Smart construction utilizes the latest IoT "smart" technologies, such as Cyber-Physical Systems, to aid in construction processes. A Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is an amalgamation of computation, networking and physical objects. There are various examples of CPS being employed in sectors varying from manufacturing, robotics, and smart cities. Where the application and literature are lacking, however, is construction. This paper focuses on construction machinery operation and work tracking through CPS. The relevant technologies required for creating a system with these capabilities are Augmented Reality (AR) and Digital Twin (DT). Two salient features of a CPS are real-time state knowledge and control. These are handled by the sensors and micro-controllers, respectively, allowing for bi-directional communication between the virtual models and physical objects. Remote control and tracking/monitoring of construction machinery can expedite certain on-site processes such as operations logging and 4D BIM, while improving operation precision and safety.
With the wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the construction industry is also witnessing the application of numerous state-of-the-art technologies. Among these, augmented reality (AR) technology has the advantage of utilizing existing 3D models and BIM data and is thus an area of active research. However, the main area of research to date has either been in visualizing information during the design phase, where architects and project stakeholders can share viewings, or in confirming the required information for construction management through visualization during the construction phase. As such, more research is required in the application of AR during the facility management (FM) phase. Research utilizing BIM in the FM phase, which constitutes the longest period during the lifecycle of a building, has been continuously carried out but has faced challenges with regard to on-site application. The reason for this is that information required for BIM during the design, construction and FM phases is different, and the reproduced information is vast, so identifying the required BIM data for FM and interfacing with other systems is difficult. As a measure to overcome this limitation, advanced countries such as the US and UK have developed and are using Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie), which is an open-source BIM-based information exchange system. In order to effectively convert open-source BIM data to AR data, this research defined COBie data for windows and doors, converted them to a system and validated that it could actually be applied for on-site FM. The results of this system’s creation and validation showed that the proposed AR-based smart FMS demonstrated faster and easier access to information compared with existing 2D blueprint-based FM work, while information obtained through AR allowed for immediate, more visual and easier means to express the information when integrated with actual objects.
The recent fourth industrial revolution and the era of post-COVID-19 have ushered in a series of technologies including a 5G network and online systems, such as cloud computing technology. In other industries, extensive studies on cloud platforms utilizing such technologies were conducted. Although the cloud environment has taken on greater importance in the construction sector as well, it was used only for servers, failing to fully reflect the characteristics of the cloud system. In particular, compared to large architectural design firms, it is challenging for small to medium-sized design firms to establish a virtual cloud computing environment, which requires high capital investment. Targeting small to medium-sized architectural design firms in Korea, this study was conducted to introduce the VDI system, one of the cloud computing technologies that was recently used in other industries, to the BIM environment for initial application, operation, and management. Specifically, after an analysis was carried out to see if the VDI system utilized in other industries may resolve the hindrance faced with the BIM environment in the construction industry, the KBimVdi system was created based on an algorithm for estimating server scales by analyzing the VDI system suitable for the BIM work environment. This was followed by a validation of the KBimVdi system based on selected projects carried out by small to medium-sized architectural firms where BIM was used for design work.
Currently, BIM implementation in domestic FAB construction projects is in such an early stage that they are benchmarking the BIM implementation method applied in the conventional building sector. As such, in order to enhance the usability of BIM in FAB construction projects, it is necessary to have a correct understanding of FAB construction and to apply BIM in accordance with the characteristics of FAB. This requires defining critical BIM competencies needed by the participants of FAB construction projects in undertaking their tasks as well as identifying their current level of competency possessed. Accordingly, this study defined and presented BIM competencies that reflect the characteristics of FAB through the analysis of typical tasks related to FAB construction projects. For this, project participants from three FAB construction project sites in Korea (where BIM was implemented) were recruited, and a survey was conducted on their status of competency level. Moreover, a comparative analysis was conducted focusing on the correlations between their career characteristics (‘Construction project experience’, ‘BIM-based construction project experience’, ‘FAB construction project experience’, ‘BIM-based FAB construction project experience’ and ‘Overall project experiences’) and their current level of BIM competencies. As a result, high correlations were found between BIM competencies and BIM-based FAB construction project experience for the owner group, whereas competency items related to BIM-based construction project experience showed high correlations for the designer group.
Regular scaffolding quality inspection is an essential part of construction safety. However, current evaluation methods and quality requirements for temporary structures are based on subjective visual inspection by safety managers. Accordingly, the assessment process and results depend on an inspector’s competence, experience, and human factors, making objective analysis complex. The safety inspections performed by specialized services bring additional costs and increase evaluation times. Therefore, a temporary structure quality and safety evaluation system based on experts’ experience and independent of the human factor is the relevant solution in intelligent construction. This study aimed to present a quality evaluation system prototype for scaffolding parts based on computer vision. The main steps of the proposed system development are preparing a dataset, designing a neural network (NN) model, and training and evaluating the model. Since traditional methods of preparing a dataset are very laborious and time-consuming, this work used mixed real and synthetic datasets modeled in Blender. Further, the resulting datasets were processed using artificial intelligence algorithms to obtain information about defect type, size, and location. Finally, the tested parts’ quality classes were calculated based on the obtained defect values.
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