Digital Twins for Detecting Worker Geofence Violations in Road Construction Work Zones

Work zone intrusions have been recognized as a safety-critical incident in road construction, often leading to injuries and fatalities. The causes of intrusions are twofold: (i) driver recklessness or distraction, and (ii) worker violations of the work zone. While majority of current solutions focused on addressing driver-related issues, worker violation should not be overlooked, as it increases the risk of workers being struck by vehicles. Detecting worker violation can be challenging, requiring an understanding of work zone boundaries and real-time worker positions. To address this challenge, this study proposed a digital twin–based solution to (i) generate the geofence of work zone by deploying channelizing device, (ii) monitor worker presence and positions via beacon sensors and high-accuracy GPS receivers, and (iii) identify worker violation of work zone. The system was validated in a simulated and controlled work zone and achieved accurate violation detection with limited latency. This solution is scalable to integrate vehicle-related sensing and enable communication with the work zone data exchange (WZDx).