Term Project

Similar to M. Gonzalez and E. Cilifgu, I too am researching robotics in construction, but I will be focusing on the socioeconomic impact of robots in construction.  During many of our class discussions regarding different topics we have shifted the focus of “what all of this intelligent building actually means” for our job market.  So, I decided to use this project as an opportunity to try to figure out what it actually does mean based on research into what effect robotics had on the aerospace and automotive industry.  I choose these two fields as we have also determined in class that the technologies of these industries eventually become used in some form in the building and construction industry.

I realize that the socioeconomic impact on the construction industry as a whole would be a rather large range to try to tackle in just one paper so I have decided to focus on contractors/construction workers for the time being and possibly extend it to engineers and owners if time and resources permit me to.

In my preliminary research, I have found a source [1] that proposes that robots do not always take jobs and can actually create them.  This is interesting as most assume that the introduction of robotics means a loss of human jobs, especially those that are repetitive in nature.  And if this is potentially the case, what kind of jobs are they creating.  Are they similar to the old jobs or is it an entirely new kind of job?  And if it is not necessarily creating the same or new kinds of jobs, does it allow workers to focus their attention on another aspect of the industry?  A different industry?

I, of course, will also discuss the effect that robots have on the safety of workers and the positive social impacts of this.

And in my conclusion, I plan on making projections for the future of robotics in the construction industry based on what we’ve seen in the other two industries.

[1] http://www.ifr.org/uploads/media/Metra_Martech_Study_on_robots_02.pdf

Tem Project

As an HVAC major, I wanted to choose a project that focuses on this aspect of intelligent buildings. Reading about the Nest thermostat in the building of the term intrigued me to research the capabilities of thermostats. It might seem like a primitive control system but it is the first integration of an “intelligent” system into a building.

After my project partner, David Morrison, and I spoke and brainstormed with my friend from Drexel Smart House, Michael Magee, we finalized the scope of the project as the exploration of the capabilities of integrated thermostats. For this project, we will use an Arduino microprocessor to collect temperature and humidity data from different spaces. Sensors will be placed in each of the four corners of the rooms we will use for this study and temperature and humidity differences will be measured. The data will also be compared in the static thermostat controlling each of the spaces measured. This data will be analyzed to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the thermostat. Location of thermostat, location of diffuser, size of space, and type of air conditioning system in the space will be taken into account.

After the data will be analyzed thoroughly, we will draw conclusions regarding the implications of the study in relation to intelligent buildings. Some implications include actually including multiple thermostats in each space to create an integral system, providing automated diffusers that spread air more evenly, adding automated fans to mix the air better thermally, etc. The project will draw conclusions to help provide a more even thermal comfort throughout spaces and give suggestions as to how to integrate it into intelligent buildings.

The Future of BIM Interoperability

I agree with Nathan that BIM will be integrated into the construction process regardless of problems with information transfer. While interoperability is admittedly a difficult and unavoidable problem in the current push for BIM as the industry standard for transfer of design information, I see some hope for improvement in the near future.

Within the next 5 years, it is my opinion that interoperability among programs within a specific software provider's repertoire (for instance, all Autodesk products) will improve to the point of near fluidity, so that there is even transfer to a central database of all aspects in a model. (This is one example of such a case in recent history) As Mr. Kuszewski discussed "saving to central" and "cloud-based computing" last week, it became evident that this level of capability is certainly present and need only be implemented across all products in a process known to the scholarly community as "data alignment." In essence, it is merely a process of organization and intentional consistency within a software group to facilitate interoperability and eliminate data loss between products/software-types.

However, in the same time period, I would not be surprised if the chasm of interoperability between competing software groups (ie. Autodesk vs. Bentley) widened. From the previous week's research, it seems like the degree of difficulty in information transfer is directly linked to the depth of information contained in a model. For instance, 2-D CAD models can very simply be converted to an open format, while 4 and even 5 dimensional models in Revit may contain a large amount of information about the individual building members that cannot be transferred cleanly to any other format than that in which they were created. By this line of reasoning, increasing capabilities of competing software types may likely complicate the transfer of data between them.

The solution to this un-interoperability, as Elda describes so well, might just be push for the IFC file format as a required standard. Despite many designer's aversion to this file type, it seems that on a global level, the IFC format is encouraged because it is an open source file type. The capabilities of design using this format are not as limited as one would think, and it certainly appears that they are improving. The Build Qatar event in 2012 was a great showcase of these capabilities.

Sources:

Aligning Misaligned Systemic Innovations: Probing Inter-Firm Effects Development in Project Networks

Intelligent distributed production control    

Asite announce BIM Academy, BIM Unlimited, Aidea and Niven Architects as winners of Build Qatar Live 2012

Week 4: The Future of BIM

I believe that BIM in the future will become the benchmark for the construction industry and will be the standard form of managing the critical design information of a building or any design project at hand.

When researching the future of BIM, I came across video I liked that was posted to www.archdaily.com featuring Patrick MacLeamy, Chief Executive Officer of HOK, and his description of the uses of BIM both now and in the future of projects to come. In summary, MacLeamy comes up with the mega acronym of “BIM-BAM-BOOM” to describe the various aspects of a construction project that BIM has come to be used for and can, when used correctly, optimize all facets of a building project. The original building design is supported by BIM and its ability to develop and test different design ideas. After designing, contractors use BIM as a Building Assembly Model or “BAM” allowing better scheduling and the facilitation of subcontractor coordination and cost control. Finally, over the lifetime of a building an owner can use BIM and BAM to optimize the building’s operation. In this stage of a project, the owner can put benefit by using BIM as a Building Operation Optimization Model or “BOOM” to manage the energy consumption of the building and schedule maintenance in an orderly fashion.

With this mindset, the use of BIM in the construction industry is almost limitless in its uses and becomes an ongoing method of optimization for a building as a whole. BIM has already come quite far in the construction industry and has become a very useful tool that continues to seek improvement to better serve its users’ needs. For this reason, I see BIM continuing to strive and becoming a crucial part of any and all construction projects.

I found my peer Lorena Alvarado's post this week (http://ae-510-ay12-13.blogspot.com/2013/01/bim-in-future_29.html) to be very interesting and have some key important statistical facts. As she mentioned, one of the main concerns of BIM at this current time is the "learning curve" and the training necessary for companies to efficiently make use of BIM programs. However, the increase from 43% (in 2008) to 60% (now in 2013) of architects in the United States using BIM shines a light of hope for the future and is proof that BIM will only move forward from here.

Sources:

http://www.archdaily.com/262008/the-future-of-the-building-industry-bim-bam-boom/

BIM in the Future

To this day, BIM has been very successful with its users and many companies benefit from it daily.  With this being said, we can expect great things in the future.  Considering the importance of data management throughout project constructions, BIM generates the data from beginning to end and from multiple users.  As an effective source of communication, BIM can solve many problems to clients as everything is made available to them.  An obstacle that exists nowadays is the fact that some people don’t know of the existence of BIM and don’t fully understand its advantages.  There will always be the people who don’t like change and are used to the way they have done it for some may years, call it the “old-fashion” way, and feel like there is no need to bring in anything new and ‘complicated’.  Due to this and in order to overcome this obstacle, colleges should introduce BIM to their students so that by the time they graduate college, they can be proficient and apply their skills in the workplace.  I agree with my fellow classmate, Gabriel Carpenter, who predicts what will happen in the workplace soon after the introduction of BIM: “either CAD drafters are expected to learn the new technology, entry-level engineers – who specify that they know the technology – are recruited to draft, or companies have to reach outside the company to hire another firm to do their BIM work for them.” In the end, the industry will be using and expecting everyone to use BIM.

            According to Mr. Eric Kuszewski, a BIM expert who has heavily worked with AutoCAD and Revit, admits that there are some challenges with BIM in the current time.  These include the learning curve and training, level of detailing, interdisciplinary workflow, IT infrastructure, and communication.  He expressed that nowadays BIM has these limitations that might make companies hold out and hesitate on using BIM.  Yet to counteract this argument, Dell and DB+C claimed that “in the United States, architects are the heaviest users of BIM, using it on more than 60% of their projects, compared with 43% of architects who claimed to be BIM users in 2008".  From this, we can deduce that in the next five years twenty percent more, approximately a total of 80%, of architects will be using BIM.  In addition, Jennifer M. McGregor, Executive Director of Obelisk, predicted, “In the next three years, we’ll all be converted to using BIM”.  These optimistic expectations are enough proof that the BIM world is quickly spreading throughout the industries.  

Sources:

http://www.wbdg.org/pdfs/1103_dell_bdc_whitepaper.pdf

http://iidahq.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/the-future-is-here-and-its-bim/