Multisource-data-fusion for the digitization of critical infrastructural elements

Abstract

Due to the relatively high average age of the rail infrastructure in Germany and the thus often historic plans, as-built documentation has a very high priority at Deutsche Bahn AG. The inventory and updating of existing plans represent an enormous challenge for the operator, DB Netz AG. More than 4.6 million inventory plans must be continuously checked to ensure that they are up to date,correct,adjusted and supplemented as necessary. The most fragile structures are railroad bridges. These are the focus of this paper. For now, all information of bridges such as planning documents, statics, status reports of bridge examination, etc. are collected in decentral locations of the owner or operator. The existing information is available in a wide variety of formats, e.g. pdf files, plans on paper, scanned paper plans, digitally created plans, SAPdata and photos. We tackled this problem of non-uniform and decentralized data management within the mdfBIM project. Within the scope of this project, a process model was developed that describes the merging of the various data sources in the planning process and attempts to identify the primary data source in each case. The validation and adaptation of this model was carried out continuously after it had been set up based on a railway bridge in Hannover, Germany. We used machine learning algorithms to enable an automated object classification for the most common objects to derive the highest possible degree of automation. Another important step towards automation was the consolidation of the numerous data sources. This existing, inhomogeneous data was homogenized in a defined process. During this homogenization, the data sets -ranging from existing as-built plans, photo documentation, maintenance and conversion reports, SAP extracts, construction books and construction plans to the newly recorded laser point cloud -was evaluated. In this paper; the complete process chain and the first results are presented. Furthermore, an outlook is given on further research tasks and the further development of the elaborated process chain.

BIM‐models of bridges in the operational phase: use cases, phase model and reference architecture

“…In recent years, the establishment of BIM in the construction sector has intensified [9]. In this course, unified structures and requirements have been established.…”

“…At the same time, a future service life of more than 100 years is targeted for the bridges [7,8]. In order to achieve this goal and to establish a predictive maintenance management for existing bridges, it is necessary to use new digital methods and technologies [9,10].…”

Secure and Trustworthy Generation of Digital Models of Existing Bridge Structures Using Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain

“…Afterwards, in the third phase (Phase 03: geometric transformation), the master point cloud is transformed by the surveyor into a digital 3D model. This process step can be performed manually [25,26] or with the support of intelligent algorithms [7,8,27]. Parallel to this, the fourth phase (phase 04: as-built data analysis and semantization) first focuses on the acquisition and analysis of as-built documents.…”

“…This can be guaranteed by the use of digital building models using the Building Information Modeling (BIM) method as a basis [6]. The creation process of the digital models is performed manually with many sub-processes and is resource-intensive [7]. In addition, many different user groups are involved and there is a high degree of interaction [7,8].…”

“…The creation process of the digital models is performed manually with many sub-processes and is resource-intensive [7]. In addition, many different user groups are involved and there is a high degree of interaction [7,8]. DLT and blockchain can be used to establish high transparency of monitoring and consistency of documentation of processes [9,10].…”