: AI-enabled Smart IoT tagging/sensor system for intelligent, efficient Formwork management (SmartForm)

Concrete cores are increasingly used in very tall buildings. Since the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in New York, it has become clear that robust concrete cores can play a critical part in minimising loss of life and structural damage and they have been proven to be superior to steel-framed cores in terms of resisting fire, blasts and impacts. Tall buildings, such as the 163-storey Burj Khalifa, require a high degree of repetition in the Formwork used to mould floor-after-floor of a poured concrete structure. However, this is still a very labour-intensive process, consuming large quantities of plywood and generating wastage in the form of offcuts and discarded components. The SmartForm project targets the development of a digital technique to optimise formwork efficiency, reducing cost and increasing productivity. We apply an Internet of Things (IoT) approach to introduce bidirectional data flow, combining pre-existing BIM data with on-going sensor inputs and site progression mapping to provide a dynamic formwork management system to reduce time and labour requirements as well as optimise material use, resulting in 20% fewer carbon emissions and 40% time saving on concrete construction. With Formwork costing as much as £58 per m2, the 25% overall reduction (combined labour and materials cost savings) we expect to achieve with SmartForm would offer the UK construction industry savings of up to £15 for every m2 of poured concrete.