software, have made it possible for these devices to become stand alone systems with powerful functional capabilities. Because of their high mobility characteristics due to their small size and lightweight, these mobile devices can be used in the construction field to perform various tasks including recording of inspection data. The use of such mobile devices in construction processes seems to be the next logical step.

This proposal intends to develop a mobile computing application for automating the collection process of field inspection data using iPADs or Android Tablets. The development of this application could result in faster transfer of information between the parties in a construction project, therefore improving the current communication process. In addition, by automating the inspection process and subsequent reporting and information transfer flow this could results in improvements in the overall process and shortening in the overall project delivery cycle. Once the application has been developed, the research team will test it in a highway construction project to verify its suitability and changes needed.