REAL-TIME CONSTRUCTION OPERATIONS CONTROLLER FOR WASTE SITE CLEAN-UP

CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY, QUALITY,AND WORKER SAFETY DEPENDS ON INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY IN COMPUTATIONAL GEOMETRY, COMPUTER SCIENCE, DATA ACQUISITION AND MONITORING, METROLOGY, AND CONTROL, IN ADDITION TO TRADITIONAL CONSTRUCTION PROCESS TECHNOLOGY. CONSOLVE IS DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONS CONTROL SYSTEM FOR EARTHMOVING TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION. A PRINCIPAL FOCUS OF THIS DEVELOPMENT IS APPLICATIONS IN HAZARDOUS WASTE SITE CLEAN-UP. THIS SYSTEM EXPLOITS ADVANCED COMPUTER SCIENCE, MODERN METROLOGY TECHNOLOGY, AND COMPUTER BASED MACHINE CONTROLLERS ON EXISTING CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT. MUCH OF THEALGORITHMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS SITE CONTROL SYSTEM IS COMPLETE, BUT THE TECHNOLOGY NEEDS TO BE PHYSICALLY TESTED. THIS PROJECT WILL EXERCISE THE SITE CONTROLLER SYSTEM ON A 1/20-SCALE PHYSICAL TESTBED OF AN EARTHMOVING SITE. THE TESTBED HAS BEEN BUILT OUT OF INTERNAL FUNDS; THE PROPOSAL IS TO SUPPORT PERSONNEL TO CONDUCT THE EXPERIMENTS. THE PROJECT HAS FOUR TASKS: (1) TOEXERCISE THE COMMUNICATION AND LOCATION SYSTEM FOR VEHICLES;(2) TO EVALUATE THE FEASIBILITY FOR AUTOMATED SITE SURVEYING; (3) TO DOWNLOAD CUTPATH INSTRUCTIONS FROM A CENTRAL CAE SYSTEM AND CONTROL VEHICLES ACCORDINGLY; AND (4)TO EVALUATE A DYNAMIC SURFACE MODEL OF SITE OPERATIONS.