Intelligent Control of Building Operation and Maintenance Processes Based on Global Navigation Satellite System and Digital Twins

Abstract

Building operation and maintenance (O&M) processes are tedious. Controlling such tedious processes requires extensive visualization and trustworthy decision-making strategies. Unfortunately, challenges still exist as existing technologies and practices can hardly achieve effective control of building O&M processes. This study has established a method for achieving intelligent control of building O&M processes by integrating Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) with Digital Twins (DTs) techniques. Specifically, GNSS could be used to capture real-time building information during building O&M processes. Such captured real-time information realizes the intelligent closed-loop control of building O&M driven by DTs. In this study, the authors have (1) captured the dynamic information required for achieving intelligent control of building O&M processes, (2) established a DT model of building O&M processes, (3) established a data management mechanism of intelligent building O&M processes, and (4) formalized an intelligent building O&M decision control platform. Finally, the authors have validated the proposed method using the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics venue as a case study. The three-dimensional coordinates of various building information are captured based on GNSS automatic monitoring system. This realizes the precise positioning of O&M elements and feedbacks to the twin model of the venue. Through the intelligent analysis and prediction of O&M information, the characteristics of various O&M accidents are obtained. Finally, under the navigation function of GNSS, the processing measures are accurately formulated. Results indicate that the proposed GNSS–DTs-based method could help to achieve intelligent control of large building O&M processes.