Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have shown great potential that can be easily achieved. Virtual Reality is a technology that creates virtual environments and when combined with the real world it opens a door to Augmented Reality, providing users with a whole range of new experiences.
In the case of the construction industry, substantial improvements have been made in design, management and construction of projects, radically altering the way of understanding this discipline.
Design and Planning
There are many construction companies that offer solutions focused on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications aimed at the different phases of a jobsite. Among the most common applications is project design with digital models. These allow you to determine the viability of a jobsite and reduce the risk of design and communication errors between all the actors involved in the construction. Another interesting possibility is to guide workers through simulations of tasks and situations that will allow them to face different problems intuitively.
As for the presentation of projects, so far slides, drawings and models have been the vehicle to show a project. This has changed thanks to Virtual Reality, allowing a much more realistic and approximate view of how the future building will be, as well as its progression. In addition, it offers the possibility of accessing technical and economic data clearly and dynamically, as well as interacting with the different elements of the environment to show how it works.
Construction and Logistics
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality allow making construction sites safer, as well as optimizing time and effort. In terms of security, by promoting digital models that work in conjunction with Augmented Reality devices, it is possible to show information about the site’s own terrain, making it easier for workers to identify possible faults in the structure or performance of machinery, pipelines, circuits and structures.
On the day-to-day, it is key to improving the efficiency in the efforts made, for this reason finished models projection takes center stage to visualize the final aspect of the project and to check if the work it is adjusting to expectations. Likewise, being able to obtain and share information in real time about the state of a jobsite, boost agility in task performance and optimizes the resources necessary to carry it out.
Operation and maintenance
The use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in the operation and maintenance of a building is particularly interesting, especially in the case of smart buildings.
The inclusion of Augmented Reality in smart cities and buildings offers a visualization of generated data that can help identify key information about their state. Furthermore to the advances made in recycling, energy savings or possible damage.
In addition to maintenance, Augmented Reality helps to neutralize hazards through simulations that predict how the structure will fall, in the case of demolition.
It is time to innovate
Thousands of Augmented Reality applications have been explored and more initiatives are being added to the construction industry, which translates into great advances in software and devices in the sector. The challenge now is to tune up measurement and identification functions to improve the accuracy with which the environment is recognized. In this sense, the greater the accuracy, the better results.
In the case of Virtual Reality, the goal is to create more complex and fluid environments, something that is on track thanks to the constant improvements achieved in processors and 3D designs.
Everything indicates that we are at a key moment to innovate and continue betting on these technologies, whose advances can be combined with others, such as Internet of Thing, 3D printing and BIM models, achieving a better transformation of the construction industry.
