Taryn Francischetti - B4 - Project

My group consists of Alex Koo and Andrew Ng. Our project investigates the use of virtual reality on construction sites. It seems that from the past, society was supposed to be much further along with the development of virtual reality than it actually it. Virtual reality is finally becoming feasible on construction sites due to the use of BIM software in multiple industries and there is a growing interest in the VR community [1]. This project was chosen to see how the use of VR on job sites could help further buildings to be intelligent buildings. For example, A construction worker could place on a VR head seat while on the job site and visualize what connection would go where for beams. This would greatly reduce the number of errors on job sites. The group chose this project because VR could significantly help the construction industry even though many people are not aware of it yet. The impact of this hopefully will not be far off. There are currently around 419 virtual reality startups, although that is assumed to be greatly underestimated [1].

I think the use of virtuality is greatly related to intelligent buildings. For example, a common VR headset that is used by many gammers, the oculus rift, allows for architects to visualize what their building will look like as if they were an occupant, which cannot be achieved through normal BIM software [2]. If these plans can be used to help building the building on the job site then it really is creating an intelligent building. The use of VR can make intelligent BIM drawings so much simpler as almost all errors can be avoided.

As Professor Mitchell pointed out in his review of the project, it is a very broad topic. The group has to be very specific in exactly what is being researched and why using engineering knowledge. The other thing that is going to be a bit difficult is finding reliable, up to date sources. This is a very new technology so there is not always a lot of diverse information.

[1] https://aec-business.com/virtual-reality-construction/
[2] https://www.viatechnik.com/resources/50-virtual-reality-technologies-in-architecture-engineering-and-construction/

Comments
Elga Qori - I really enjoy that you and Arthur are using this class to help with your senior design project. I think it is a great idea to create families of similar beams, columns, and the like. I know autocad uses a similar feature that is called blocks. I structurally designed an apartment building with very similar rooms and therefore similar structural plans for each one. This made it so if I edited one item all of them edit just like the families in revit. I think this project will greatly benefit you.
URL: https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/02/b4-team-project-smmary-egla-qori.html

Andy Dinh: I think you and Ronald park have a good project idea. I personally have used a Bentley product before, RAM structural. having experience in both programs I can see a lot of similarities. The nice thing is that it seems where one leaves off the other picks up. For example, Revit allows almost unparalleled architectural design while RAM can fully design all structural members given one button click. It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the Bentley products tie into the RAM software and if it could maybe even be better than Revit.
URL: https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/02/b3-andy-dinh-term-project.html

Ronald Herazo: I like your project with Zhijing Zheng and Joe Chaudhari. It sometimes seems that surveyors are almost forgot when thinking about intelligent buildings. In reality, the foundation of the entire building and site layout relies on them. If their job can be made easier through the use of 3D scanning and newer robotic devices, it could really help out the entire building.
URL: https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/02/assignment-b4-group-ronald-herazo.html