A VR Training Scenario Editor for Operation in Construction Based on BIM 4D and Domain Expert Authoring

Purpose
Virtual Reality based training is an efficient and promising digital tool. In the construction industry, studies have been conducted on the realization of virtual reality scenarios for construction operations, but the challenges lie in procedural scenario creation based on the knowledge and digital data of the construction project.
Design/methodology/approach
A new system and interface allowing an automatic generation of a VR scenario for operating procedure based on BIM 4D 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 can’t be modeled in the BIM operating procedure.
Findings
With the BIM 4D methodology, the 3D model of building as well as the 3D operating procedures 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 UML 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 4D scheduling (construction sequencing) and is used as a training scenario for the operator; and the training scenario can be refined by adding operational knowledge, such as quality.