Smartphone based localization solution for construction site management

Managing a large building construction site is a really complex task. Nowadays, many controllers have to daily check the site collecting information in order to inform managers about the construction progress. Recently, several software applications, compatible and integrated in most of commercial CAD tools, have been developed to help managers in collecting information. These tools furnish the managers on-site access to technical documentation, but are standalone tool very poorly connected with the site infrastructure. For this reason, some proposals have been suggested in literature to enable real-time data collection about site status exploiting communication facilities (e.g. wireless sensor networks). The work discussed in this paper extends this approach including localization-aware and task-aware mobile computing based on the use of smartphones and tablets. These devices natively offer intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, dramatically reducing time in personnel training. In particular, ranging and localization techniques on most diffused smart platforms have been successfully tested, also by means of external hardware plugins.