Close range mini Uavs photogrammetry for architecture survey

The survey of historical façades contains several bottlenecks, mainly related to the geometrical structure, the decorative framework, the presence of natural or artificial obstacles, the environment limitations. Urban context presents additional restrictions, binding by ground acquisition activity and leading to building data loss. The integration of TLS and close-range photogrammetry allows to go over such stuff, not overcoming the shadows effect due to the ground point of view. In the last year the massive use of UAVs in survey activity has permitted to enlarge survey capabilities, reaching a deeper knowledge in the architecture analysis. In the meanwhile, several behaviour rules have been introduced in different countries, regulating the UAVs use in different field, strongly restricting their application in urban areas. Recently very small and light platforms have been presented, which can partially overcome these rules restrictions, opening to very interesting future scenarios. This article presents the application of one of these very small RPAS (less than 300 g), equipped with a low-cost camera, in a close range photogrammetric survey of an historical building façade in Bologna (Italy). The suggested analysis tries to point out the system accuracy and details acquisition capacity. The final aim of the paper is to validate the application of this new platform in an architectonic survey pipeline, widening the future application of close-range photogrammetry in the architecture acquisition process

3D MODELING of A COMPLEX BUILDING: From MULTI-VIEW IMAGE FUSION to GOOGLE EARTH PUBLICATION

This paper presents a pipeline that aims at illustrating the procedure to realize a 3D model of a complex building integrating the UAV and terrestrial images and modifying the 3D model in order to publish to Google Earth in an interactive modality so as to provide better available models for visualization and use. The main steps of the procedure are the optimization of the UAV flight, the integration of the different UAV and ground floor images and the optimization of the model to be published to GE. The case study has been identified in a building, The Eremo di Santa Rosalia Convent in Sicily which hash more staggered elevations and located in the hills of the hinterland and of which, the online platform only indicate the position on Google Maps (GM) and Google Earth (GE) with a photo from above and a non-urban road whose GM path is not corresponding with the GE photo. The process highlights the integration of the models and showcases a workflow for the publication of the combined 3D model to the GE platform

Survey on some key technologies of virtual tourism system based on Web3D

Some key technologies on how to build large-scale virtual tourism systssems comprehensively on Web browsers and mobiles were analyzed and the current R&D status on Web3D virtual tourism was surveyed insightfully. Then, some methods were summarized, including 3D trees or plants modeling, 3D architectural modeling, 3D Virtual Human behavior modeling, virtual agents path planning, collision detection and progressive transmission strategy suitable for developing large scale Web3D tourism scenarios. Also, some bottleneck problems of Web3D virtual tourism system were investigated. At the same time, the lightweight 3D engine, the lightweight 3D modeling, the lightweight 3D streaming and P2P based progressive transmission of huge Web3D tourism contents would become much helpful to breakthrough those bottlenecks of Web3D tourism systems were pointed out. In addition, all kinds of Web3D engines in terms of lightweight, realism and efficiency that would be a good reference for developers to choose during various applications were compared comprehensively. Finally, the prospect of future investigation of Web3D tourism system is presented, which will be going on in terms of four characteristics lightweight, high-speed, realism, beauty.

VIRTUAL CITIES INHABITED BY AUTONOMOUS CHARACTERS: A PIPELINE FOR THEIR PRODUCTION

[EN] Creating 3D reconstruction of the past is a challenging task requiring a vast set of technical skills, with teams usually including historians, 3D artists and IT technicians. In this paper, we describe our combined efforts to work under a low-budget pipeline to make a 3D simulation of the medieval village of Mértola in the south of Portugal. The work we describe in this paper is part of a larger project called "BIHC - Bio- Inspired Human Crowds" whose partial objectives are the development of a set of tools for the animation of 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage sites. We have focused on developing a lightweight model of the village that would allow the incorporation of virtual autonomous inhabitants in a simulation running in real-time and visitable by online audiences in both i) bird’s-eye and ii) first-person points of view. The contribution of this paper is the identification of a set of tools and stages that can be used to obtain the final interactive environment recreating the inhabited ancient villageCláudio, AP.; Carmo, MB.; Carvalho, AA.; Xavier, W.; Antunes, R. (2016). VIRTUAL CITIES INHABITED BY AUTONOMOUS CHARACTERS: A PIPELINE FOR THEIR PRODUCTION. En 8th International congress on archaeology, computer graphics, cultural heritage and innovation. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 500-503. https://doi.org/10.4995/arqueologica8.2015.4185OCS50050

Murdoch University science and computing building energy simulation & mechanical engineering green building design

Anchored in teaching, research and community engagement approaches, Murdoch University is setting up the development of a symbolic new mixed use campus precinct expansion which is listed as one of Murdoch University’s strategic plan. As stated above, a part of the strategic plan includes the development of a new Mechanical Engineering Building (MEB) in order to engage future Mechanical Engineering students. This newly proposed MEB would be designed and constructed as an extension building from the existing Science and Computing Building that is located at the Murdoch South Street campus. Hence, the major focus of this research study investigate the new Murdoch University Mechanical Engineering green building structure and design by analysing the energy consumption of the existing Science and Computing building. The annual energy consumption of the existing building is obtained through the identification of construction materials, building design and building operational activities. All this information is then simulated using Virtual Environment by Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES-VE). The outline of this IES-VE modelling tool and implementation procedures is illustrated in Chapter 3 (Methodology) and the simulation results used to identify the major sources of the energy use are included in Chapter 4 (Results). The results showed the massive energy consumption that being used in the current Science and Computing building and the annual energy consumption is broken down into different components that makes up the total energy use.Moreover, the possibilities for building energy consumption reduction are discussed and this is based on the low embodied energy building materials and low existing building operational energy reduction strategies. For the sake of achieving green star building standard, NABERS self rating tools are introduced by determining the building operational routines and its design structure. The existing building’s NABERS score will be recognised as a useful measure for the new MEB design ideas and the selection of appliances used in order to achieve the low energy building objectives. Furthermore, the structure and design of the new MEB are drafted based on the essential requirements using SketchUp drawing tool. The dimensions and working purpose of each individual floor are illustrated and reviewed. On the other hand, basic specifications of the MEB such as experimentation and research laboratory requirements, computer appliances and HVAC demands are determined in order to diagnose the NABERS rating and thus establish a new target for green building achievement. The estimated new building energy consumption is generated and possible strategies which include energy efficiency design, energy efficient technologies and renewable technologies are discussed in Chapter 5. Generally, a green building is achieved through an integration of energy efficient programs and environmentally friendly construction projects. Thus, an introduction of potential sustainable strategies is illustrated in Chapter 6 in order to develop Murdoch University into a carbon-neutral community. The potential sustainable strategies that are discussed in this thesis project included rainwater harvesting technology, wastewater treatment plants, timber prefabricated construction and green roof garden implementation. Lastly, project summary is included in Chapter 6 (Conclusion) and several recommendations are discussed that would be important to be evaluated and discussed for further improvement

Cool White Polymer Coatings based on Glass Bubbles for Buildings.

While most selective emitter materials are inadequate or inappropriate for building applications, here we present a techno-economically viable optical coating by integrating glass bubbles within a polymer film. A controlled glass bubble volume concentration from 0 to 70% leads to a selective solar reflectivity increase from 0.06 to 0.92 while the mid-infrared emissivity remains above 0.85. Outdoor measurements show the polymer coating on a concrete surface can provide a temperature reduction up to 25 °C during the day when conduction and convection are limited and a net cooling power greater than 78 W/m2 at a cost less than $0.005/W. The impact of polymer coating on common buildings is estimated as potential annual energy savings of 2-12 MJ/m2 and CO2 emission savings of 0.3-1.5 kg/m2. More savings are expected for higher surface-area-to-volume-ratio buildings, and the polymer coating is also expected to resolve cooling issues for old buildings with no air conditioning

Probability of Line of Sight Evaluation in Urban Environments using 3D Simulator

The integration of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) into 6G networks is one of the most promising ways to achieve significant improvements in capacity, reliability, and global coverage. The design of NTN heavily relies on using channel models. In this paper, we propose two easy-to-use simulators for estimating the Line-of-Sight (LoS) probability $\mathbf{P_{LoS}}$ in a 3D urban environment. The first simulator is a 3D city simulator that employs simplified Ray Tracing (RT), while the second one is a lightweight geometry-based simulator that generates only the relevant buildings between users and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Using these simulators, we assess the accuracy of existing models for $\mathbf{P_{LoS}}$ estimation and examine $\mathbf{P_{LoS}}$ for different UAV heights, user-UAV distances, and azimuth/elevation angles. We conclude that 1) existing models overestimate $\mathbf{P_{LoS}}$, resulting in overoptimistic NTN performance predictions, 2) nodes location (including azimuth and elevation angles) is an important factor influencing $\mathbf{P_{LoS}}$, however, this influence is not captured by the existing models.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to IEEE conferenc

UBEM's archetypes improvement via data-driven occupant-related schedules randomly distributed and their impact assessment

In Urban Building Energy Models (UBEMs), buildings are usually modelled via archetypes describing occupants’ behaviour via fixed schedules. This research (i) creates data-driven schedules for electric use and occupancy from smart meter readings randomly distributed in the model to improve residential archetypes, (ii) assesses the impact of these schedules on UBEMs’ energy results at different temporal resolutions and spatial scales. The novel assessment procedure exploits integrated heat maps based on coefficients of variation of the root means square error (CVRMSE). The outcomes show that differences in energy needs, with randomized schedules, range based on temporal and spatial aggregation. Yearly, for the entire neighbourhood, heating and cooling energy needs, and electric uses are estimated -2%, +1%, and +18% compared to the base case. The outputs show that, when simulations are focused on the entire district, fixed schedules can be enough to describe energy patterns. However, if the simulation is focused on small groups of buildings (e.g., 5 or fewer), randomising the schedules can create variability in the model in terms of electric use and occupancy among buildings characterized by the same archetype. The followed methodology can be exploited also with larger databases and eventually verified with also other types of data