A Multiuser Shared Virtual Environment for Facility ... - Science Direct

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect Procedia Engineering 145 (2016) 120 – 127

International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction

A Multiuser Shared Virtual Environment for Facility Management Yangming Shia, Jing Dub*, Sarel Lavyc, Dong Zhaod a PhD student, Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University. College Station, TX 77843,USA Assistant Professor, Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University. College Station, TX 77843,USA c Associate Professor, Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University. College Station, TX 77843,USA d Assistant Professor, School of Planning Design and Construction, Michigan State University. East Lansing, MI 48824,USA b

Abstract Facility management (FM) is a critical component of building sustainability because a late response to the FM needs will add unnecessary wastes. A lack of communication has been criticized as an impediment to improving the common understanding of FM requirements among the stakeholders and in turn affects the efficiency of FM. Recent developments in Virtual Reality (VR) have encouraged the utilization of interactive building visualization in the design, construction, and maintenance of different types of facilities. This study finds the interpersonal interaction in the VR environment to be a critical factor in the effective communication in FM by creating a shared immersive experience. To prove the concept, a Building Information Modelling (BIM)based VR environment tool was developed to bring remotely located stakeholders – building occupants, facility managers, vendors and designers – together to walk through in the same virtual building. It enables real-time interactions of remote stakeholders in the same environment, with a shared immersive walkthrough experience. This tool offers an alternative communication method for sustainable FM. Unity 3D was used to create the interactive environment, and Photon Unity Networking (PUN) was used to implement the cross-platform multiuser function. A case study has shown that this alternative communication method can help stakeholders examine the same facility in remote locations and improve the efficiency of communication. © 2016 2015The TheAuthors. Authors.Published Published Elsevier © byby Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). and Construction 2015. Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ICSDEC 2016 Keywords: Facility Management, Interpersonal Communication, Virtual Reality, Game Engine

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-979-458-9385; fax: +1-979-862-1572. E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-7058 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ICSDEC 2016

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.029

Yangming Shi et al. / Procedia Engineering 145 (2016) 120 – 127

1. Introduction Facility management (FM) is a multidisciplinary profession to “ensure the functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process, and technology” [1]. As an indispensable activity of the building lifecycle management, FM is highly relevant to the sustainability of the built environment. Nonetheless, cumulative evidence has shown that a lack of communication is always an impediment to improving the common understanding of FM requirements among the stakeholders and in turn affects the efficiency of FM. It attributes to the commonly seen late responses to the FM needs, unnecessary wastes of time and resources, and has introduced an adversarial relationship between the end-users and FM professionals [2]. According to a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report entitled “Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the US capital Facilities Industry” [3], the total cost impact of “inadequate transfer of information” across different building lifecycle phases was $15.8 B/ year, with two-thirds happening in the FM phase. The report also shows that issues pertaining to data verification and transfer have led to “inefficient business process” and “losses in productivities for staff” in FM, which was ultimately translated into unnecessary costs [3]. Similarly, in 2009, Global Job Task Analysis (GJTA) surveyed facility managers from 62 countries to identify 11 most needed competencies in FM, of which the number one was “communication” [1]. There is a pressing need to explore a more efficient approach of communication between project shareholders and FM professionals for the better sustainability of the built environment. BIM-based game engines have been widely implemented in many areas in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry including architecture design review, construction safety education, and emergency evacuation [4-7]. Its powerful value in creating a low-cost, realistic game environment based on BIM models has been widely recognized. With the current advancement of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, the integration of BIM-based game engine and VR is becoming promising in the AEC industry. VR allows construction participants to communicate in an immersive virtual environment. Unlike BIM-based game engine, the immersive virtual environment enhances participant’s interaction with built environment or other users [8-10] This study aims to test the feasibility and usability of multiuser BIM game engine based VR technologies in FM communication. Specifically, we hypothesize that a shared multiuser VR environment based on BIM game engines and cloud-based networking will significantly enhance the communication between project shareholders and FM professionals, ultimately leading to improved sustainability of the facilities. The significance of this research lies in that it presents an alternative approach to improving the common understanding of FM requirements among the stakeholders, and exploring the integration of BIM-based game engine and VR technologies into effective FM. 2. Literature review 2.1. Communication in Facility Management Given the fact that more than two-thirds of the building lifecycle costs actually occur in the FM phase, FM defines the success of the construction business [11]. Meanwhile, as operations and maintenance (O&M) is the longest phase in the building lifecycle, its efficiency is important to the building sustainability [12]. According to Bowen and Edwards [13], the mutual information dependency dominates the entire lifecycle of a construction project; hence a lack of communication will undermine the efficiency of FM. At present 2D drawings are still widely used to communicate FM needs. In a typical scenario, FM professionals use master MEP drawings to identify FM needs and locate facility items. Many issues could arise especially when the as-built drawings are not available. As a result, data reentry/rebuying is very common in routine and emergent FM activities. According to NIST, the wastes due to a lack of communication and data integration was estimated $0.23/SF per year for existing building portfolios, including information verification costs ($0.12/SF), delay ($0.04/SF) and O&M staff productivity loss ($0.02/SF) [3]. Recently, the AEC industry has raised a good deal of interest surrounding the use of BIM for FM. BIM is a data and knowledge repository through the life cycle of the building. This technology presents a major potential specifically in the life cycle information exchange and management. A variety of studies has been done to explore BIM-based approaches to improve the FM communication efficiency. Liu [14] and Becerik-Gerber, Ku [15] found that BIM-

121

122


enabled FM improves the communication between design and FM professionals with a more intuitive presentation of FM issues in a realistic manner. Compared to the traditional 2D drawings, BIM enables FM professionals to secure relevant information and focus on value added activities. Following the same logic, Shen and Jiang [16] and Bae, Golparvar-Fard [17] developed several mobile applications for communication and collaboration in FM. The 3D virtual-built environment allowed users to observe and interact with HVAC BIM system in FM. They claimed that the developed applications could greatly improve the efficiency of O&M. However, evidence has also shown that the utilization of BIM in FM is lagging behind BIM implementations in the design and construction phases. Thus, a full knowledge sharing between FM and design professionals has not become a realistic possibility[18]. 2.2. BIM-based Game Engine According to Mól, Jorge [19], the game engine is an open sourced computer game application with powerful 3D rendering and representations of physical laws. With the development of BIM technologies, the computer game engines integrated with BIM models have been greatly developed in recent years. Yan, Culp [4] found that BIM-based game engine is a promising connection of different fields such as architecture, engineer, computer science, and facility management. A number of studies have shown that the BIM-based game engine has a powerful potential in the AEC industry. For example, Rüppel and Schatz [20], Liu, Du [6], and Mól, Jorge [19] utilized BIM-based game engine to simulate the emergency evacuation situations in the building. Their findings confirm BIM-based game engine to be a promising approach to investigate evacuation behaviors, by allowing the participant to interact with built environment or other participants. Lin, Son [5], Son, Lin [21], and Miller, Dawood [22] applied game engine for construction safety education and diagnosis of potential construction hazards. The BIM-based game engine can help project participants experience the immersive construction site and improve their beneficial skills before they enter a real construction site. More importantly, these studies find that BIM-based game engine can be used to diagnose unsafety behaviors and avoid construction accidents. For architecture design review, Shiratuddin and Thabet [23] found that game engine could effectively improve the design review process in architecture. It reduces the communication mistakes and minimizes potential errors in the design process. It also enables a shared vision of the project between designers and owners. With the recent improvement in VR technologies, BIM-based game engine combined with VR technologies will greatly transform the communication methods in the AEC industry. 2.3. Virtual Reality Warwick, Gray [24] defined VR as a computer-generated virtual environment that can be adjusted and manipulated by the players in real time. Unlike the traditional BIM-based game engine, VR provides not only an immersive virtual environment to the participants [25] but also the interactions among participants and across various construction components [26]. In the AEC applications, VR can potentially assist construction participants to simulate the building virtual environment and improve the communication efficiency among construction participants. A variety of studies has explored the potential applications of VR in the AEC industry. Heydarian, Carneiro [27] found that VR technique helps the construction participant better understand occupants’ lighting-use behavior in the building. Fernandes, Raja [28] and Messner, Riley [29] found that the VR enables a shared vision of the project among construction participants, which helps the achievement of sustainable design goals. Liu, Lather [30] and Park and Kim [31] showed that immersive virtual environment makes the design meetings more effective by enhancing the communication between workers and managers. Although increasing evidence has shown that VR can improve the communication efficiency in the AEC applications, most VR studies in the AEC area have so far focused only on improving the single person experience. The benefits of multiuser VR have not been fully explored in the AEC industry. In contrast, the computer science literature provides a variety of foundation works. For example, Carlsson and Hagsand [32] and Shiratuddin and Thabet [33] developed a multiuser VR system to bring remote participants into the same immersive virtual environment regardless of geologic locations. Multiuser VR allows the users to interact with other users, represented as avatars, in the same virtual environment, and makes synchronous collaboration possible by in-game communication such as gesture, text and voice [19]. Recently the AEC literature has started the investigation of feasibly of multiuser VR in


various AEC problems, such as the Moloney and Amor [34], nonetheless these works focus on “BIM CAVE” type of immersive environment, which still needs to bring users into the same geologic location. This study explores a true multiuser VR platform based on the BIM models and Head Mounted Devices (HMDs) to improve the synchronous communication among project shareholders and FM professionals. 3. Methodology This study aims to test the feasibility and usability of a multiuser shared immersive virtual environment in FM communication. The developed system consists of two fundamental components including BIM-based game engine and multiuser network. The BIM-based game engine part can be further divided into three major sub-components, which are BIM models, Model Conversion, and game engine [4]. The BIM-based game engine is used to convert the existing BIM models - including architecture model, structural model, and MEP model - into the game engine system while the multiuser network is used to create a cross-platform cloud-based network for real-time interaction. Figure 1 illustrates the framework of the multiuser-shared virtual environment model.

Fig.1. Framework of the multiuser shared immersive virtual environment for FM communication

x Part 1: Convert Existing BIM Models into Game Engine The major challenge of this part is that given the existing data transfer protocol, the BIM models cannot be fully converted into a game-engine-compatible. Especially, a number of material will be missing after a direct conversion. Therefore, a transfer script has to be used in this process to convert BIM-based materials into standard materials for the game engine. After the script transfer, the original BIM objects will be converted into independent objects compatible with multiple game engines. The BIM objects’ information such as materials and dimensions will be reconstructed in the game engine. The modified BIM models, including architecture model, structural model, and MEP model, will be used as the general collider scenes for the virtual environment. Players control the movement and motion of physical avatars with keyboard or game controllers in the virtual environment to freely explore the BIMgenerated building. Between avatars and building components, and among avatars, the collision will be simulated. In addition, to make the virtual environment more realistic, several environmental factors such as in-door or out-door lighting and audio should be modeled. The VR devices, such as Oculus Rift and Gear VR, can be used to provide the users with immersive virtual experience. The VR view is independently assigned to each avatar. Users have the freedom to choose either VR display or normal display. Finally, most of the existing game engines support different operation system for better interoperability.

123

124


x Part2: Multiuser Network Unlike previous BIM-based game engine studies, we propose to use a cloud-based based network system to achieve multiuser function in the game engine. The Photon Unity Networking (PUN) is implemented as the multiuser platform in this study. The following are sample code lines for PUN in Unity: using UnityEngine; using System.Collections.Generic; public class NetworkManager : MonoBehaviour { public GameObject standbyCamera; public bool offlineMode =false; bool connecting = false; List chatMessages; int maxChatMessages=8; // Use this for initialization void Start(){ PhotonNetwork.player.name=PlayerPrefs.GetString("Username", "Texas A&M University User"); chatMessages = new List (); }

PUN has several advantages than other network applications. First, PUN is a game engine completely based network application. It has flexible API for developers to use. Second, PUN is a free application to use in the game engine. Although the maximum number of players in the network is 20, most of the Unity functions can be fully implemented. Third, PUN is a cross-platform service, supporting mobile, desktop, and the web. Finally, by using the Remote Procedure Calls (RPC), PUN enables real-time synchronization of the motions and animations in the virtual environment. 4. Demonstration Case Francis Hall, home of the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University, was used to demonstrate our system. The following steps were followed to develop the multiuser virtual environment for FM: x BIM modeling. Autodesk Revit was used as the BIM authoring tool. The architecture, structure and MEP design was optimized in this process to expedite VR rendering. According to Yan, Culp [4]’s study, the BIM models provide geometric and non-geometric information for the game engine. Thus, it is important to ensure that all the integrated BIM models are fully presented before exporting the model. Fig2 (a) illustrates the BIM before exporting. The front building wall is temporarily hidden in order to demonstrate the interior structure of the building. Fig2 (b) illustrates the MEP model before exporting. b a

Fig.1. (a) Integrated BIM model before exporting; (b) MEP model before exporting


x Model conversion. Autodesk 3DS Max was used as the tool to preprocess the BIM model. With the present technologies, BIM-based material information cannot be correctly transferred into Autodesk 3DS Max. Therefore, it is essential to use a transfer script to convert all the BIM-based material information into the acceptable material files in Autodesk 3DS Max. This study uses a commercial script called Autodesk Material Convert (AMC). AMC can convert the BIM-based materials into the standard materials, which are acceptable for most game engines. x Multiuser BIM game engine development. Unity was used as the game engine platform in this study. After the model conversation, the integrated building system can be correctly reproduced in the game scene. The use of PUN enables the users to see and interact with each other in the virtual environment. As mentioned above, the virtual reality view is independently assigned to each of the avatars. Thus, the user can freely choose between virtual reality display and normal display. In this study, the Oculus Rift SDK2 was used as the VR output device. To be noted, some users may feel sickness while using VR devices, which may be improved with better hardware. A hypothetical scenario was used to demonstrate the usability of the developed system. Fig3 (a) shows the real facilities in Francis Hall. Fig 3(b) shows the iterated BIM model in Revit. As shown in Fig 3(c), two users were using two separate Oculus Rift Head Mounted Devices (HMDs) to log onto the same Francis Hall VR model. User A (left) played the role of the designer who owned the specifications of the affected MEP items but did not know about the happening facility issues. User B (right) played the role of a FM professional who knew more about the issues and was trying to investigate the causes. In the hypothetical case, user B led user A to the location where issues were occurring and finger-pointed the MEP items (with a laser gun modeled as an extension of the avatars) that might need attentions. So user A was able to pull out the specification information of the affected items, and discuss potential solutions with the FM professional in real time. Please note, when users A and B are not at the same location, the realtime interaction, and intuitive communication are still possible as the immersive experiment is shared via the internet. In conclusion, compared to the traditional 2D drawings and 3D BIM models, the multiuser shared virtual environment provides a better communication method for designers and FM professionals. It can also facilitate communications among other stakeholders in FM, such as between building occupants and FM professionals, between designers and engineers, and between MEP suppliers and designers. The shared virtual environment realizes a more realistic and interactive communication environment than other existing methods can do. It is expected to minimalize the misunderstanding and to reduce the communication costs in the FM phase. It will ultimately help the project stakeholders achieve the sustainable goals in the long term. b a

c

d

Fig.2.(a) Real scene in Francis Hall; (b) Facilities in Revit model; (c) Multiuser interaction with Oculus DK2; (d) Facilities in the immersive virtual environment.

125

126


5. Conclusion, Limitations, and Future Work In this paper, we presented a multiuser-shared virtual environment for the implement of facility management. The framework of the multiuser-shared virtual environment contains BIM-based game engines and a cloud-based multiplayer networking. Our lab test finds that the developed system is easy to use and is able to render a quality view in most VR devices. The practical merit of this approach is that it allows project participants to involve in shared immersive virtual environment regardless of geological barriers in the FM phase. We found that this shared immersive walkthrough experience could improve the efficiency of communication in FM and encourage the project participants to achieve sustainable goals. Several limitations need to be addressed in the future. First, the level of realism in the virtual environment still needs to be improved. Evidence has shown that a more realistic virtual environment may induce a better sense of presence. Second, in our current system the participants cannot manipulate the building components in the virtual environment, due to the difficulty of transferring data dynamically between the game engines and BIM models. Last, when using this system for the visualization of large and complex projects, the juddering issue becomes more serious, which may affect the immersive experience. A better approach that can automatically adjust the level of details is under development to overcome this issue. At the same time, another future work item of this research is to develop more interactive functions in the virtual environment. The users should be able to manipulate the building components and adjust the building information synchronized with the parametric BIM models. 6. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

IFMA. What is Facility Management? 2015 [cited 2015 5 Jan]; Available from: http://www.ifma.org/about/what-is-facility-management. Nousiainen, M. and S. Junnila, End-user requirements for green facility management. Journal of Facilities Management, 2008. 6(4): p. 266-278. GCR, N., Cost analysis of inadequate interoperability in the US capital facilities industry. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 2004. Yan, W., C. Culp, and R. Graf, Integrating BIM and gaming for real-time interactive architectural visualization. Automation in Construction, 2011. 20(4): p. 446-458. Lin, K.-Y., J.W. Son, and E.M. Rojas, A pilot study of a 3D game environment for construction safety education. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2011. 16: p. 69-83. Liu, R., J. Du, and R.R. Issa, Cloud-based deep immersive game for human egress data collection: a framework. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2014. 336: p. 349. Karshenas, S. and D. Haber. Developing a serious game for construction planning and scheduling education. in 48th ASC Annual International Conference Proceedings. 2012. Whyte, J., et al., From CAD to virtual reality: modelling approaches, data exchange and interactive 3D building design tools. Automation in Construction, 2000. 10(1): p. 43-55. Shen, Z., et al. Creating 3D web-based game environment using BIM models for virtual on-site visiting of building HVAC systems. in Construction research congress. 2012. Trenholme, D. and S.P. Smith, Computer game engines for developing first-person virtual environments. Virtual reality, 2008. 12(3): p. 181-187. Chotipanich, S., Positioning facility management. Facilities, 2004. 22(13/14): p. 364-372. Lavy, S. and N. Saxena, Quantifying the effect of using BIM and COBie for facility management on work order processing times: a case study. International Journal of Facility Management, 2015. 6(1). Bowen, P. and P. Edwards, Interpersonal communication in cost planning during the building design phase. Construction Management and Economics, 1996. 14(5): p. 395-404. Liu, R., BIM-based life cycle information management: Integrating knowledge of facility management into design. 2012, University of Florida. Becerik-Gerber, A.A., Burcin, K. Ku, and F. Jazizadeh, BIM-enabled virtual and collaborative construction engineering and management. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 2012. 138(3): p. 234-245.


16. 17.

18.

19. 20. 21. 22.

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

Shen, Z. and L. Jiang, An augmented 3D iPad mobile application for communication, collaboration, and learning (CCL) of building MEP systems. Computing in Civil Engineering (2012), 2012: p. 204-212. Bae, H., M. Golparvar-Fard, and J. White, High-precision vision-based mobile augmented reality system for context-aware architectural, engineering, construction and facility management (AEC/FM) applications. Visualization in Engineering, 2013. 1(1): p. 1-13. Akcamete, A., B. Akinci, and J.H. Garrett. Potential utilization of building information models for planning maintenance activities. in Proceedings of the international conference on computing in civil and building engineering. 2010. June. Mól, A.C.A., C.A.F. Jorge, and P.M. Couto, Using a game engine for VR simulations in evacuation planning. Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE, 2008. 28(3): p. 6-12. Rüppel, U. and K. Schatz, Designing a BIM-based serious game for fire safety evacuation simulations. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 2011. 25(4): p. 600-611. Son, J., K.-Y. Lin, and E.M. Rojas, Developing and testing a 3D video game for construction safety education. Computing in Civil Engineering, 2011. 2011: p. 867-74. Miller, G., N. Dawood, and M. Kassem. Building an emergent learning environment for construction health and safety by merging serious games and 4D planning. in Computing in Civil Engineering (2012). 2012. ASCE. Shiratuddin, M.F. and W. Thabet, Utilizing a 3D game engine to develop a virtual design review system. Journal of Information Technology in Construction–ITcon, 2011. 16: p. 39-68. Warwick, K., J. Gray, and D. Roberts. Virtual reality in engineering. 1993. Institution of Electrical Engineers. Biocca, F. and M.R. Levy, Communication in the age of virtual reality. 2013: Routledge. Kamat, V.R., et al., Research in visualization techniques for field construction. Journal of construction engineering and management, 2010. 137(10): p. 853-862. Heydarian, A., et al., Immersive virtual environments, understanding the impact of design features and occupant choice upon lighting for building performance. Building and Environment, 2015. 89: p. 217-228. Fernandes, K.J., et al., Adoption of virtual reality within construction processes: a factor analysis approach. Technovation, 2006. 26(1): p. 111-120. Messner, J.I., D.R. Riley, and M. Moeck, Virtual facility prototyping for sustainable project delivery. 2006. Liu, Y., J. Lather, and J. Messner. Virtual Reality to Support the Integrated Design Process: A Retrofit Case Study. in Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (2014). ASCE. Park, C.-S. and H.-J. Kim, A framework for construction safety management and visualization system. Automation in Construction, 2013. 33: p. 95-103. Carlsson, C. and O. Hagsand, DIVE—A platform for multi-user virtual environments. Computers & Graphics, 1993. 17(6): p. 663-669. Shiratuddin, M.F. and W. Thabet, Virtual office walkthrough using a 3D game engine. International Journal of Design Computing, 2002. 4. Moloney, J. and R. Amor. StringCVE: Advances in a game engine-based collaborative virtual environment for architectural design. in Proceedings of CONVR 2003 conference on construction applications of virtual reality. 2003. Citeseer.

127