System for the integration of BIM and IoT: construction 4.0

Abstract

Its hard to deny the fact that the current construction site is fundamentally different from the factory floor. However, renewed interest in prefabrication and modularization in construction projects, thanks to the synergy with Building Information Modeling (BIM), and the successful processes of automation and robotization in on-site and off-site production, in countries such as Japan and Germany, are indicative that these differences could be transposed. Factors such as decades of stagnant productivity indexes, constant delays in completing the works, and cost overruns are not in line with the performance of the manufacturing industries and suggest that the process of industrialization could be a solution. It is believed that the difficulties and obstacles to the industrialization process of Construction would be mitigated in the context of the current trend in manufacturing industries, called Industry 4.0. Its particularities, such as the possibility of mass customization, are quite adequate, if not essential, to foster the industrialization of Construction. This research project aims at the development of a computational system, which simulates on-site production processes by discrete events. Integrated to it will be the information contained in BIM models for design and construction, as well as data produced by a network of sensors that monitors the construction activities in the field (people, equipment and materials), in real-time, within the Internet of Things (IoT) concept. Capturing and documenting the as-built information as well as monitoring the progress of construction are just two immediate uses of this platform. (AU)