Automated Schedule and Cost Control Using 3D Sensing Technologies

Abstract

Nowadays, many construction projects in KSA still struggle with cost overruns and delay in activities. Therefore, automatic monitoring approaches are needed in the construction progress monitoring domain (CPM) to address these concerns. Thus, this paper proposed a system integrating a BIM-planned model with site laser scans, as laser scanners showed massive potential in the CPM domain. The algorithms of the proposed system recognized 3D objects based on the intersection between models, alignment accuracy, and Lalonde features. The proposed system combined 3D object recognition technology with 5D information data into a 5D progress tracking system using earned value (EV) principles. The reason behind that is a lack of research regarding conducting a 5D assessment integrated BIM with 3D sensing technology in the CPM domain. The proposed system was verified using field data from a superstructure construction project where the object recognition indicators showed a 98% recall and 99% precision in recognizing 3D objects. The proposed system also used a color-coding system to address the condition of each element based on its recognition and scheduling state and address any occlusions while calculating the recognized objects. The results also revealed an automatically updated status of the project’s progress in terms of schedule(4D) and cost(5D). The automated results were also validated with a manual calculation, where a slight variation (1.35%) was observed between those calculations. This system demonstrates a degree of accurate progress tracking, automatically exceeding manual performance with less computational time.