Review of Previous Studies – this is an expanded and updated version of the Literature Review that was part of the Research Proposal.
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Introduction
The purpose of our research proposal is to find out the current state of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector; with a particular focus on how Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality has impacted on the management of construction projects. Research shows ICT is virtually used across all sectors; however, applications which use Virtual and Augmented Reality are still considered new and are not industry standard as of yet. The issue raised are why are each of these technologies is not yet fully utilised with each industry. As contractors and designers are not willing to share information freely between themselves due to confidentiality.
The proposal will draw a conclusion based on mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative data attained from conducting interviews, distributing surveys and a literature-based research. Although, limitations may arise with the personal interviews and distribution of surveys to only a specific target area located throughout South Australia’s AEC sector. However, this ought to provide us with enough information to draw a relative conclusion on the use of applications by each company.
Review of Literature
Introduction
By conducting thorough investigation of documents accessed and information presented to our group from attending meetings with the supervisor. We were able to assess credible sources of published literature that relates to social science research and knowledge of building design and construction processes; with a particular focus on the applications of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Virtual and Augmented Realities.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is a computer simulation that utilises 3D imaging to display a virtual situation or environment that can be manipulated in real-time. In the construction industry, this technology is changing the way construction projects run, from the design phase right through to the handover. The construction sector is quickly changing from simple 2D drawings to far more complicated 3D models, these more advanced programs allow structural analysis and project management information systems that allow for collaborative sharing of all information (Lipman, 2004). The design phase utilises virtual reality technologies by turning static data like from plans and material information into a three-dimensional image that can be manipulated and changed at any time quickly. This type of design phase, which can be easily changed at any time, allows for a mitigation of future risks by lowering the amount of construction variations, and integrating the building and design teams from the very beginning. It allows something like energy efficiency and life cycle planning to be done early on in the project. This type of risk mitigation and clash detection is consumer driven, which means that the customers or clients are no longer willing to make errors early on. This is a relatively new technology especially the adaptation for the construction industry. These programs, and especially BIM, are being used more and more in the industry as can be seen in figure 1 (Hardin and McCool, 2015).
Figure 1: Length of Time Contractors Have Using BIM
The design phase is critical to any construction project and can make or break a project. The use of real-time virtual reality projects that enable clients and designers to see the building as it grows in development. This technology allows multiple inputs from different teams and people and is updated in real time, so all parties are updated instantly. It allows the design teams and the contractors to interact in a way previously impossible. Although saying all of this, there are ways in which BIM could be further utilised, and it has boundaries that it needs to over come before its full effects can take place. Many factors are contributing to the failure of full integration of BIM across all levels; there are IT capacity, technology management, trust, communication, and leadership. This has happened because some contractors do not have or are willing to get BIM, people are scared to share information so opening because it could lead to liability issues, and the use of such a program takes training and skill to be fully utilised (Liu, Nederveen and Hertogh, 2016).
The use of virtual reality programmes is integrating itself into early development of building lifecycle and energy efficiency. This is done firstly by trying to reduce the embodied energy of the materials used within a project, and this is where virtual reality programs which allow for constant changes and the ability to deal with large amounts of input data are changing the way we design a low energy building. The way research was done was but gathering all energy information for many building materials for all types of construction and then by using programs like BIM it allows for different ‘recipes’ to be quickly formed and changed as the design process continues (Shadram, Johansson 2016).
The use of virtual reality programs for the on going management of a construction project is becoming vastly more prevalent; it allows the project management and construction management to become more integrated. This allows for a more controlled environment where cost can be tracked, and overall reduces throughout the life of a project. The application of BIM is for risk mitigation and an automatically up-dated singular space of information, the program is a five-dimensional information pool because it updates schedule and budgets at the same time. The use of BIM can be seen throughout the projects life in modern projects from the design phase where owners and clients want to see a three-dimensional representation of the building, to the project management, the contractors kept update and even the operation and decommissioning phase (Bryde, Broquetas and Volm, 2013).
The construction industry and process is information intensive it requires large volumes of information and data which all needs to be processed and stored to run a project smoothly. The way that BIM has improved this is by allowing a single place for information storage, which is accessed unanimously by all the participants. In a case study, it was investigated to see the impacts that ‘cloud’ based real time model with all information. This real-time monitoring system changed the way a construction project was run, as seen in figure 2 (Matthews, 2015).
Figure 2: Re-engineering Process of cloud-based BIM in Construction
Information and Communication Technology
Information and communication technology (ICT), which in this proposal is not a description for reference to a single technology, but includes a broad range of technical approaches to a variety of issues being assessed. Within the construction, ICT is a vital tool used by industry professionals for any number of reasons. ICT in the future of the construction industry seems to be a compromise between accepting something, which seems inevitable in some aspects, and in an ideal perspective to achieve, since ICTs are able to saturate everything and that the progress in any area could not develop without it (Flangan and Jewell, 2003). Nevertheless, how have these technologies affected the design period of a given project? This question poses a sound basis for research and can be investigated by several different methods and methodologies. Some industry professionals argue about the driving causes for the increase in useable technologies throughout the construction industry. To name a few, productivity, globalisation and idiosyncrasies of the construction industry. However, it is debatable whether some ICT. Namely, the positive impact on customer service is, in fact, positive at all. This understandably can be subjective as the younger population as a whole would more commonly appreciate electronic correspondence via ICT services. Whereas generally, the ageing population values face-to-face transactions and communications.
Figure 3: Issues regarding ICT
Figure 3 identified issues with respect to ICT adoption by SMEs for building project management and required action levels (Egbu, Gaskell, Howes 2001).
There are distinct advantages of the smooth integration of various ICT methods to the construction industry; much of the construction industry still relies on old technology such as hard copy documents and human communication (Egbu, Gaskell, Howes 2002). The relay of records through a chain from architects and engineers through project managers and contracts administrators than to a site manager who will likely then need to pass it on to a contractor. This chain multiplies the margin for error or miscommunication significantly. A question can be asked in a different form with relation to the outdated nature of how would the implementation of ICT effectively influence these strategies? (Huang, Fisher, Broyd 2002)
Mobile communication is a vital piece of technology relied upon by construction professionals. Emails seemingly are increasing in their popularity being available from smartphones, tablets and desktop forums. There is a high dependability on emails throughout the industry. The integration of emails to smartphones and tablets has meant there is a smaller window where correspondence is inaccessible. Smart phones and tablets have allowed many other technological advances within the construction industry alone. Such as mobile teleconferencing, cloud data storage and mobile internet. There are also mobile applications which are specifically tailored to the construction industry and identifying defects within a development and sending the works to be rectified to contractor or sub-contractor.
There is somewhat of a gap however between these technologies and Computer Aided Design (CAD) technologies. The potential implementation and cross communication between these technologies would be a large technological advancement (Krishnaswamy, 2004). These kinds of technologies allow an industry professional to access anything from emails to architectural specifications but something that is still lacking in terms of transportability is A1 drawings and other documents. These can be accessed via cloud storage or can be carried on tablets or laptops but not in the correct scale and detail (Sreepuram, Rao, 2006).
Augmented Reality
Technology such as Augmented Reality (AR) is used to alter peoples’ sensory perception through a visual device. Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) applications for devices overlay digital graphics or text onto the users’ view of nearby surroundings and let them interact with that particular environment. AR systems are designed to keep track of the users’ orientation so that information projected can be considered four-dimensional, allowing them to alter/interact with things that they can observe as reality and in real-time. Currently, AR has become a revolutionary tool within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector; by integrating with three-dimensional programs like Building Information Modelling (BIM), the AR technology can notice real world problems before they exist potentially saving on construction costs and materials.
For example, MAR allows the operator to walk through building site and experience a virtual projection of how the project will be structured in the future, displaying detailed sections of area such as underground utility lines as they would exist based on as-built Geographic Information System data (Behzadan, Dong & Kamat 2012). As the AR business case and technology develops its use in the construction industry, it will become of a standard, comparative to BIM. Field trials of AR equipment are allowing researchers to visualise various modes along the projects timeline, masking virtual models with a real one creating a mobile feedback report. However, some problems posed to the accuracy of the navigational compass and GPS marking prompted developers to include positioning methods as a backup for sensors (Woodward, Mika Hakkarainen 2011). Advancements and further studies will be required before the system will be consistently used on construction sites day to day.
Architecture in an Age of Augmented Reality: Opportunities and Obstacles for Mobile AR in Design, Construction, and Post-Completion (Abboud, 2014), clearly explore the opportunities and obstacles of Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) across the inception, construction and post-construction phases. In my opinion, the paper is considered qualitative in nature, and the research methodology follows a series of steps. Firstly, the author has begun research by conducting a literature review of MAR models across the AEC sector. The majority of the investigation has made use of online sources, journals, media articles, and videos showcasing MAR models. However, research implies MAR applications are only considered a new innovation to the construction industry and require more in-depth research by industry professional. A lot of the research conducted in regards to Augmented Reality (AR) and the construction realm has been undertaken by researchers with interest in AR, whose publications are aimed towards those with prior knowledge of this technology. The publications summary of state of the art AR models will appeal to industry professionals, which is the publications target audience.
Secondly, the publication is predominately based on the author’s knowledge of architectural practices, and make reference to literature by professional architecture institutes to establish project stages within architectural practice as design, construction and post-construction. The opportunity to use MAR is appropriate for multiple project phases such as visualising a design at full scale and throughout the construction phase. Although this is new territory for architects now, with the advancement of technology, come new possibilities. Architects already using such technology as Building Imaging Modelling (BIM) may expand their professional services to incorporate MAR offerings by partnering with an AR developer to design custom applications.
Thirdly, the author discussed opportunities and challenges that relate to MAR with various leaders worldwide while on an international tour. Those who were interviewed were industry leaders in the AEC field, AR developers and pioneers of AR in construction applications. The tour uncovered a broad spectrum of use cases and models relevant to architecture across the world. However, the search for use cases in engineering and construction applications proved vague. Given AR’s commercial promise, many pioneers in the field were reluctant to share their research and models with those outside their organisations, fearing loss of competitive advantage. Therefore, direct access to commercial AR developers for this paper was limited to those who were marketing their work to engineering/construction professionals.
Research Aims and Objectives
• – How have these technologies affected the design period of a given project?
This question is aimed towards information in relation to time and scheduling of projects. Technology in the construction industry is increasingly being used for time efficiency purposes. This research seeks to identify and analyse what is meant by “design period” for a project. It also looks at identifying the effects of different technologies on the given “design period”
The objectives of this research are:
1. To identify and critically evaluate technologies that have affect on the design period of a project as reported in literature.
2. Investigate and analyse technologies that have affect on the design period of a project as experienced in industry practise.
3. Synthesise the evaluated literature and analysed practises to identify correlations and contradictions; and
4. Generate a set of management guidelines to decrease project design periods for a given project.
• – How has technology impacted clashes, variations, procurement and electronic correspondence?
This question aims to analyse technology impacting clashes, variations, procurement and electronic correspondence. It also aims to generate a set of management guidelines to assist with efficiency of resolving clashes, variations, procurement and electronic correspondence.
The objectives of this research are:
1. To identify and critically evaluate technological impacts on clashes, variations, procurement and electronic correspondence as reported in literature.
2. Investigate and analyse technological impacts on clashes, variations, procurement and electronic team working as experienced in industry practise
3. Synthesize the evaluated literature and analysed practises to identify correlations and contradictions; and
4. Generate a set of management guidelines to increase productivity within clashes, variations, procurement and electronic correspondence.
• – How much has the use of technology influenced the design in projects over the past decade?
This question aims to analyse technologies influencing the deign differences within projects undertaken over the past decade. It also aims to generate a set of management guidelines to assist with the future development of design and construct technologies.
The objectives of this research are:
1. To identify and critically evaluate technologies that have influenced projects specifically over the past decade within the construction industry as reported in literature.
2. Investigate and analyse technologies that have influenced projects specifically over the past decade within the construction industry as experienced in industry practise.
3. Synthesise the evaluated literature and analysed practises to identify correlations and contradictions; and
4. Generate a set of management guidelines to set out future trends with the increase in technological advancements.
• – How can programs like BIM be better-utilised and taken advantage of within the industry from design to decommissioning?
This question aims to analyse the affects BIM has on decommissioning and the design processes within a project. It also aims to generate a set of management guidelines to assist with optimum utilisation of the BIM software to increase productivity within the specified areas.
The objectives of this research are:
1. To identify and critically evaluate the uses of BIM and their effects on the construction industry as reported in literature.
2. Investigate and analyse the uses of BIM and their effects on the construction industry in industry practise.
3. Synthesise the evaluated literature and analysed practises to identify correlations and contradictions; and
4. Generate a set of management guidelines aimed at utilising the software more efficiently and effectively across all BIM operators.
Ethics and Workplace Health & Safety
The aim of our research is to conduct surveys to obtain a mix of qualitative and quantitative information to determine the use of technological applications in the design, construction process and management of projects. All research is deemed to be ethically responsible demonstrating honesty, respect for human research participants and per the Framework for the Responsible Conduct of Research and Section A of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.
Initially, candidates will be contacted by email or phone call and asked if they are willing to participate in the survey. The target group of participants will ideally be working within the construction/engineering industry, and be ask to provide their gender, age, role, and how long they have been employed at their company. Subsequently, a series of qualitative questions will be posed to each of the volunteers’ information sheet via email or issued in person. All answers collected from the surveys will then be analysed and provide non-identifiable data to forecast and produce quantitative graphs. Non-identifiable data refers to each participants’ identity not been labelled with individual identifiers, and as a result of which no specific individual can be identified. A subset of non-identifiable data is those which can be linked with other data so it can be known they are about the same data subject, although the person’s identity remains unknown. The data collected will be stored securely on either computer file or hard copy. The results of each survey will be disclosed and only shared with group members, supervisor and marker for confidentiality reasons. Work, Health and Safety inductions may be necessary as group members will go ‘on-site’ to issue each survey to participants on construction site. It should be noted that all participants are not expected to be reimbursed for their time filling out the survey.
Budget, Logistics and Timeline
Table 1: Approximate Timeline
Activity Milestone Schedule Dates
1- Create Surveys Template 13th March – 17th March
2- Distribute Surveys 20th March – 7th April
3- Data Collection 10th April – 21st April
4- Documented Results (analysis) 24th April – 5th May
5- Formulate discussion based on results 8th May – 19th May
6- Compile thesis draft 22nd May – 2nd June
6.1- Submit thesis draft to supervisor Yes 22nd May – 2nd June
7- Finalize data analysis and related documentation 5th June – 16th June
8- Finalise results, discussion, implications and conclusion
19th June – 30th June
9- Check/respond to feedback 3rd July – 7th July
9.1- Submit final thesis for assessment Yes 3rd July – 7th July
10. Distribute thesis Yes 10th July – 14th July
11. Project close-out activities Yes 17th July – 21st July
Figure 4: Gantt Chart of Timeline
The above figure displays a Gantt Chart indicating the length of each activity and when various milestones will be reached. The materials required for the proposed research will be computer/internet facilities, either hard photocopies or electronic copies of surveys to distribute to each participant. It is estimated a total of $40.00 @ 20 cents per copy will be sufficient in covering the printing costs for 200 surveys. Pens will be supplied and returned to each participant to fill out the survey. The cost of the binding of the thesis itself will be variable depending on the length.
Methodology – this comes from your Research Proposal but incorporates any changes required during the research.
The description of the methodology is essentially the Research Proposal from ENGG 4005 with any modifications that were found to be necessary as the testing and/or data gathering were underway.
A literature review on the topics of ICT, virtual reality and augmented reality programs used within the construction industry, and the benefits and limitations of these programs have been undertaken. This review of the literature was to discover what kind of affects these programs are having and how they can be better utilised within the industry and how they have shaped and change construction projects over the last decade. For this research, there are two main techniques for data collection of both a qualitative and quantitative nature. Firstly a significant amount of research online using a varied assortment of databases contains sources of a scholarly nature, secondly is the primary research that will be undertaken in the form of surveys sent out to industry professionals of all kinds. The reason a mixed approach of collecting qualitative and quantitative data is to assess the effects these technologies have had, there is no way of putting someone’s thoughts on the changes to the industry into a broad set of quantitative data. Therefore surveys will be used to gain a perspective from industry professionals in a qualitative manner; it will be their experiences with these technologies and how it has influenced their jobs and roles within the industry.
The surveys will be prepared to gain knowledge on the research questions that have been stated in the previous section. Which means the main question of the surveys will be about the affect that the technologies have on the design period of a construction project, how they mitigate risks such as variations and clashes. The other questions being how much the use of these technologies has increased over the last decade and how these programs can be better utilised in the industry to promote a greater collaboration within the industry and in the construction projects. The way in which the surveys will be taken is by approaching large construction firms and seeing if site managers, project managers and design teams, architects, and contractors can take part in the surveys. This can be achieved by either talking to people in person or sending emails out to as many people in the industry. The reason behind this is to gain a wide perspective on how these technologies impact the different stages of a construction project such as the design, the construction phase and all the way to decommissioning. Each of these phases will incorporate different teams and industry professionals who need to interact and share information openly to achieve a uniform goal. The surveys are directed to see if this type of open communication is happening and how it is affecting the performance and efficiency of each project, and how much more prevalent the use of these technologies is becoming.
The data received from these surveys will be able to give a qualitative results in the way people perceive the use of these technologies and how they have to change the way people work and interact with other teams within a project, and idea pertaining to how BIM and cad can be further utilised.
The idea of the question pertaining to how long people have been using such programs is to turn this into quantitative data, which can be graph to see the increase in use over the last decade. This is the only quantitative data we will be able to gather from the survey, as the rest of the questions are looking at people’s perspectives about the technologies. These surveys are quite hard to turn into quantitative data set as; it would be hard to gain a good idea of the effectiveness of BIM and other programs. To determine the impact that BIM would have on the design process timescales and cost breakdowns of projects would be needed, this type of information is very hard to gather from companies.
The amount of surveys sent out is determined to be 200 because the number of replies we expect is quite low. We anticipate to make up for this with the large amount of surveys distributed. It would be expected that we will send out around 200 surveys to as many different companies as possible, the surveys would be sent to around five different job titles, these being construction managers, project managers, architects, contractors and engineers. The type of respondents that are critical to a good thorough investigation are very experienced individuals who are passionate about the industry and are always looking to improve their particular fields. The results would be put together and analysed to prove or disprove the validity of the hypothesis that virtual, augmented and ICT programs are improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of construction projects.
The other way of conducting research is via the use of databases and through studying previous research carried out by other professionals. The type of data that would collect from this is quantitative; this is because we want to be able to physically represent the impact of BIM and augmented reality programs in the construction industry. This would mean data of the time and money saving effects and how the use of technology can streamline the design and construction process.
Research Question/s
Experimental Work and Techniques/methods used.
Analysis of results.
Compilations of raw test results or computer runs should be kept out of the main body of the report and, if required, are to be contained in the appendices. Summaries of this material in the form of tables and well thought out figures, are essential in the main body of the report.
Discussion about the results and how the results compare with reported information in the Literature Review.
Conclusions.
Recommendations for further research.
References
Abboud B; Architecture in an Age of Augmented Reality: Opportunities and Obstacles for Mobile AR in Design, Construction, and Post-Completion, 2014
Behzadan A, Dong S and Kamat V; Mobile and Pervasive Construction Visualization Using Outdoor Augmented Reality, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2012
Bryde D., Broquetas, M. and Volm, J., 2013. The project benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM). International Journal of Project Management, 31(7), pp.971-980.
Egbu C, Gaskell C, Howes J. The improvement of teamworking through the exploitation of IT: Lessons from the construction, manufacturing and finance sectors, Proc. ARCOM 18th Annual Conference, vol. 2, University of Northumbria, UK, September 2002, pp. 523–533.
Egbu C, Gaskell C, Howes J. The role of organizational culture and motivation in the effective utilization of Information technology for teamworking in construction, Proc. ARCOM 17th Annual Conference, vol. 1, University of Salford, UK 2001, pp. 91–100
Flangan R & Jewell C. 2003. A Review of Recent Work On Construction Future. Crisp Commission, 02/06.
Gaudiosi, J., 2015. How this 150-year-old company uses virtual reality. [online] Fortune. Available at: <http://fortune.com/2015/08/25/mccarthy-construction-vr/> [Accessed 24th of Oct. 2016].
Hardin, B. and McCool, D. BIM and Construction Management: Proven Tools, Methods, and Workflows (2nd Edition). 2015, Wiley.
Huang C, Fisher N, Broyd T. Development of a triangular TPC model to support adoption of construction integrated system, Proc. ARCOM 18th Annual Conference, vol. 2, University of Northumbria, UK, September 2002, pp. 427–438.
Krishnaswamy, G. Integration as a key concept in information systems management-implications for just in time e-business, Proc. 4th Global Conference on Flexible Systems Management, Mussorie, India, 2004, pp. 446–451.
Lipman, R., 2004. Mobile 3D visualization for steel structures. Automation in Construction, 13(1), pp.119-125.
Liu, Y., van Nederveen, S. and Hertogh, M., 2016. Understanding effects of BIM on collaborative design and construction: An empirical study in China. International Journal of Project Management.
Shadram, F., Johansson, T., Lu, W., Schade, J. and Olofsson, T., 2016. An integrated BIM-based framework for minimizing embodied energy during building design. Energy and Buildings, 128, pp.592-604.
Matthews, J., Love, P., Heinemann, S., Chandler, R., Rumsey, C. and Olatunj, O., 2015. Real time progress management: Re-engineering processes for cloud-based BIM in construction. Automation in Construction, 58, pp.38-47.
Shadram, F., Johansson, T., Lu, W., Schade, J. and Olofsson, T., 2016. An integrated BIM-based framework for minimizing embodied energy during building design. Energy and Buildings, 128, pp.592-604.
Sreepuram P, Rao K, Build organization capabilities to utilize IT, Proc. World Conference for Design and Construction, INCITE/ITCSED 2006, vol. 4, New Delhi, India, November 2006, pp. 72–80.
Woodward C, Hakkarainen M 2011; Mobile Augmented Reality System for Construction Site Visualization. [Accessed 20th of Oct. 2016].
Appendices
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