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For automation and robotics to play a greater role within construction we need to be able to build computer models that contain all the information required to allow for full co-ordination of the design activity and to produce a database of information that can be used in all the downstream construction activities.
We need to produce a virtual world where all the spatial information would be available to allow machines to be used in a more automated manner in the erection and maintenance processes and elemental information to be extracted for the automated manufacture of the building components.
Computers have been used within the construction industry for over 25 years with the main use being for accounts, engineering analysis and design, drawing (CAD), bills of materials, programming, planning and general administration.
Most of these activities have been of a discrete nature with little or no attempt being made to integrate the activities and applications for the total project requirement of design, construction, manufacture, management and facilities management.
The main reason for the lack of integration has been the inability of different software application programs and computer-aided design and draw systems freely to transfer information in such a way that the architectural, structural, building services and infrastructure information can be coordinated.
While this problem has, to some degree, been overcome in the mechanical engineering activities and in particular the aerospace and automobile industry, by using single system solutions and exchange formats designed specifically for those activities, it is not yet available in the building and construction industry where no two projects are the same; every project is a prototype.
Single system solutions and exchange formats are available within the construction activity but the vast number of different software applications required cannot be developed and made available by any single developer. The cost alone is prohibitive.
The exchange formats being used and developed, along with other initiatives such as ESPRIT/ATLAS, ISO/STEP, EXPRESS, the EDI initiative, and others, may leave the developers and users with a system that is too cumbersome to be used effectively.
When one also moves the environment from 2D to 3D the problems become even more complex. Link this with a database and apply the information to construction management programs and the problems become...