The Utilization of Building Information Modeling in Computer-Controlled Automatic Construction: Case Study of a Six-Room Wooden House

In the current context, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is belatedly providing the construction industry with a tool to reach higher levels of efficiency, quality and convenience. However, human errors in both management and construction job site control may cause a construction project to go over budget or behind schedule. Lastly, a construction project requires the collaboration of various parties to achieve the end goals of the various stakeholders. BIM provides one method of integrating the whole process of sharing information between those parties. Extensions to the current BIM methods may allow machines, such as construction robots to take over some of the human tasks. The aim of this study is to study future methods to reduce the human effort in construction and to improve the cost efficiency and quality for construction projects. In this thesis to look to integrate the construction processes of design, manufacture, shipment and installation and using data extracted from a BIM model, a conceptual computer-controlled, automatic construction process is developed for a pseudo robot. The pseudo robot is merely a development tool to look at the development of the conceptual phases for a real robot. Meanwhile, following the Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA) management cycle, the workflow of the process is designed in pseudocode. A case study of a six-room wooden house is used to illustrate the function of the automatic construction system and to verify that which information can be provided by BIM. Location control is identified in the study as the key criterion for attempting robotic construction. An object positioning solution of using a laser technique is suggested from this research. The results show that the program provides adequate information to allow the completion of the construction process. A two-level method is developed for accurate positioning of building components. Further research may focus on more complicated and special projects, more effective and accurate sensing and tracking technology

Integrated collaborative tools for precast supply chain management

Precast construction projects are associated with many activities, numerous parties, enormous effort, and different processes. For effective communication, this requires delivering appropriate and up-to-date information to enhance collaboration and improve integration. The purpose of this paper is to develop the system architecture and prototype of Context-Aware Cloud Computing Building Information Modelling (CACCBIM) for precast supply chain management. The findings of this research are grounded on the literature of cloud computing, context-awareness, building information modelling, and, ultimately, the analysis of interviews with stakeholders in precast construction. Findings determine that lack of integration, improper planning and scheduling, poor production timing, poor coordination, lack of good communication among parties, wrong deliveries, and poor control and supervision are the major issues within the precast supply chain. These issues could result in adverse consequences for the objectives and success of the precast project. Eventually, to reduce and eliminate these issues, the proposed prototype will support appropriate deliveries, efficient monitoring, facilitation of coordination, and collaboration with improved communication. It is anticipated that this research will establish a unique perception in the precast construction industry, which will finally enhance its productivity, improve its efficiency, and maximise its effectiveness

Cloud Computing Information System Architecture for Precast Supply Chain Management

The precast construction industry is associated with a lot of activities, vast effort, many parties and numerous processes. The precast supply chain phases include the planning, design, manufacturing, transportation, installation and construction. The parties within the precast supply chain phases should have efficient communication and access to precise and latest information contributing to the enhanced collaboration, sustainability and improving the integration. The aim of this study is to explore the collaboration tools with proposing the cloud system architecture for the precast supply chain management. The research findings are according to the comprehensive review of the literature on supply chain management, precast construction industry and cloud computing. Findings demonstrate the major problems within the precast supply chain phases comprised of poor planning, ineffective communications among designers and manufacturers, incompetent employees and damage to raw materials, large size and heavy precast components and the poor on-site coordination. These major problems within the precast supply chain phases could contribute to negative consequences on the efficiency, productivity and effectiveness of precast delivery. Therefore, to mitigate and overcome these major problems within the precast construction, the cloud computing implementation as the valuable alternative could be delivered to enhance the efficiencies and effectiveness of the collaboration systems. This research proposes and establishes the concepts of valuable collaborative tools, for instance the Cloud Computing Information Systems (CCIS). These tools will assist the processes, activities, information and network to improve integration with enhanced collaboration within the precast supply chain management through increasing the opportunities to attain sustainability with higher competitive advantages

Integrated Collaborative Tools for Precast Supply Chain Management

Precast construction projects are associated with many activities, numerous parties, enormous effort and different processes. For effective communication, this requires delivering appropriate and up-to-date information to enhance collaboration and improve integration. The purpose of this paper is to develop the system architecture and prototype of Context-Aware Cloud Computing Building Information Modeling (CACCBIM) for precast supply chain management. The findings of this research are grounded through the literature of cloud computing, context-awareness, building information modeling and, ultimately, the analysis of interviews with stakeholders in precast construction. Findings determine that lack of integration, improper planning and scheduling, poor production timing, poor coordination, lack of good communication among parties, wrong deliveries, poor control and supervision are the major issues within the precast supply chain. These issues could result in adverse consequences for the objectives and success of the precast project.Eventually, to reduce and eliminate these issues, the proposed prototype will support appropriate deliveries,efficient monitoring, the facilitation of coordination and collaboration with improved communication. It is anticipated that this research will establish a unique perception of the precast construction industry which will finally enhance its productivity, improve its efficiency and maximise its effectiveness

Evolution of RFID applications in construction:A literature review

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been widely used in the field of construction during the last two decades. Basically, RFID facilitates the control on a wide variety of processes in different stages of the lifecycle of a building, from its conception to its inhabitance. The main objective of this paper is to present a review of RFID applications in the construction industry, pointing out the existing developments, limitations and gaps. The paper presents the establishment of the RFID technology in four main stages of the lifecycle of a facility: planning and design, construction and commission and operation and maintenance. Concerning this last stage, an RFID application aiming to facilitate the identification of pieces of furniture in scanned inhabited environments is presented. Conclusions and future advances are presented at the end of the paper

Digital Technologies as Enablers of Component Reuse : Value Chain Perspectives in Construction & Manufacturing

Our planet is experiencing climate emergency due to the overconsumption of natural resources and ever-increasing carbon footprint. The construction and manufacturing industries are by far the biggest contributors to this grim situation. Hence, it is of paramount importance that the current economic model in those industries shifts from conventional linear to circular. Among the different circular economy (CE) approaches, adopting the component reuse practices is more imperative; because, after reduce, reuse is considered to be the least resource and energy intensive CE principle. With regard to transformation of the construction and manufacturing industries towards component reuse, digitalization could play a major enabling role. However, how the digital technologies such as BIM, digital twin, IoT (sensors and RFIDs), and robots could facilitate the component reuse practices is still an underexplored field of study. Additionally, the studies thus far in this direction lack the integrative approach both from multi-technology and multi-stakeholder perspectives. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate the perspectives of value chain actors, in construction and manufacturing, on how the digital technologies can advance component reuse practices. To address the research objective, this study employs qualitative research methodology and therein, multiple case study method. For the selection of most relevant cases, purposive sampling strategy was used. As a result, ten cases were selected, out of which, six are from the construction industry and the remaining four belong to manufacturing industry. To garner the primary data from those cases, semi-structured elite interviews were carried out. Subsequently, the data analysis process proceeded from within-case analysis to cross-case analysis. Finally, the findings from construction industry were juxtaposed to the findings from manufacturing industry, in order to examine the similarities and differences in how the digital technologies can advance component reuse practices in each industry. The findings of this study suggest that both the construction and manufacturing industries are becoming more perceptive to the need circular economy transformation. They recognize that the digital technologies are de facto the cornerstones in their efforts to adopt component reuse practices. The results demonstrate that collectively the BIM and IoT in construction, similar to digital twin and IoT in manufacturing, enables several component reuse practices- namely, DfDR, predictive maintenance, logistics & inventory management, quality & lifecycle assessment, and component disassembly planning. In addition, a few digital technology-enabled reuse practices were identified, that are peculiar to each industry. Robots, for instance, were recognized for the potential to partially automate some repetitive processes in construction industry, but that was not the case in manufacturing. Nevertheless, this study indicate that, for the technologies to be optimal in their enabling role, their current technological capabilities need to be developed further in the future. This study enriches the literature stream in circular economy and digitalization both in terms research methodology and findings. By taking a broader and integrative stance and through comparative study of two industries, this study validates several previous findings and also pro-poses novel findings of its own. To the practitioners the findings will provide comprehensive in-sights that may be useful in their efforts to adopt or foster digitalization in component reuse context. Finally, this study identifies a few directions for future research that may result in promising outcomes

Roadmap on measurement technologies for next generation structural health monitoring systems

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is the automation of the condition assessment process of an engineered system. When applied to geometrically large components or structures, such as those found in civil and aerospace infrastructure and systems, a critical challenge is in designing the sensing solution that could yield actionable information. This is a difficult task to conduct cost-effectively, because of the large surfaces under consideration and the localized nature of typical defects and damages. There have been significant research efforts in empowering conventional measurement technologies for applications to SHM in order to improve performance of the condition assessment process. Yet, the field implementation of these SHM solutions is still in its infancy, attributable to various economic and technical challenges. The objective of this Roadmap publication is to discuss modern measurement technologies that were developed for SHM purposes, along with their associated challenges and opportunities, and to provide a path to research and development efforts that could yield impactful field applications. The Roadmap is organized into four sections: distributed embedded sensing systems, distributed surface sensing systems, multifunctional materials, and remote sensing. Recognizing that many measurement technologies may overlap between sections, we define distributed sensing solutions as those that involve or imply the utilization of numbers of sensors geometrically organized within (embedded) or over (surface) the monitored component or system. Multi-functional materials are sensing solutions that combine multiple capabilities, for example those also serving structural functions. Remote sensing are solutions that are contactless, for example cell phones, drones, and satellites. It also includes the notion of remotely controlled robots

An SCO-enabled logistics and supply-chain management system in construction

Logistic and supply chain management (LSCM) is of paramount importance to a construction project but is often problematic. Many researchers see LSCM per se as a web of decisions to be made, and attribute problems to a lack of process and information concurrence. This is exacerbated by fragmentation, discontinuity, and heterogeneity in construction LSCM. The bi-directional information flow remains unachieved in the existing sensing-based systems for construction LSCM. Without panoramically interconnected to other smart abilities such as the automatic action-taking ability, most existing sensing-based systems are insufficient to realize their full potentials in facilitating construction LSCM. Building on previous studies on smart construction objects (SCOs), this paper aims to develop an SCO-enabled system that can enhance concurrence of process and information, with a view to informing better decision-making in construction LSCM. It does so by first analyzing the problems in prevailing LSCM practices using business process reengineering. Based on this analysis, the architecture for an SCO-enabled LSCM system is proposed and developed into a prototype. Then the system is calibrated and validated in the rich context of offshore prefabrication housing production in Hong Kong. It is found that SCOs, with their properties of awareness, communicativeness, and autonomy built into a smart management system, can supplement the existing LSCM process with more concurrent decision-making information. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in two areas. It adds to the theoretical debate on decision-making by arguing the importance of information and process concurrence and trying to explicate it in the context of construction LSCM. In addition, the SCO-enabled LSCM system can be implemented in real-life practice to alleviate the many problems existing in construction LSCM.postprin

Bridging BIM and building: From a literature review to an integrated conceptual framework

A Building Information Model (BIM) is at risk of being ‘blind and deaf’ if its contained information cannot be synchronized with ongoing building processes in a real-time manner. Previous studies have attempted to explore solutions to the problem, with a view to making BIM a more useful decision-support system. However, an integrated conceptual framework summarizing these studies and structuring future development in the area is missing. Based on an ex post facto critical review of 75 papers of this kind published over the past decade, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for bridging BIM and building (BBB), which highlights the importance of synchronizing information between BIM and real-life building processes. The framework is further illustrated through a case study of prefabricated housing construction in Hong Kong. With this integrated conceptual framework, future research on BBB can proceed on a more solid footing.postprin