Mechanisms for Bi-directional Coordination between Virtual Design and the Physical Construction

There is considerable growth in the use of virtual models in the construction industry. Many projects are now based on fairly sophisticated models but the use of these models is often limited to the design and tendering/bidding stage. Much more benefit can be derived from these models by extending their use to the construction, operation and maintenance phases of a facility’s lifecycle. A good way of achieving this will involve real-time bi-directional coordination between as-designed models and the physical construction. This will enable improvements in progress monitoring, construction process control, archiving as-built status and active control of building components and sub-assemblies. To maintain bi-directional coordination, computational resources are required to tightly integrate the virtual models and the physical construction. This is termed a Cyber-Physical systems approach. This paper focuses on describing the role of the Cyber-physical systems approach in enhancing bi-directional coordination. It highlights the mechanisms necessary to facilitate this and presents future deployment scenarios to illustrate the potential benefits to the construction industry.