A method for developing visually intelligent construction scheduling data

Abstract

The integration of methods, materials, and manpower is the basis for planning the activities of a construction project. The scheduling of these resources used during the construction of buildings is a critical factor that can dramatically affect a project's budget, timeline, and overall success. Consequently, much effort should be placed on the schedule's development to define an accurate timeline of predicted construction activities. To aid this effort, tools such as activity-based simulation models and three-dimensional visualization techniques have been utilized to improve the accuracy of scheduling. While simulation models use general programming language to create numeric models of processes in areas of management and manufacturing, construction visualization allows still and animated visual analyses of three-dimensional virtual worlds. Thus, this research integrates numerical activity-based simulation with visual animation to create optimized and intelligent construction scheduling data. This integration improves the accuracy, prediction, and comprehensive capability of construction schedules. The results show that efficiently scheduled construction processes can be created to reduce time and costs and provide visual training data for the owners, contractors, and workers.