Enhancing BIM through Mixed Reality for Facility Management

Abstract

Implementation of processes in facility management asks for coordination and collaboration among several factors, each implementing its own sub-process. This goal must cope with several challenges caused by the fragmentation of the AEC (architectural, engineering, construction) industry. In the specific case of facility recommissioning, further constraints are determined by limitations posed by the current status of the existing facility whose knowledge is often limited to coarse preliminary surveys. In this chapter, the benefits determined by the integration between BIM and mixed reality will be presented, along with a prototypical platform that realizes an efficient, distributed collaborative workflow enabling asynchronous collaboration among members of the facility management office, the owner, the design team and technical specialists that may be appointed in recommissioning workflows. Technically, this approach provides an immersive mixed-reality environment capable of seamlessly displaying project information, through which specialists can evaluate and refine different recommissioning options. In addition, the platform supports on-site enrichment of BIM models for a facilitated, yet asynchronous, collaboration between remote and on-site users. This technology was validated by means of real-life experiments regarding a hypothetical recommissioning project of the Construction Division of the DICEA Department at Università Politecnica delle Marche (Ancona, Italy).