Gap analysis of research, technology, & development activities

Most energy usage of buildings throughout their life cycle is during the operational stage (~80%). The decisions made in the conception and design stages of new buildings, as well as in renovation stages of existing buildings, influence about 80% of the total life cycle energy consumption. The impact of user behaviour and real-time control is in the range of 20%. ICT has been identified as one possible means to design, optimize, regulate and control energy use within existing and future (smart) buildings. This books presents a collection of best practices, gap analysis of current research and technology development activities, a research roadmap, and a series of recommendations for ICT supported energy efficiency in buildings. Key research, technology, and development priorities include: integrated design and production management; intelligent and integrated control; user awareness and decision support; energy management and trading; integration Technologies. The vision for ICT supported energy efficiency of buildings in the short, medium, and long term is advocated as follows: Short term: Buildings meet the energy efficiency requirements of regulations and users; Medium term: The energy performance of buildings is optimised considering the whole life cycle; Long term: New business models are driven by energy efficient “prosumer” buildings at district level – long term

Business modelling for smart continual commissioning in ESCO set-ups

The availability of sensors, smart meters, and so called ‘intelligent devices’ (IoT) enables owners and tenants to better understand and flexibly adjust the status of buildings and their systems according to their needs. However, it also requires a more intense and detailed knowledge about how to exploit, analyse and manage ‘big data’ compiled from these devices. Building operators, facility managers and energy suppliers are expected to collaborate and to share this data aiming to deliver more holistic, comprehensive services to clients (i.e. owners and tenants of buildings). This paper discusses how so called ESCO-business models (energy service companies) and CC-business models (continuous commissioning) can be integrated through sharing of big data and collaboration of major stakeholders involved in building operation, energy supply and engineering consultancy. It explains how building owners will benefit from the availability of such comprehensive, collaborative services

Gap analysis of current best practices in the area of continual commissioning

This paper analyses the status of Continual Commissioning (subsequently short-named as CC) aiming to improve the energy efficient design and operation of built artefacts. In order to develop a comprehensive vision of the CC market worldwide it is compulsory to establish a state-of-the-art analysis based on already existing Best Practices (BP). As a result of these identified challenges, commonalities, deficits, and potentials for collaboration are identified contributing to enhance harmonization between the CC-related technology developers. This paper proposes a systematic categorization approach to identify gaps in the current Best Practices in the area of Continual Commissioning. More than 500 companies and organizations related to this area have been analyzed, 100 of them have been selected for further categorization and analysis. The proposed method allows to identify major deficits of the related services offered within the specified categories. Finally, areas in CC which require substantial improvement are identified

Computer Vision for Construction Progress Monitoring: A Real-Time Object Detection Approach

Construction progress monitoring (CPM) is essential for effective project management, ensuring on-time and on-budget delivery. Traditional CPM methods often rely on manual inspection and reporting, which are time-consuming and prone to errors. This paper proposes a novel approach for automated CPM using state-of-the-art object detection algorithms. The proposed method leverages e.g. YOLOv8's real-time capabilities and high accuracy to identify and track construction elements within site images and videos. A dataset was created, consisting of various building elements and annotated with relevant objects for training and validation. The performance of the proposed approach was evaluated using standard metrics, such as precision, recall, and F1-score, demonstrating significant improvement over existing methods. The integration of Computer Vision into CPM provides stakeholders with reliable, efficient, and cost-effective means to monitor project progress, facilitating timely decision-making and ultimately contributing to the successful completion of construction projects.Comment: 15 Page

"Mobile Computing" - Anforderungen & Einführungsstratgie aus Sicht der Baupraxis

Die Sicherung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit im Bereich des Bauwesens, insbesondere kleinerer und mittelständischer Betriebe erfordert ein aktives Handeln als Antwort auf die sich ändernde Wettbewerbssituation. Einen wesentlichen Wettbewerbsvorteil können kleine unternehmerische Einheiten durch höhere Flexibilität, schnelle Reaktion auf Kundenwünsche oder aktuelle Situationen auf der Baustelle und Marktnähe erreichen. Dazu ist es nötig, die Informations- und Kommunikationsströme durch Einsatz standardisierter und kostengünstiger Hard- und Software wie z.B. Handhelds zu unterstützen und insbesondere die existierenden Hindernisse im Informationsfluss zwischen Baustelle und Büro zu beseitigen. Am Beispiel der Projekte >IuK - SystemBaueSharingMobile Computing< in kleinen unternehmerischen Einheiten des Bauwesens (KMU) basierend auf einer umfangreichen Anforderungsanalyse vorgestellt. Folgende Aspekte sollen beschrieben werden: durchgängiger Einsatz der Technik unter Beachtung der verschiedenen Qualifikationsniveaus, Einführungsunterstützung durch Schulungen, Prozessanalyse und mögliche Integration in bestehende Software-Umgebungen sowie Feldtests

About the implantation process of mobile computing in AEC

The AEC industry is conscious of the potentials arising from the usage of mobile computer systems to increase productivity by streamlining their business processes. Discussions are no longer on whether or not to use a mobile computer solution, but rather, on how it should be used. However, the implantation process of this new technology in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) and Facility Management (FM) practise is very slow and should be improved. One way to encourage and ease the usage of mobile computer systems in AEC is a more process-oriented usability and context appropriateness of mobile computer solutions. Context-sensitivity is defined as a crucial feature to be taken into account for further research in the area of Mobile Computing. Context-sensitive, mobile IT-solutions depend on two features: (1) flexible definitions of (construction) processes describing the context and (2) tools for flexible, multi-dimensional information management representing the context. It is on this premise that the authors propose the n-dimensional data management approach for the implementation of mobile computing solutions. In this paper, we analyse working scenarios in the AEC and FM sector, defining context aspects which are transformed and formalized as dimension hierarchies of the envisaged context model

Resource Management for the Construction Industry

The management of resources is an essential task in each construction company. Today, ERP systems and e-Business systems are available to assist construction companies to efficiently organise the allocation of their personnel and equipment within the company, but they cannot provide the company with the idle resources for every single task that has to be performed during a construction project. Therefore, companies should have an alternative solution to better exploit expensive resources and compensate their fixed costs, but also have them available at the right time for their own business activities. This paper outlines the approach taken by the EU funded project “e-Sharing” (IST-2001-33325) to support resource management between construction companies. It will describe requirements for the management of construction resources, its core features, and the integration approach. Therefore, we will outline the approach of an integrated resource type model supporting the management and classification of construction equipment, construction tasks and qualification profiles. The development is based on a cross-domain analysis and evaluation of existing models. ..

Why and how to assess the quality of Building Performance Data

Over the past decade buildings have become much more complex technical artefacts due to the fact that numerous energy co-generation and storage capabilities can be integrated into buildings. The integration of complementing operation of generation, storage, and building services systems is not a trivial task. Numerous data streams need to be analysed to ensure that the operation of the aforementioned systems contributes to overall energy savings and CO2-reductions without undermining the tenants’ comfort and wellbeing in those buildings. One could assume that through the emergence of wireless monitoring systems an improved knowledge base can be quickly and efficiently build-up to support the decisions which must be made by building automation systems or systems’ operators. However, the pure availability of additional data compiled from sensors, meters, access control systems and local weather stations can worsen the situation in case the compiled data is incomplete or of insufficient quality. Therefore, this paper discusses the question of why and how to satisfy the building user by optimising the operational cost and convincing the building owner to constantly invest in upgrades and retrofit activities to maintain a building and its systems on a satisfactory standard representing the state-of-the-art of building technology (products) and available building operational strategies (processes)

Reorganisationspotentiale im Bauwesen durch Nutzung mobiler Informations- & Kommunikationstechnologien

Die Verfügbarkeit und die sichere Beherrschung moderner und kostengünstiger Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien gestattet es auch kleinen unternehmerischen Einheiten im Bauwesen sich in betriebsübergreifenden Netzwerken zu organisieren und sich besser in die Wertschöpfungskette am Bau zu integrieren. In sogenannten >Virtuellen OrganisationenSmart-PhonesIuK-System Bau< derzeit entwickelt werden, vorgestellt