Development and application of a novel AR-tool being used in energy renovations

Abstract

The majority of the buildings in Sweden were constructed before national energy codes became effective. Although performing energy renovations and/or energy-related maintenances can significantly improve the energy performance of these buildings, the energy renovation rate is very low in Sweden. The low energy renovation rate is associated with various challenges including lack of technical drawings to specify the position of hidden objects and lack of information about material specifications. An augmented reality (AR) tool was therefore developed to not only locate the position of hidden objects but also create IFC files being used by BIM management systems. The tool was later applied in real practice to evaluate its effectiveness in detecting hidden objects. The analyses of results showed that the application of the AR tool in energy renovations and/or energy efficiency-related maintenances can be beneficial as it could successfully locate hidden objects. However, the application of the AR-tool had different limitations related to the sensitivity of sensors in detecting hidden objects, connections between the software programs and hardware devices to integrate the digital information into the real-life environment, and finally time required for setting up the AR tool.