Effective Monitoring of the Concrete Pouring Operation in an RFID-Based Environment

A ubiquitous sensing and communications environment, recently introduced to the construction industry, requires not only the development of a Web-based system, but also the integration of this system with hardware devices. This fusion of software and hardware enables real-time acquisition of construction data. The objective of this paper is to provide data communications in the concrete pouring operation using radio-frequency identification device (RFID) technology. A prototype ubiquitous concrete pour monitoring system (u-CPMS) has been developed to test the applicability of RFID-based monitoring in the concrete pouring operation. The prototype can automatically generate time-related data for activities such as batch delivery, waiting, concrete pouring, and vehicle return. Using the u-CPMS, the batch plant personnel dispatched to the construction site can keep track of the progress of concrete pouring through the wireless internet and make decisions on the batch intervals of mixer trucks. The prototype u-CPMS was implemented on a commercial building site, and it demonstrated that the RFID-based system can help increase the effectiveness of data communication in the concrete pouring operation.