Page 133 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

Industry-driven digital transformation

digital platforms focus on one particular user group (e.g., site transmission between machines, external sensors, and a
manager or construction worker). Especially, the processing central digital process platform. The communication
and analysis of machine data within a platform is covered infrastructure needs to be able to process, transmit, and save
sporadically within the related work and often realized on heterogeneous data types at different frequencies and ideally
a conceptual level. With our digital process platform, we with low latencies. Also, the security and robustness of
support multiple user groups and implement the integration the communication infrastructure need to be ensured. The
of machine data. communication infrastructure is dependent on the available
communication technology and the provided machinery and
2.3 Hardware and Communication Infrastructure edge devices.
Components The second part consists of off-site requirements for designing
the digital process platform. This set of requirements is based
Within our communication infrastructure, various on use cases, which specify the intended use of our platform
technological concepts and components are used. One and support the needs of the target users. For the definition
important aspect with regard to our proposed communication of these use cases, we identified the three following users:
infrastructure are the paradigms edge and cloud computing.
A state-of-the-art review about edge and cloud computing 1. The construction worker, who needs to receive
can be found in references [17–21]. Furthermore, different the necessary information about the tasks assigned
communication infrastructure designs and architectures for in combination with additional information about
CPS outside of the construction sector are reviewed in [22] task-specific machines and equipment.
and [23]. Another aspect of our proposed communication
2. The site manager, who monitors the quality of all
infrastructure deals with the topic of data integration. Kadadi
construction site processes, assigns the personnel to the
et al. [24] discuss the importance and challenges of data
respective tasks and is furthermore responsible for the
integration in the context of big data, which results from
safety of the construction workers, as well as the security
its heterogeneous nature. In a similar context, the review
of the construction site.
paper from Zheng [25] summarizes different methods of data
fusion, which try to semantically align different data types 3. The site administrator, who provides the necessary
from heterogeneous data sources and domains in order to IT knowledge and support. In addition, he ensures the
extract knowledge from the gathered data. functionality and security of the data collection, transfer,
Our proposed communication architecture also aims to and integration process.
provide the basis for an efficient machine-to-machine
communication. In this regard, state-of-the-art Based on the users and their respective roles within a
communication architectures, future challenges and construction project, we developed three initial use cases as
opportunities for machine-to-machine communication are a starting point for further development of the digital process
presented in [26–28]. Within the context of machine platform. The first use case, static geofencing, focuses on
communication, the controller area network (CAN) standard the aspects of safety and security within the construction site.
is the primary machine data source and further reading can The goal of the use case is to increase the secure utilization of
be found in [29]. In addition, the topic of CAN-Bus security construction machines and to reduce the number of accidents
is discussed in [30] and [31]. on the construction site. The core functionality of the use
Our proposed communication infrastructure applies different case is to locate the machines within the construction site and
state-of-the-art information communication technologies in to compare them with restricted areas (geofences).
the construction sector. The second use case, temperature monitoring, aims to
improve the quality control of construction processes. By
monitoring and visualizing engine temperature profiles, we
3. DIGITAL PROCESS PLATFORM
give the site manager the decision basis to adapt machine
3.1 Infrastructure Requirements & Use Cases working processes according to the operating temperature.
This results in higher operating efficiency and prevents
For the development of the digital process platform, we split overheating.
the requirements into two main parts. The first part consists The third use case, process planning, focuses on the aspect
of on-site requirements that originate from construction of project management. The goal of the use case is to
site processes and result in requirements regarding the support the site manager with the planning process of the
communication infrastructure. For this part, we examined construction project and the monitoring of the construction
the complete road construction site process for relevant progress. The use case allows the site manager to define
machine data. We concluded, on the one hand, that the processes, milestones, and tasks. By defining a task, our
relevant data (e.g., machine velocity, fuel tank level) vary digital process platform automatically notifies the responsible
in type, frequency, and quality. On the other hand, we construction worker about the task and necessary machines,
identified that various process relevant data is not available as well as additional equipment.
from the machine and conclude that external data sources For each use case, we developed a use case diagram. As
are necessary. Therefore, the communication infrastructure an example, Figure 1 shows the use case diagram for
needs to enable a machine-independent and scalable data static geofencing. The main users in this use case are the

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