LiDAR-Based Framework for Scaffolding Design Rule Compliance and Health Management

In the construction industry, scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support equipment or workers at height. Scaffolding, a temporary yet critical structure, plays a significant role in ensuring workers' safety. During the installation of scaffolding, specific design rules related to spacing, fall protection, spindle adjustment, and overall geometry are followed to ensure its stability. However, during use, the scaffoldings are often modified either intentionally or unintentionally, which might compromise its stability and safety. Currently, visual inspections are commonly performed by site managers or accredited personnel, which can be tedious. These manual inspections can be prone to error and may fail to detect gradual modifications that deviate from compliance, thereby compromising structural integrity. This paper proposes a data-driven framework for assessing the health and design rule compliance of scaffolding structures. LiDAR scans are used to capture the as-built geometrical structure of scaffolding on a construction site. The objective of this paper is to assess compliance with scaffolding design rules by processing and analysing information obtained from 3D point cloud data. Relevant parameters are extracted from the acquired point cloud data and compared with the original required design rules. The proposed framework is verified using representative design rules and demonstrates the feasibility of quantitative assessment for scaffolding structures. This work enables a way for automated compliance verification and assistance during manual inspection, thereby enhancing overall safety on construction sites.

Keywords: LiDAR point cloud data, Design rule compliance, Health management framework, Construction site safety.