ITcon Vol. 19, pg. 412-433, http://www.itcon.org/2014/25

Truck+ for earthmoving operations

published:September 2014
editor(s):Rezgui Y
authors:Ali Montaser, PhD, P.Eng., PMP
Department of Building, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
email: structural_ali@yahoo.com

Osama Moselhi, PhD, P.Eng., Professor
Department of Building, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
email: moselhi@encs.concordia.ca
summary:This paper presents an automated system that integrates Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) in a web-based platform named Truck+. It is utilized for estimating, monitoring and forecasting productivity of hauling trucks in earthmoving operations. The developed system consists of GPS for automated site data acquisition, GIS web-based system used as graphical user interface, relational database and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) for stochastic forecasting. The paper also highlights the benefit of utilizing the actual captured data supported by DES for stochastically forecasting productivity of earthmoving operation. DES was applied to forecast productivity in a stochastic approach that makes use of the project’s captured data during the operations involved rather than data from past projects. This makes it more capable of capturing relevant factors that impact project conditions. Truck+ consists primarily of two modules: tracking/monitoring module and forecasting module. The developed system has been implemented in prototype software using object-oriented programming, ArcGIS APIs (Application Programming Interface) and deploys Microsoft Silverlight for creating and delivering rich internet web application and media. Truck+ is capable of generating graphical and tabular reports with various degrees of detail to suit the requirements of project teams. The developed system is applied to a construction project in Montreal area to demonstrate its use.
keywords:Earth-moving Operations, Productivity, Progress Reporting, GPS, GIS, Web-Based System
full text: (PDF file, 5.482 MB)
citation:Montaser A, Moselhi O (2014). Truck+ for earthmoving operations, ITcon Vol. 19, pg. 412-433, https://www.itcon.org/2014/25