A VR training scenario editor for operation in construction based on BIM 4D and domain expert authoring

Purpose

Virtual Reality (VR) based training is an efficient and promising digital tool. In the construction industry, studies have been conducted on the realisation of VR scenarios for construction operations, but the challenges lie in procedural scenario creation based on the knowledge and digital data of the construction project. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

A new system and interface allowing an automatic generation of a VR scenario for operating procedure (OP) based on 4D Building Information Modelling (BIM) and tasks authoring by the domain experts are presented. The first process, Automatic Scenario Generation, generates assembly tasks based on the BIM metadata. The second process, Expert Scene and Scenario Authoring, allows adding tasks that cannot be modeled in the BIM OP.

Findings

With the 4D BIM methodology, the 3D model of building as well as the 3D OPs contain a time dimension representing the construction phases or planning. The evolution in time of the construction site and the tools and procedures adapted to each construction project must be integrated in the VR simulations. Moreover, domain experts should have control over the scenario and should be able to author tasks assigned to the operator in training.

Originality/value

A Unified Modeling Language based framework allows the reuse of BIM metadata to create the scene, VR interactions and the assembly procedure; the assembly procedure is embedded in the virtual environment considering the time (4D) in the construction of the building and is used as a training scenario for the operator; and the training scenario can be refined by adding operational knowledge, such as quality.