Workers and AI in the construction and operation of civil infrastructures

Two primary goals for civil infrastructure construction and operation processes are ensuring process safety and productivity. Large-scale construction and operation projects, such as the maintenance of bridges and power plants, can involve thousands of spatially and temporally distributed operation activities. However, the reliability of the physical facilities, operation systems, and human behaviors brings challenges for civil infrastructure operators to satisfy the operational safety and productivity goals. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can proactively detect and resolve reliability issues in civil infrastructure construction, maintenance, and operation processes, which traditional computational approaches cannot provide effective support. AI methods (e.g., machine learning and symbolic reasoning techniques) have become valuable tools for infrastructure engineers and operators. This chapter first defines the roles of workers and AI in civil infrastructure systems engineering and discusses the obstacles that hinder civil infrastructure systems from fully achieving their safety and productivity goals. Then, the following subsections present research and applications of AI methods for addressing the identified challenges. The last sub-section of this chapter discusses some issues in using AI methods to resolve reliability issues in civil infrastructure operations.