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Top1. Introduction
Construction site is the place where all the activities related to the construction of a building takes place. Any defect in the process reduces the value of construction. The causes of construction defect are poor workmanship, negligence during construction work, engineering error, planning error, and defective construction material. Defects are of two types. They are patent defect and latent defect. Patent defects occur during the construction process. They occur as a result of design error and human negligence. Latent defects appear only after the construction process is over. These defects are to be mitigated. The implementation of a defect management system can prevent these types of defects. In the conventional defect management system, the progress of work, labor cost, material quality, monitoring the quality of work and documentation of all these works is done manually.
Communication of any error occurred during the construction process to the technical team is time consuming. This conventional process is a static process because it is difficult for the team to visualize and understand the workflow. The need for proactive construction defect management is inevitable to handle such situations. Proactive construction defect management involves proper monitoring of site activities and reporting the progress to prevent the occurrence of any defect. It will greatly reduce rework and design failures.
Dong et al. (2006) discussed in detail on streamlining of construction defect reporting by collecting information on defects from field using electronic gadgets like smart phones and tablets. The outcomes include involvement of off-site participants with real- time access to information at construction site and onsite inspectors to send real time defect information to the technical team. Kim et al. (2013) developed a 4D-CAD model for monitoring the progress of construction work with image processing techniques. A system to monitor the progress and quality of construction work by integrating a long-range wireless network, network cameras, and a web-based collaborative platform was attempted by Leung et al. (2008). These research works provide information on construction defect management using mobile monitoring devices.
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a 3D-model-based process used to manage the information generated during a construction project in a common format from the earliest feasibility stage to demolition at the end of its lifecycle in order to make the best and most efficient way of using information (Gelder et al. 2013). BIM has different dimensions starting from 3D to 6D. 3D BIM is a shared information model, construction sequencing is presented in 4D BIM, the cost aspects of a building are included in 5D BIM and the building life cycle management is taken care by 6D BIM. The benefits of BIM are decreased capital cost, reduced errors in documentation, improved estimation during bidding and procurement, improved coordination in construction sequencing and predicting conflicts that may arise during construction.
Integration of virtual reality technologies with BIM help overcome the shortcomings of conventional defect management systems. It has the following advantages:
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Training of site engineers, facility managers and workers in the construction process using virtual reality and augmented reality technologies;
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Virtual planning and optimization of the space in a building to reduce the construction cost and time;
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Real-time assessment and review of onsite construction work by sharing real-time information from the work place using AR technologies;
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Management of defects during the construction process by early analysis of defects or by taking proactive measures;
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Allowing the users to virtually walkthrough and interact with the virtual building;
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To visualize BIM components in real time by integrating BIM with virtual reality technologies.