Augmented Reality for Building Maintenance and Operation

Abstract

AbstractOn average, annual building maintenance and repair cost 1–5% of the initial building cost, which, accumulated over the building life, could even exceed the initial construction cost. New advancements in architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) are transforming the current practice of building maintenance operations using visualization and sensing technologies. This chapter will describe a use case for the application of augmented reality (AR) visualization in building maintenance and repair. AR enhances user’s perception of the surroundings by overlaying virtual objects on real-world views and can lead to new forms of user interaction. For instance, AR visualization embedded in the building maintenance instruction manual (BMIM) can be used to guide facility managers and repair personnel. We present the design and evaluation of an AR-integrated BMIM to improve the quality of building operation and maintenance. We adopt the design science research (DSR) methodology to carry out a systematic literature review, characterization of AR features that can be applied to BMIM, development of AR artifacts for incorporating into BMIM, and assessment of user performance through experiments with measurements taken with the NASA TLX protocol. Results are implemented in two applications, namely, Living Augmented Reality (LAR) and Manual Augmented Reality (MAR), with different visualization scales. Analysis of users’ workload data indicates that a majority agree that BMIM can be effectively enhanced with a high degree of acceptability using AR on mobile devices. It is also found that this integration will be helpful to future evolution of the BMIM and integration with the Internet of Things paradigm.KeywordsFacility managementAugmented realityBuilding maintenance instruction manualUser performanceMobile device