A BIM-Based IoT Approach to the Construction Site Management

Abstract

BIM-based technologies can be strongly beneficial for construction sites management through platforms collecting data and providing analytics. These can be used to manage and control the people, materials and vehicles flows which create the complex organization of a medium and big construction site. IoT enables monitoring, controlling and actuating devices that are crucial to manage the site. Different typologies of sensors are available and some experimentations about how to simulate and thus predict critical issues in the construction site have been conducted. The experimentations, that are not presuming to be exhaustive, consider both indoor conditions and external situations verifiable through standard procedures. In the paper, four tests, developed in the virtual environment. The adopted workflow assumes the connection of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) authoring tool through a VPL (Visual Programming Language) to a database where data coming from the sensors are stored. The simulations shows the possible actuation of specific devices to correct possible critical situations that are commonly recurrent in construction sites and in the advanced one are implemented. The virtual experimental setups are show how to accomplish the work steps organization and how to visualize alerts and signals enabling the optimization and control of the construction site in a BIM environment. The advantages of this approach are strongly connected to risk and clash reduction in the construction site, increased safety for the workmen and environmental quality. Moreover, the possibility to control the warehouse conditions is highly beneficial to reduce the number of deteriorated materials with economic gains.