CPS-Based Approach to Improve Management of Heavy Construction Projects

This chapter presents an application of the Cyber Physical Systems-based approach for enhancing real-time bi-directional progress monitoring and control of highway and road projects. The goal of the proposed CPS application is to enable deployment of integrated computational and physical systems in the construction phase of roadway projects. To this end, the method makes use of Earned Value (EV) monitoring method and Raspberry Pi microprocessors. The application and significance of each of the CPS layers in the proposed control and monitoring application is discussed to improve future outcomes. The generated CPS-based system tends to minimize the need for reconfiguration and reprogramming of the computational processes as it is based on adaptive interaction of computation/control processes with the physical construction processes and components. A proof of concept case study is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed CPS approach.