Comparative analysis of technologies and methods for automatic construction of building information models for existing buildings

Abstract

Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides an intelligent and parametric digital platform to support activities throughout the life-cycle of a building and has been used for new building construction projects nowadays. However, most existing buildings today do not have complete as-built information documents after the construction phase, nor existed meaningful BIM models. Despite the growing use of BIM models and the improvement in as-built records, missing or incomplete building information is still one of the main reasons for the low-level efficiency of building project management. Furthermore, as-built BIM modelling for existing buildings is considered to be a time-consuming process in real projects. Researchers have paid attention to systems and technologies for automated creation of as-built BIM models, but no system has achieved full automation yet. With the ultimate goal of developing a fully automated BIM model creation system, this paper summarises the state-of-the-art techniques and methods for creating as-built BIM models as the starting point, which include data capturing technologies, data processing technologies, object recognition approaches and creating as-built BIM models. Merits and limitations of each technology and method are evaluated based on intensive literature review. This paper also discusses key challenges and gaps remained unaddressed, which are identified through comparative analysis of technologies and methods currently available to support fully automated creation of as-built BIM models.