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Framework for assessing the potential of new technologies to capture the as-built information from project sites

University of British Columbia

As-built information from construction project sites is often required by project participants to address various user-specific needs such as assessing the construction quality or planning for upcoming renovations, or guiding future repairs during building operations. However, most of this information is still being captured through traditional methods like tape measure, or referring to 2D drawings which are found to be inefficient. Although many data acquisition tools such as 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry currently exist, they suffer from numerous limitations such as the lack of affordability or requiring expertise to operate. This has encouraged both researchers and technology vendors to look into new alternative capture technologies that are cost effective, easy to use, and efficient. This need for better alternatives led to the rapid development of various new capture technologies that are now needed to be evaluated for construction industry purposes. With such new technologies being released regularly, there is also an increased confusion among industry professionals to identify the best suitable capture technology for addressing their specific needs. Thus, the objective of this research is to develop a framework for evaluating the potential of new as-built information capture technologies to support construction purposes. The research also focuses on using the developed framework to evaluate the potential of two new capture technologies, mobile laser scanning and spherical imaging, that have recently been gaining traction in the construction industry. For this, a case study based research approach was developed and four construction projects were chosen as sample case studies for this work. Current industry practices for capturing the necessary as-built information to address different use case scenarios within these projects were first observed and analyzed. Then, the framework was developed by conducting an in-depth analysis of the current industry practices, reviewing relevant literature and by also having a series of informal discussions with various project team members involved in the chosen case study projects. The potential of mobile laser scanning and spherical imaging technologies was then assessed by testing them on the relevant use case scenarios. The benefits and limitations were identified based on a structured assessment using the developed framework.

Text

2017-04-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61317

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/