Part I: Exclusive with Upendra Dharmadhikary talks about the Internet of Things in construction

UK Construction Online’s Abigail Burr talks to Upendra Dharmadhikary on the latest advancements in internet-connected devices for construction.

Upendra has over 24 years of experience of business transformation consulting, the design and delivery of enterprise business solutions including Business Process Management and emerging digital technologies. An Engineering Graduate from NIT, he also holds an MSc (Telecom) from the University of London and is a certified ITIL professional. He also chaired the BPM Technical Forum for 3 years in the Tele Management Forum. Upendra has played a key role in defining and implementing digital service transformation roadmaps for various Telco’s and Enterprise verticals and has set up a Customer Experience Centre at Milton Keynes, UK. He is now leading the SMART CITY initiatives for Tech Mahindra and defining Innovative Digital solutions for Citizens and Businesses.

Can you give me a brief summary of the Internet of Things?

The internet of things is a development of the current internet, which can give every day objects connectivity. An example is the nest, the learning thermostat, which really takes you to a different level of maturity. When the IoT is used with self-learning capabilities, it can allow us to use sensing, and decision-making with the ability to capture knowledge and reduce manual work. The internet has been around for years but the cost of networking has now become cheaper, meaning low cost networking is available. We still have some challenges when construction takes us to very rural places and we end up with different layers of connection. But with the intelligence and machine learning, things can make decisions for you.

What examples are there of tech innovations that would improve the safety of construction workers?

I have done inspections especially on heights and I’ve been in positons were you are on top of a seven storey building.  Just a hard helmet and a suit isn’t good enough. Today, the helmet should have sensors and fall detection capabilities. Geofencing could be good to monitor hazards. It is quite possible that a geofence could be installed, and so if there are any hazards around, I can be alerted. Helping you rebalance if you fall  is what the next stage would be.

What examples are there of tech innovations that would improve security on construction sites?

There are many instances where there is a theft or loss of tools. We have worked with Bosch, and for the security, every tool that is used in the construction industry has a tag attached it or an IoT device, and so when it goes missing it is easier to track down. Remotely on a dashboard, we can monitor where it is. This improves the security. Any intrusion into the construction site can combine a mishmash of drones, with the nocturnal camera looking at security throughout the night which can provide intelligence. These enhance the security at the construction site. When we’re doing security, we can use shared resources which allows monitoring far more accurately.

Part II of the interview will be available next week.

 

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