A smart mobile app for site inspection and documentation

Extensive time and effort are spent on inspecting and documenting construction defects for facilities under construction or in use. The goal of this study is to provide construction engineers and experts with a smart mobile application to efficiently record and document construction defects. This study first investigated typical inspection processes, data, and reports which were used in site inspections in practice. An Android-based mobile application called InSite Inspector (Intelligent Site Inspector) was then developed to facilitate site inspection and documentation. This smart app is able to: (i) take images and catalog details of construction defects such as defect types, construction trades, building components, and date and time; (ii) automatically locate defects using the global positioning system (GPS); and (iii) produce various types of reports for different inspection purposes such as punch lists and defect reports. The inspectors are allowed to customize the app features such as text entries, type of data to be recorded and/or reported to meet their specific inspection requirements. Additionally, the InSite Inspector allows engineers and experts to manage different construction sites, inspections, and to keep track of past and ongoing inspections. Finally, the app can be used to save, email, or upload the resulting reports to cloud-based repositories. An inspection case study was used to demonstrate the application and utilities of this development. The InSite Inspector is expected to significantly streamline site inspection and documentation processes.Non UBCUnreviewedFacult