Visualization of urban development 3D layout plans with augmented reality

Abstract

In recent times, requirements in urban planning and construction of buildings have dramatically increased with the drastic growth of population in urban areas. Well-designed urban planning helps in the provision of excellent facilities to the public. Furthermore, it transforms a city into a smart city. Urban planning simplifies the provision of resources, i.e. transportation, communication, water provision, garbage disposal system, etc. The existing construction planning visualizations of 2D CAD and 3D BIM renderings work entirely in virtual digital content, which reduces the graphical object's real-time exposure to the construction process. This work explores some software-driven approaches to visualize 3D layout plans for urban development using Augmented Reality (AR). AR environment gives full-scale walkthroughs of designs to workers and designers. The article analyzes two urban planning scenarios (a) creation of new structures, (b) recreation of existing designs. The creation of new structures is done using Building Information Modeling (BIM) with AR to make 3D layout blueprints come alive. Recreation of existing designs develops BIM after merging two environments together, i.e. already existing structures and designs of new structures. Experimental results consisting of photorealistic AR digital visualizations of indoor as well as outdoor scenes of 3D layouts are used to assess the validity of our approach. The article also reports the historical growth of Augmented Reality, and explores the possible ways to architect and design urban planning 3D layout in the AR environment. Furthermore, it discusses certain possible applications of AR in urban planning.