A review of risk management through BIM and BIM-related technologies

BIM-enabled facilities operation and maintenance: A review

Presenting significant building or engineering 3D-models is a crucial part of the planning, construction and maintenance phases in terms of collaboration and understanding. Especially in complex or large-scale models, immersion is one of the major key factors for being able to intuitively perceive all aspects of the scene. A fully immersive system needs to give the user a large field-of-view with reduced latency for lifelike impression. Technologies such as VRwalls and shutter glasses can deliver high refresh rates, yet fail to give a large field-of-view. Head-mounted-devices for virtual reality fill this gap. Head tracking mechanisms translate movements of the user’s head into virtual camera movements and enable a natural way of examining models. Unlike a stereoscopic representation with projectors, point-of-view tracking can be achieved separately for each individual user. Hardware costs for such systems were very high in the past, but have dropped due to virtual reality systems now gaining traction in the mainstream gaming community. In this paper we present a way to build a low-cost, highly immersive virtual reality environment for engineering and construction applications. Furthermore, we present a method to simplify and partly automate the process of reusing digital building models, which are already used in construction, to create virtual scenes, instead of having to do parallel content creation for visualization. Using the Oculus Rift head-mounted display and the Leap Motion hand-tracking device, we show the possibilities of naturally interacting within a virtual space in different use cases. The software, based on the popular game engine Unreal Engine 4, will be used as a basis for further research and development. Building Information Modeling data can be imported to UE4 with our presented plugin. Using an automated database for mapping materials to the geometry simplifies the process of importing Building Information Modeling entities. The refresh rate of the system stays within acceptable margins needed for virtual reality applications using head-mounted devices. Head-mounted devices present a great potential for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry, as a person can experience realistic first-person situations without having to care about injuries. Automated processes for the simplification of content creation, leveraging existing models, and the usage of visual programming languages enable even nonprogrammers to create scenarios to their needs.

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Low-cost virtual reality environment for engineering and construction

Recent building emergency management research has highlighted the need for the effective utilization of dynamically changing building information. BIM (building information modelling) can play a significant role in this process due to its comprehensive and standardized data format and integrated process. This paper introduces a BIM based virtual environment supported by virtual reality (VR) and a serious game engine to address several key issues for building emergency management, for example, timely two-way information updating and better emergency awareness training. The focus of this paper lies on how to utilize BIM as a comprehensive building information provider to work with virtual reality technologies to build an adaptable immersive serious game environment to provide real-time fire evacuation guidance. The innovation lies on the seamless integration between BIM and a serious game based virtual reality (VR) environment aiming at practical problem solving by leveraging state-of-the-art computing technologies. The system has been tested for its robustness and functionality against the development requirements, and the results showed promising potential to support more effective emergency management.

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BIM Based Virtual Environment for Fire Emergency Evacuation

Prototyping virtual reality serious games for building earthquake preparedness: The Auckland City Hospital case study

Background The emerging Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) / Facility Management (FM) industry promotes life cycle process and collaborative way of working. Currently, many efforts have been contributed for professional integrated design / construction / maintenance process, there are very few practical methods that can enable a professional designer to effectively interact and collaborate with end-users/clients on a functional level. Method This paper tries to address the issue via the utilisation of computer game software combined with Building Information Modelling (BIM). Game-engine technology is used due to its intuitive controls, immersive 3D technology and network capabilities that allow for multiple simultaneous users. BIM has been specified due to the growing trend in industry for the adoption of the design method and the 3D nature of the models, which suit a game engine's capabilities. Results The prototype system created in this paper is based around a designer creating a structure using BIM and this being transferred into the game engine automatically through a two-way data transferring channel. This model is then used in the game engine across a number of network connected client ends to allow end-users to change/add elements to the design, and those changes will be synchronized back to the original design conducted by the professional designer. The system has been tested for its robustness and functionality against the development requirements, and the results showed promising potential to support more collaborative and interactive design process. Conclusion It was concluded that this process of involving the end-user could be very useful in certain circumstances to better elaborate the end user's requirement to design team in real time and in an efficient way.

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Bin Wang

Papers

BIM Based Virtual Environment for Fire Emergency Evacuation

BIM based collaborative and interactive design process using computer game engine for general end-users

Intelligent Building Emergency Management Using Building Information Modelling and Game Engine

Multi-agent system for real time building monitoring