Automatic Reconstruction of Parametric, Volumetric Building Models from 3D Point Clouds

Planning, construction, modification, and analysis of buildings requires means of representing a building's physical structure and related semantics in a meaningful way. With the rise of novel technologies and increasing requirements in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) domain, two general concepts for representing buildings have gained particular attention in recent years. First, the concept of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is increasingly used as a modern means for representing and managing a building's as-planned state digitally, including not only a geometric model but also various additional semantic properties. Second, point cloud measurements are now widely used for capturing a building's as-built condition by means of laser scanning techniques. A particular challenge and topic of current research are methods for combining the strengths of both point cloud measurements and Building Information Modeling concepts to quickly obtain accurate building models from measured data. In this thesis, we present our recent approaches to tackle the intermeshed challenges of automated indoor point cloud interpretation using targeted segmentation methods, and the automatic reconstruction of high-level, parametric and volumetric building models as the basis for further usage in BIM scenarios. In contrast to most reconstruction methods available at the time, we fundamentally base our approaches on BIM principles and standards, and overcome critical limitations of previous approaches in order to reconstruct globally plausible, volumetric, and parametric models.Automatische Rekonstruktion von parametrischen, volumetrischen Gebäudemodellen aus 3D Punktwolken Für die Planung, Konstruktion, Modifikation und Analyse von Gebäuden werden Möglichkeiten zur sinnvollen Repräsentation der physischen Gebäudestruktur sowie dazugehöriger Semantik benötigt. Mit dem Aufkommen neuer Technologien und steigenden Anforderungen im Bereich von Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) haben zwei Konzepte für die Repräsentation von Gebäuden in den letzten Jahren besondere Aufmerksamkeit erlangt. Erstens wird das Konzept des Building Information Modeling (BIM) zunehmend als ein modernes Mittel zur digitalen Abbildung und Verwaltung "As-Planned"-Zustands von Gebäuden verwendet, welches nicht nur ein geometrisches Modell sondern auch verschiedene zusätzliche semantische Eigenschaften beinhaltet. Zweitens werden Punktwolkenmessungen inzwischen häufig zur Aufnahme des "As-Built"-Zustands mittels Laser-Scan-Techniken eingesetzt. Eine besondere Herausforderung und Thema aktueller Forschung ist die Entwicklung von Methoden zur Vereinigung der Stärken von Punktwolken und Konzepten des Building Information Modeling um schnell akkurate Gebäudemodelle aus den gemessenen Daten zu erzeugen. In dieser Dissertation präsentieren wir unsere aktuellen Ansätze um die miteinander verwobenen Herausforderungen anzugehen, Punktwolken mithilfe geeigneter Segmentierungsmethoden automatisiert zu interpretieren, sowie hochwertige, parametrische und volumetrische Gebäudemodelle als Basis für die Verwendung im BIM-Umfeld zu rekonstruieren. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten derzeit verfügbaren Rekonstruktionsverfahren basieren unsere Ansätze grundlegend auf Prinzipien und Standards aus dem BIM-Umfeld und überwinden kritische Einschränkungen bisheriger Ansätze um vollständig plausible, volumetrische und parametrische Modelle zu erzeugen.</p

Automatic reconstruction of parametric building models from indoor point clouds

AbstractWe present an automatic approach for the reconstruction of parametric 3D building models from indoor point clouds. While recently developed methods in this domain focus on mere local surface reconstructions which enable e.g. efficient visualization, our approach aims for a volumetric, parametric building model that additionally incorporates contextual information such as global wall connectivity. In contrast to pure surface reconstructions, our representation thereby allows more comprehensive use: first, it enables efficient high-level editing operations in terms of e.g. wall removal or room reshaping which always result in a topologically consistent representation. Second, it enables easy taking of measurements like e.g. determining wall thickness or room areas. These properties render our reconstruction method especially beneficial to architects or engineers for planning renovation or retrofitting. Following the idea of previous approaches, the reconstruction task is cast as a labeling problem which is solved by an energy minimization. This global optimization approach allows for the reconstruction of wall elements shared between rooms while simultaneously maintaining plausible connectivity between all wall elements. An automatic prior segmentation of the point clouds into rooms and outside area filters large-scale outliers and yields priors for the definition of labeling costs for the energy minimization. The reconstructed model is further enriched by detected doors and windows. We demonstrate the applicability and reconstruction power of our new approach on a variety of complex real-world datasets requiring little or no parameter adjustment

Empowering Consumers to Make Environmentally Sustainable Online Shopping Decisions: A Digital Nudging Approach

An ever-increasing share of people is using online shopping to satisfy their consumer needs. This has led to a vivid discussion regarding the environmental sustainability of e-commerce that also emphasized the role that consumer's decisions can play in mitigating its negative impacts. However, while many individuals state that they are willing to act more sustainably, they often struggle to follow through with their `green' intentions. We propose digital nudging as an approach to encourage environmentally sustainable online shopping decisions and empower consumers to act in line with their intentions. In an online experiment with 323 participants, we evaluate the effectiveness of three different nudging interventions (defaults, active choice, and self-nudging) to promote environmentally sustainable shipping options in an online store and assess the consumers' ethics and empowerment perceptions of the nudges. We find that all nudges are effective in changing decisions, but default nudges lead to negative perceptions among consumers

Eine Arbeitslosenversicherung für den Euroraum als automatischer Stabilisator

Die vorliegende Studie analysiert die makroökonomischen Stabilisierungs- und mikroökonomischen Verteilungswirkungen der Einführung einer Europäischen Arbeitslosenversicherung. Auf Grundlage dynamischer makroökonomischer Simulationen wird gezeigt, dass ein solches Transfersystem innerhalb des Euroraums – je nach Ausgestaltung – zu einer merklichen Stabilisierung der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung geführt hätte. Dies gilt selbst für eine gemessen am Transferumfang relativ kleine Europäische Arbeitslosenversicherung mit einer maximalen Bezugszeit von sechs Monaten und einer Nettoersatzquote von 30 Prozent; mit größerem Leistungsumfang steigt die Stabilisierungswirkung, aber im Gegenzug auch die möglicherweise unerwünschten Wirkungen auf Arbeitsanreize und das Ausmaß der Umverteilung zwischen den Mitgliedsländern. Die Verteilungswirkungen dürften insgesamt aus politischer Sicht unproblematisch sein; tendenziell finden sich leicht progressive bis neutrale Effekte auf die Einkommensverteilung, Haushalte mit niedrigeren Einkommen profitieren also überproportional von der Einführung einer Europäischen Arbeitslosenversicherung

D6.6.1 Current state of 3D object digital preservation and gap-analysis report ; DURAARK - Durable Architectural Knowledge ; FP7 - ICT - Digital Preservation

This deliverable identifies gaps in existing processes for the digital preservation of 3D objects. The gap analysis is approached through an in-depth analysis of two areas. One area is that of fundamental digital preservation tools and processes regardless of their content type. It describes processes and standards adapted by the global digital preservation community and implemented in archives of varying domains, e.g., archives dealing predominantly with e-publications as well as AV-archives. The second area is that of current existing processes for the digital preservation of 3D objects. It describes aspects and challenges which are uniquely tied to the long-term archiving process of this content-type and lists existing tools and standards. The gaps are identified through a comparison of the content type agnostic and the 3D-specific state of the art description

D2.4 Software prototype v1 ; DURAARK - Durable Architectural Knowledge ; FP7 - ICT - Digital Preservation

This report describes the first version of the integrated software prototype comprising the software prototypes developed in DURAARK so far. It exposes the functionality of the prototypes as a service-oriented platform (the "Workbench") and provides it to stakeholders via a coherent graphical user interface (the "WorkbenchUI"), yielding an integrated application for performing long-term archival tasks for BIM data from the view of a front-end stakeholder. Additionally, the software acts as a service provider for third party developers to be able to integrate the functionality developed in DURAARK in their own (existing) applications. The report guides a stakeholder through the usage of the graphical user interface, describes the components on a technical level and gives interested readers and developers information on how to use the Workbench as a service provider