Chapter-01 State of Art | 34 Table 4-AR devices in the Market
1.4.3 Uses of VR/AR in AEC Industry Today
The top activities for which VR/AR is being used in the AEC industry are as follows [33]:
1. Design
2. Construction Management 3. Facilities Management 4. Simulations
5. Quality Control and logistics
Some other activities were also identified for which AR/VR can be used but either it is too complicated, or its full potential can’t be utilized [33].
1. On-site operations
2. Safety and Risk Prevention 3. Cost Management
Chapter-01 State of Art | 35 The idea behind this novel approach is that it is harder to install sensors and IOT devices in existing buildings. BIM Model was created from Point cloud. For each element under study QR codes were created. The idea behind QR code is that FM employees will scan the code and update the status of the element in the smartphone application. To make this game (smartphone application) more exciting, point collection, competition with other employees and advanced challenges were added in the game.
Figure 15-QR Code for Element Identification
Every object type can have its own states. For example, the heater can have the values from 1 to 6 and the window can have the states open, partially open and closed [34]. To visualize the collected building information, we developed a web application which utilizes WebGL. As the data is coupled with BIM representation of the building, we can visualize it in 3D. The visualization shows color coded values on the 3D BIM model directly to the facility manager [34].
Chapter-01 State of Art | 36 Figure 16-Web Application View
This novel approach had many limitations.one of the biggest limitation is the Motivation of workers. What will happen if people are not any more motivated to update the status daily. Also, this approach requires many readings of the same element to be reliable.
Another paper that discusses the Gaming approach in AEC is given by [35].The authors have studied gaming approach in the context of Training. According to [35], gaming is an approach that applies technology to provide an almost real experience with interactive field training and supporting the theory of learning by doing with real case scenario. Different game like genres such as simulation game, role-playing, action game, strategy game etc. were studied. The findings of the study show that serious game is a suitable genre to be adopted as an approach in hazard identification training for the construction industry.
Serious game “is all about leveraging the power of computer games to captive and engage end-users for a specific purpose, such as to develop new knowledge and skills” [36].
Serious games have the capability to achieve specific learning objectives by combining the gameplay, simulation and learning theory. Serious games also offer a flexible approach that enables hands-on, active learning in a safe environment simulated to mimic a real-life situation at the workplace [35]. It is anticipated that the development of such a blended training module will be of great significance to safety training among construction workers in handling occupational hazards [35].
Chapter-01 State of Art | 37 The limitation to this approach of training is that construction projects are unique, and each project have their own set of hazards. This means that the game must be modified each time for every project.
Another study which we will discuss in this thesis deals with the use of Gaming approach for Education purposes for architects and engineers. According to [37] traditional architectural education is based 2D and 3D visualizations. The authors propose BIM with VR in a gaming environment can not only increase the interest of the students but also creates a learning platform beyond boarders. The COVID-19 pandemic proved education’s over-reliance on classroom to be inadequate and adaptation to future demands is overdue [37].
Figure 17-Level 01 and Level 02 for Stair Elements
Figure 18- Level 01 and Level 02 for Column Elements
Chapter-01 State of Art | 38 Figure 19-Completed Level 01
Figure 20- Level 02 in Progress
Chapter-01 State of Art | 39 Level-01 is based on Basic LOD (200) and is represented with the simple geometry of LEGO.
After the player completed level-01 he must play level-02 where the LOD (300) is there, and the geometry is much complex. Players also indicated increased depth of understanding with the voice/video narration during the exploration stage.
VR along with this gaming approach can used as a teaching medium which requires no classrooms.
In addition to that, people who don’t have any previous knowledge of architecture can also use this method of learning beyond reading technical drawings which can be a tiresome task for both architectural and non-architectural students.
Gamification approach can also be used for monitoring the construction progress .According to [38] In large-scale construction projects, the process of monitoring the implementation of every single part of buildings and reflecting them on the BIM models can become highly labor intensive and error-prone, due to the vast amount of data produced in the form of schedules, reports and photo logs. This paper [38] presents a framework and a proof-of-concept prototype for on-demand automated simulation of construction projects, integrating some cutting edge IT solutions, namely image processing, machine learning, BIM and Virtual Reality.
Figure 21- Flow chart of Achieving Progress monitoring with VR
The above image shows the flow chart of the prototype, based around the principles of remote construction project monitoring, it takes advantage of ML and image processing in removing unwanted objects, recognizing and extracting main building characteristics, and overlaying these on the corresponding as-planned nD components. VR technologies, including Unity and HTC Vive, provided a virtual environment to allow better user interaction with these elements [38].
Chapter-01 State of Art | 40 It was concluded that the proposed platform could help construction companies to follow the progress of their work and diagnose any discrepancy without interrupting the on-site operations.
This remote managing tool can also save a great deal of time and provide a more accurate comparison of constructed parts with the as-planned BIM mode [38]. As this approach uses VR it is easy to visualize the progress monitoring in an immersive environment. In addition to that, future planning can also be performed using VR which will give us a better understanding of the clashing that might happen.
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Chapter-02 Methodology
Chapter-02 Methodology | 42