skip to main content


Title: Using virtual reality to facilitate communication in the AEC domain: a systematic review
Purpose The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry exists in a dynamic environment and requires several stakeholders to communicate regularly. However, evidence indicates current communication practices fail to meet the requirements of increasingly complex projects. With the advent of Industry 4.0, a trend is noted to create a digital communication environment between stakeholders. Identified as a central technology in Industry 4.0, virtual reality (VR) has the potential to supplement current communication and facilitate the digitization of the AEC industry. This paper aims to explore how VR has been applied and future research directions for communication purpose. Design/methodology/approach This research follows a systematic literature assessment methodology to summarize the results of 41 research articles in the last 15 years and outlines the applications of VR in facilitating communication in the AEC domain. Findings Relevant VR applications are mainly found in building inspection, facility management, safety training, construction education and design and review. Communication tools and affordance are provided or built in several forms: text-based tools, voice chat tool, visual sharing affordance and avatars. Objective and subjective communication assessments are observed from those publications. Originality/value This review contributes to identifying the recent employment areas and future research directions of VR to facilitate communication in the AEC domain. The outcome can be a practical resource to guide both industry professionals and researchers to recognize the potentials of VR and will ultimately facilitate the creation of digital construction environments.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1821852
NSF-PAR ID:
10175891
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Construction Innovation
Volume:
20
Issue:
3
ISSN:
1471-4175
Page Range / eLocation ID:
509 to 542
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    Purpose The purpose is two-fold: (1) to explore the interactions of robotic systems and lean construction in the context of offsite construction (OC) that were addressed in the literature published between 2008 and 2019 and (2) to identify the gaps in such interactions while discussing how addressing those gaps can benefit not only OC but the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry as a whole. Design/methodology/approach First, a systematic literature review (SLR) identified journal papers addressing the interactions of automation and lean in OC. Then, the researchers focused the analysis on the under-researched subtopic of robotic systems. The focused analysis includes discussing the interactions identified in the SLR through a matrix of interactions and utilizing literature beyond the previously identified articles for future research directions on robotic systems and lean construction in OC. Findings The study found 35 journal papers that addressed automation and lean in the context of OC. Most of the identified literature focused on interactions of BIM and lean construction, while only nine focused on the interactions of robotic systems and lean construction. Identified literature related to robotic systems mainly addressed robots and automated equipment. Additional interactions were identified in the realm of wearable devices, unmanned aerial vehicles/automated guided vehicles and digital fabrication/computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Originality/value This is one of the first studies dedicated to exploring the interactions of robotic systems and lean construction in OC. Also, it proposes a categorization for construction automation and a matrix of interactions between construction automation and lean construction. 
    more » « less
  2. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an integrated informational process and plays a key role in enabling efficient planning and control of a project in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) domain. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-based BIM allows building information to be interoperable among different BIM applications. Different stakeholders take different responsibilities in a project and therefore keep different types of information to meet project requirements. In this paper, the authors proposed and adopted a six-step methodology to support BIM interoperability between architectural design and structural analysis at both AEC project level and information level, in which: (1) the intrinsic and extrinsic information transferred between architectural models and structural models were analyzed and demonstrated by a Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) model that the authors developed; (2) the proposed technical routes with different combinations, and their applications to different project delivery methods provided new instruments to stakeholders in industry for efficient and accurate decision-making; (3) the material centered invariant signature with portability can improve information exchange between different data formats and models to support interoperable BIM applications; and (4) a developed formal material information representation and checking method was tested on a case study where its efficiency was demonstrated to outperform: (1) proprietary representations and information checking method based on a manual operation, and (2) MVD-based information checking method. The proposed invariant signatures-based material information representation and checking method brings a better efficiency for information transfer between architectural design and structural analysis, which can have significant positive effect on a project delivery, due to the frequent and iterative update of a project design. This improves the information transfer and coordination between architects and structural engineers and therefore the efficiency of the whole project. The proposed method can be extended and applied to other application phases and functions such as cost estimation, scheduling, and energy analysis. 
    more » « less
  3. This article provides a systematic review of research related to Human–Computer Interaction techniques supporting training and learning in various domains including medicine, healthcare, and engineering. The focus is on HCI techniques involving Extended Reality (XR) technology which encompasses Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality. HCI-based research is assuming more importance with the rapid adoption of XR tools and techniques in various training and learning contexts including education. There are many challenges in the adoption of HCI approaches, which results in a need to have a comprehensive and systematic review of such HCI methods in various domains. This article addresses this need by providing a systematic literature review of a cross-s Q1 ection of HCI approaches involving proposed so far. The PRISMA-guided search strategy identified 1156 articles for abstract review. Irrelevant abstracts were discarded. The whole body of each article was reviewed for the remaining articles, and those that were not linked to the scope of our specific issue were also eliminated. Following the application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, 69 publications were chosen for review. This article has been divided into the following sections: Introduction; Research methodology; Literature review; Threats of validity; Future research and Conclusion. Detailed classifications (pertaining to HCI criteria and concepts, such as affordance; training, and learning techniques) have also been included based on different parameters based on the analysis of research techniques adopted by various investigators. The article concludes with a discussion of the key challenges for this HCI area along with future research directions. A review of the research outcomes from these publications underscores the potential for greater success when such HCI-based approaches are adopted during such 3D-based training interactions. Such a higher degree of success may be due to the emphasis on the design of userfriendly (and user-centric) training environments, interactions, and processes that positively impact the cognitive abilities of users and their respective learning/training experiences. We discovered data validating XR-HCI as an ascending method that brings a new paradigm by enhancing skills and safety while reducing costs and learning time through replies to three exploratory study questions. We believe that the findings of this study will aid academics in developing new research avenues that will assist XR-HCI applications to mature and become more widely adopted. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    Abstract Digital manufacturing technologies have quickly become ubiquitous in the manufacturing industry. The transformation commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, has ushered in a wide range of communication technologies, connection mechanisms, and data analysis capabilities. These technologies provide powerful tools to create more lean, profitable, and data-driven manufacturing processes. This paper reviews modern communication technologies and connection architectures for Digital Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 applications. An introduction to cyber-physical systems and a review of digital manufacturing trends is followed by an overview of data acquisition methods for manufacturing processes. Numerous communication protocols are presented and discussed for connecting disparate machines and processes. Flexible data architectures are discussed, and examples of machine monitoring implementations are provided. Finally, select implementations of these communication protocols and architectures are surveyed with recommendations for future architecture implementations. 
    more » « less
  5. null (Ed.)
    An observed increase in systems scale and complexity has led to a significant momentum in exploring, identifying, and adopting model based systems engineering (MBSE) tools and techniques amongst research communities and industry practitioners. Several attempts to transform systems design and engineering practices through the use of MBSE in academia and industry has led to a considerable increase in the number of articles published containing the keyword “MBSE.” This growth serves as the motivation in this paper to explore the MBSE landscape with the help of text mining techniques to identify the most often used key terms, tools, and languages, in the context of research in MBSE and the thematic aspects defining the use of MBSE by researchers and practitioners. The objective of this paper is to provide a structured comprehensive overview of research contributions across the MBSE landscape by employing text mining techniques for: (a) identifying the concepts and methodologies inferred upon in relation to MBSE, and (b) classifying the literature published to identify commonalities across academic researchers and practitioners using MBSE tools and methods. For this purpose, the abstracts of 2380 relevant articles published in the period of the last two decades from five different databases are mined. It is found that the terms “SysML,” “Cyber Physical Systems,” and “Production” are the most used terms among researchers across the MBSE landscape with SysML being the most widely used modeling language. Further, six major thematic topics are identified that classify articles from over the last two decades with an increasing interest observed in the use of MBSE to support manufacturing and production engineering activities, especially in the cyber physical systems domain. The contributions of this paper provide a leeway on using text mining techniques to understand the research directions that are currently of interest in the field of MBSE and thereby identify potential future research directions. 
    more » « less