A £500,000 grant to develop a cloud-based application to improve plant and materials logistics and reduce any environmental impact has been awarded to the Carto Group, Skanska UK and the Building Research Establishment (BRE).
The funding to create and test a proof-of-concept solution has been provided by Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency.
The aim of the project, known as LAMP (Live, Automated Materials Plan), is to create a solution that uses data from a range of sources to make construction logistics more effective and efficient. The data includes logistics plans, travel routes, quantities of materials and base data from the construction programme itself.
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Sensors will be used to gather real-time location data from vehicles and other large plant and to monitor their environmental impact. The system will integrate all of this and use geographical information system (GIS) mapping data and artificial intelligence to find the most effective logistics plan and to help predict and control environmental impact.
The objective of the tool is to enable project planners and construction managers to improve onsite performance and productivity in a sustainable way. The aim is to achieve this through a data-driven approach, utilising the latest technology. The Carto Group will lead development of the application, working together with Skanska UK and the BRE.
Skanska UK digitalisation manager, Kamran Choudhury, said: “Using new technology through targeted research and development projects like LAMP, there is a real opportunity to revolutionise how the construction industry works.”
The Carto Group’s chief technical officer, Nicholas Duggan, added: “State-of-the-art data capture – enabled by things like low-cost sensors, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence – together with analytical techniques, has the potential to deliver significant efficiency savings and environmental improvements. This includes improving onsite planning, scheduling and ordering.”
A spokesperson for the BRE said: “BRE is delighted to be part of the LAMP project, which brings together the expertise and innovative skills of three dynamic organisations. Our particular interest is in how Internet of Things data can be captured during critical activities on construction sites and how this can be used to create key performance indicators, which will in turn improve wider sector performance.”
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