A Review of Construction Worker Research in Intelligent Construction: A Bibliometric Perspective

Abstract

The rapid digital transformation in the construction industry has stimulated extensive research into utilizing intelligent construction technologies in enhancing working conditions, safety performance, and productivity among construction workers. However, to our best knowledge, a comprehensive literature review that synthesizes the current research status and hotspots in this field is lacking, resulting in a limited understanding of the research achievements and gaps on this topic. Therefore, this research conducts a bibliometric review of research into construction worker in intelligent construction. CiteSpace software was employed to visualize and analyze relevant articles retrieved from the Web of Science and Scopus databases from 2015 to 2024. A total of 167 journal articles were selected and analyzed. The results indicate that the number of publications focusing on construction worker research in intelligent construction has been increasing over the last decade, with the majority published within the latest five years. While early research mainly addressed macrolevel topics such as safety performance, productivity management, and accident prevention, recent hotspots have shifted toward microlevel technology-driven solutions, including hazard recognition, fatigue detection, hazardous object identification, and safety training. Keyword clustering analysis identified five major research themes, including building information modeling, fatigue detection, system, proactive safety management, and electroencephalography. Based on the analysis results, current research hotspots and future research directions were discussed from three integrated perspectives, including intelligent construction perspective for construction workers, construction worker-centric perspective within intelligent construction, and construction worker–intelligent technology interaction perspective. The findings provide a roadmap for researchers to identify emerging trends and prioritize future studies. Moreover, they offer valuable insights for industry practitioners and policymakers to strategically implement intelligent technologies, fostering a safer and more humancentric construction environment.