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

Semi-automatic geometric digital twinning for existing buildings based on images and CAD drawings

Despite the emerging new data capturing technologies and advanced modelling systems, the process of geometric digital twin modelling for existing buildings still lacks a systematic and completed framework to streamline. As-is Building Information Model (BIM) is one of the commonly used geometric digital twin modelling approaches. However, the process of as-is BIM construction is time-consuming and needed to improve. To address this challenge, in this paper, a semi-automatic approach is developed to establish a systematic, accurate and convenient digital twinning system based on images and CAD drawings. With this ultimate goal, this paper summarises the state-of-the-art geometric digital twinning methods and elaborates on the methodological framework of this semi-automatic geometric digital twinning approach. The framework consists of three modules. The Building Framework Construction and Geometry Information Extraction (Module 1) defines the locations of each structural component through recognising special symbols in a floor plan and then extracting data from CAD drawings using the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Meaningful text information is further filtered based on predefined rules. In order to integrate with completed building information, the Building Information Complementary (Module 2) is developed based on neuro-fuzzy system (NFS) and the image processing procedure to supplement additional building components. Finally, the Information Integration and IFC Creation (Module 3) integrates information from Module 1 and 2 and creates as-is Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) BIM based on IFC schema. A case study using part of an office building and the results of its analysis are provided and discussed from the perspectives of applicability and accuracy. Future works and limitations are also addressed

Building demolition estimation in urban road widening projects using as-is BIM models

Building demolition caused by urban road widening projects can lead to engineering, economic, and environmental issues and should be planned at the design stage. Based on as-is BIM, this paper proposes a method to estimate the building demolition caused by urban road widening using online map data and statistics on government websites. The as-is BIM models of the existing old road and its surrounding buildings are created, and the BIM models of the newly widened road are built based on the as-is BIM models considering road components in accordance with road engineering expressions to assist building demolition estimation using clash detection. This paper presents a cost-effective building demolition estimation in urban road widening projects without field surveys. It was tested on the M4 Motorway project in London. It has been proved to be a very practical approach to facilitate urban road planning and decision making

Detection of Walls, Floors, and Ceilings in Point Cloud Data

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Society of Civil Engineers via http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.229The successful implementation of Building Information Models (BIMs) for facility management, maintenance and operation is highly dependent on the ability to generate such models for existing assets. Generating such BIMs typically requires laser scanning to acquire point clouds and significant post-processing to register the clouds, replace the points with BIM objects, assign semantic relationships and add any additional properties, such as materials. Several research efforts have attempted to reduce the post-processing manual effort by classifying the structural elements and clutter in isolated rooms. They have not however examined the complexity of a whole building. In this paper, we propose a robust framework that can automatically process the point cloud of an entire building, possibly with multiple floors, and classify the points belonging to floors, walls and ceilings.. We first extract the planar surfaces by segmenting the point cloud, and then we use contextual reasoning, such as height, orientation, relation to other objects, and local statistics like point density in order to classify them into objects. Experiments were conducted on a registered point cloud of an office building. The results indicated that almost all of the walls and floors/ceilings were correctly clustered in the point cloud.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements n° 247586 ("BIMAutoGen") and n° 334241 ("INFRASTRUCTUREMODELS")

Building Information Modeling (BIM) for existing buildings - literature review and future needs

Abstract not availableRebekka Volk, Julian Stengel, Frank Schultman

Building information model implementation for existing buildings for facilities management: a framework and two case studies

This paper presents the process of implementation of a building information model for managing an existing building, identifying a development framework and documenting the difficulties that occurred during the implementation of the initial stages. The use of building information modelling (BIM) for the design and construction phase of a building has been thoroughly looked into by researchers and practitioners and there is evidence to support that it is beneficial for reducing cost, time and improving communication. A single shared building information model results in a greater accuracy, clarity and consistency of the information available during the life cycle compared to traditional 2D/3D drawings. Yet the potential use of BIM for the operational and management phase (facilities management), besides maintenance schedules and equipment information and location, is still not clearly identified. The UK Government, institutional clients and major private owners are now demanding BIM for new construction and major refurbishment, but given that 70–75% of the UK building stock that will exist and be in use in 2050 has already been built, a significant part of the existing facilities will not have a building information model till the next major refurbishment. This creates a major gap in the built environment, when it comes to having BIM for existing buildings. This paper presents the initial findings of two case studies, where building information models were developed for two existing buildings using a new framework and concludes that minimal BIM skills are sufficient to construct a base building model that can be implemented over time by facilities managers

SAFETY MONITORING BY MEANS OF SENSOR NETWORKS DISTRIBUTED WITHIN THE FOSSA SITE PLAN

Abstract. The seismic event of 6 April 2009 has inevitably left its mark on the history of the entire territory of L'Aquila (Italy), completely devastating the town and much of the province. Within such frantic and extensive reconstruction activity, the resulting construction works could not but draw attention to some issues of fundamental importance such as coordinated planning, safety, respect for the rules and above all the rebirth of the territory. This research is aimed at drawing up the site plan for Fossa, a municipality in the Province of L'Aquila and not far from the region capital of Abruzzo, Italy. The main objective is to create a monitoring standard by means of a dedicated sensors network and detailed strategies in order to coordinate, guide and support the single actions of intervention through design behaviours and highly technological tools. The Plan is configured as a tool for participatory planning, with the active involvement of planners, companies and citizens, whose common goal is the preservation of the identity of locations, the mitigation of seismic risk and the enhancement of the cultural heritage of the Municipality of Fossa. Implementation of this work is the application of technological systems for construction site monitoring: a concrete response to the growing demand for organized management of the construction process on site and safety in the workplace can be achieved through the use of systems and rational control and management procedures that include the use of innovative technologies