Image processing for safety assessment in Civil Engineering

Behaviour analysis of construction safety systems is of fundamental importance to avoid accidental injuries. Traditionally, measurements of dynamic actions in Civil Engineering have been done through accelerometers, but high-speed cameras and image processing techniques can play an important role in this area. Here, we propose using morphological image filtering and Hough transform on high-speed video sequence as tools for dynamic measurements on that field. The presented method is applied to obtain the trajectory and acceleration of a cylindrical ballast falling from a building and trapped by a thread net. Results show that safety recommendations given in construction codes can be potentially dangerous for workers.

The authors acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through the project BIA2011-22704 and the University of Alicante through the project GRE10-09. D. M. also acknowledges the support of the Generalitat Valenciana through the project PROMETEO/2011/021.