Building Information Models’ data for machine learning systems in construction management (original) (raw)

Exploiting Building Information Modeling Throughout the Whole Lifecycle of Construction Projects

Over the past few years, construction industry has encountered numerous problems such as rework, design errors, accidents and building failure, time and economic losses, poor work efficiency, and low standard level of cooperation amongst team members of different sectors. As such, information communication technology (ICT) has been evolved to minimize all the aforementioned setbacks in the construction industry. In doing so, building information modeling (BIM) has been proposed to all construction members such as engineers, architects, contractors, and owners to take benefit from. Since BIM was emerged into the construction industry, it has received the attention of many researchers and practitioners. While there have been roughly numerous studies conducted on the benefits involved in the use of BIM, it is a unresolved point why there has not been a greater take up of exploiting BIM throughout the whole lifecycle of construction projects. Therefore, this paper is mainly aimed to examine the effectiveness of exploiting BIM throughout the three different phases of building's lifecycle, including preconstruction, construction, and post construction in great details regarding the previous studies conducted in this field. The authors have concluded that utilization of BIM has several benefits in different stages of construction projects, including minimizing design error, reducing rework, increasing work efficiency and cooperation amongst team members, facilitating the process of delivery and procurement, and reusing the wastages of materials.

Building Information Modelling, Artificial Intelligence and Construction Tech

Developments in the Built Environment, 2020

Adoption of digital information tools in the construction sector provides fertile ground for the birth and growth of companies that specialize in applications of technologies to design and construction. While some of the technologies are new, many implement ideas proposed in construction research decades ago that were impractical without a sound digital building information foundation. Building Information Modelling (BIM) itself can be traced to a landmark paper from 1975; ideas for artificially intelligent design and code checking tools date from the mid-1980s; and construction robots have laboured in research labs for decades. Yet only within the past five years has venture capital actively sought startup companies in the 'Construction Tech' sector. Following a set of digital construction innovations through their known past and their uncertain present, we review their increasingly optimistic future, all through the lens of their dependence on digital information. The review identifies new challenges, yielding a set of research topics with the potential to unlock a range of future applications that apply artificial intelligence.

A construction classification system database for understanding resource use in building construction

Scientific Data, 2022

The building sector is a voracious consumer of primary materials. However, the study of building material use and associated impacts is challenged by the paucity of publicly available data in the field and the heterogeneity of data organization and classification between published studies. This paper makes two main contributions. First, we propose and demonstrate a building material data structure adapted from UniFormat and MasterFormat, two widely used construction classification systems in North America. Second, the dataset included provides fine grained material data for 70 buildings in North America. The dataset was developed by collecting design or construction drawings for the studied buildings and performing material takeoffs based on these drawings. The ontology is based on UniFormat and MasterFormat to facilitate interoperability with existing construction management practices, and to suggest a standardized structure for future material intensity studies. The data structure...

Construction planning with machine learning

Proceedings of the 35th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2019, Leeds, UK, 2019

Over the next years, it is expected that machine learning will be widely implemented within fields in the construction context, such as construction planning. As construction projects tend to be influenced by interrelated issues resulting in cost and/or time overruns and lower performance, it has been continuously attempted to develop predictive planning methods and tools, in order to mitigate such issues. This study aims at investigating possible applications of machine learning for construction planning, noting their impact on project performance, and finally commenting critically on the issues of responsibility in action-taking, accountability in decisionmaking, and the still crucial need for human reasoning. Methodologically, a literature review on machine learning applications in construction project planning is carried out, and then two particular implementation cases are selected for a more in-depth analysis. The first case draws on a productivity survey of construction projects in Sweden, where the relative data is analysed to find the most influential factors behind project performance; then, statistical correlation is used to find the features that are strongly correlated with four performance indicators (cost variance, time variance, and client- and contractor satisfaction), and a supervised machine learning analysis is done to develop a model for predicting project cost, time and satisfaction. The second case elaborates on the appraisal of constructability of civil engineering projects through technical project risk analysis; the model utilizes both unsupervised machine learning for the understanding and pre-processing of data, and supervised machine learning for the development of the predictive system. Following the above analysis, it is argued that there is a need for human reasoning in construction planning, even more so after the introduction of machine learning. It is not enough to include human aspects in the machine learning modelling; it is also crucial to strengthen qualified reasoning in the decision-making for construction project planning and being responsible in action-taking and accountable in decision-making.

Predicting implications of design changes in BIM-based construction projects through machine learning

Automation in Construction, 2023

Design changes are not uncommon occurrence in construction projects, which results in implications in several ways including impacts on time and cost. On the other hand, despite Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been around over two decades, its potential has not been much unlocked particularly in connection to predicting implications of design changes. Through a rigorous Design Science Research approach, a conceptual model is outlined in which BIM and ML are integrated. The outlined model is applied to a hypothetical use-case, leading to a tested and validated final conceptual model. The model application demonstrates that the implications of design changes can be predicted much earlier and therefore, time and cost impacts can be better comprehended to form the decision-making. This model can be expanded in future to provide a communal platform where different stakeholders in construction projects can effectively communicate, collaborate, and coordinate particularly in the design changes scenarios.

Developing an Integrative Data Intelligence Model for Construction Cost Estimation

Complexity

Construction cost estimation is one of the essential processes in construction management. Project cost is a complex engineering problem due to various factors affecting the construction industry. Accurate cost estimation is important in construction management and significantly impacts project performance. Artificial intelligence (AI) models have been effectively implemented in construction management studies in recent years owing to their capability to deal with complex problems. In this research, extreme gradient boosting is developed as an advanced input selector algorithm and coupled with three AI models, including random forest (RF), artificial neural network (ANN), and support vector machine (SVM) for cost estimation. Datasets were gathered based on a survey conducted on 90 building projects in Iraq. Statistical indicators and graphical methods were used to evaluate the developed models. Several input predictors were used, and XGBoost highlighted inflation as the most crucial...

Comparative Study of Construction Information Classification Systems: CCI versus Uniclass 2015

Buildings

By classifying BIM data, the intention is to enable different construction actors to find the data they need using software and machines. The importance of classification is growing as building projects become more international, generating more data that rely on automated processes, which help in making better decisions and operating devices. Different classification systems have been developed around the world. Each national construction information classification system (NCICS) aims to classify information on the built environment and thus meet national needs and ensure compliance with the principles of regional and international building information systems. The research purpose of this paper is to present a comparative assessment of two construction information classification systems, CCI and Uniclass 2015. The following methods were used: the expert assessment of NCICS alternatives; the assessment of NCICS alternatives; and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (...

Selecting a Standard Set of Attributes for the Development of Machine Learning Models of Building Project Cost Estimation

PLANNING MALAYSIA

Accurate cost estimation is a critical aspect of successful construction projects, and the application of machine learning offers promising advancements in this domain. However, to achieve reliable cost predictions, the selection of a standardized set of attributes that significantly influence model performance is essential. This research addresses the research gap by investigating the systematic clarification of a standard set of attributes for machine learning models in building cost estimation. Firstly, plenty of attributes were summarized by literature review, then by questionnaire surveying and focus group discussion of the Delphi study period, the final 68 ranked attributes were determined and formulated the attribute set of building data. The findings of this research are beneficial to improve the accuracy of estimation by providing the essence of developing a building cost estimation of machine learning because the domain researcher can refer to these listed attributes to de...

Value optimisation in construction, from Building Information Models to Big Data

ICEC IX World Congress Proceedings, 2014

Purpose of this paper The paper starts from the analysis of the benefits achievable and expected from the use of Building Information Management (BIM) in construction and aims at identifying and prioritising expected trends in the area. Design/methodology/approach The methodology adopted starts from a systematic review of current academic literature, for the identification of the state of the art, and it then moves to the identification of trends by the application of two further biblio-metric techniques; the first one provides reference to government and institutional policies in the area of construction and discusses their correlation with the benefits identified in the first analysis and the second one analyses the corpus of the US National Science Foundation grant awarded in the area of data-driven science to identify efficient principles to be adopted by players interested in the development of data-driven exploitation of Integrated Project Delivery and BIM for construction value. Findings and value The paper lists strategic criteria to drive the development for the next generation of integrated speciality IT components in consideration of readiness factors for artificial intelligence supported value extraction. Originality/value of paper The paper is original in the identifications of extremely recent trends and technologies and does so on quantitative grounds.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and BIG Data Analytics for Construction Industry

2019

The construction industry suffers from inadequate data management of current and past projects. Since, many projects result in problems such as exceeded budgets, time delays, quality problems, conflicts and missing data transfer between stakeholders, Building Information Modeling (BIM) was adopted in the industry to overcome those problems. With the help of BIM, information and analysis results of a project can be collected and used in various decision-making processes. However, a BIM model that consists of semantic and geometric information needs to be integrated with other methods to both manage and achieve necessary information without creating a software bottleneck. Besides, facility managers using BIM in the operational phases of a project need to gather dynamic data that produces too much information. In this context, Big Data Analytics has come into prominence to overcome the data volume, variety, and velocity in building the data resource for BIM model. Thus, in this study i...