Feasibility of augmented reality technology for communication in the construction industry

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2021.101363Get rights and content

Abstract

Problem statement

The current shortage of skilled and experienced management personnel in the construction industry makes it necessary to devise solutions that fully leverage the available expertise. Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology that has the potential to provide contextually relevant communication to field engineers and offer value through real-time communication of spatiotemporal details.

Purpose

This paper identifies the communication scenarios in which AR may (or may not) be able to replace in-person meetings to address construction-related communication needs, based on data collected from current practitioners. Furthermore, the feedback from practitioners defines contextual factors that would impact their willingness to adopt AR for communication in the domain of construction engineering and management.

Methodology

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with practitioners and thematic analysis was performed on the interview data. This process identified trends in the practitioners’ responses to reveal their perceptions on use of AR for communication and also the factors that may impact the success of AR for communication in practice.

Findings

Practitioners perceived AR to be of value in the following situations: improving the communication between the design team and construction team; effectively leveraging the expertise of experienced personnel; and to aid in inspections. The factors affecting the adoption of this technology were classified into technological factors (e.g. Cost of equipment) and non-technological factors (e.g. Relationship building).

Contribution

Many researchers have explored AR for construction, but the vast majority have explored the topic in controlled settings. Conversely, this study relates to real-life practical settings with direct involvement of industry practitioners. Therefore, the contribution of this work is in defining the factors that must be considered if researchers or practitioners intend to realize the theoretical value suggested for AR in practical settings, while taking into account existing challenges.

Introduction

The construction industry is unique because of the changing nature of every project. Typically, each project not only has a distinctive design, but is also composed of different project teams of designers, engineers, and construction professionals. The changing nature of both the project and the people involved requires project teams to make effective decisions, based on specific needs of a project. In order to attain effective decision-making, proper communication is of the essence. While the specific design of civil infrastructure is rarely identical from project to project, many aspects of the process of constructing certain types of civil infrastructure could have similarities. This fact highlights the importance of having individuals who have developed expertise through years of experience [1] that allow them to communicate insights about how to effectively make decisions for the project under consideration, based on what has worked in the past.

While experience is important, the construction industry is approaching a shift in workforce that may result in a significant loss of collective knowledge as professionals retire. Currently, 53% of the construction managers employed in the industry are above the age of 45 [2]. These professionals are retiring in large numbers, leading to workforce shortages. The Construction Industry Institute’s study on demographic labor shortage also revealed that the average age of the construction workforce has increased four times faster than all other U.S industries during the last decade [3]. These shifts in construction workforce demographics highlight the need to better leverage the expertise of senior practitioners, and to look for techniques which can improve the efficiency of these practitioners.

Many companies still use more basic modes of transferring expertise from one employee to another. For example, companies frequently employ in-person mentorship meetings, where expert practitioners travel to project sites in order to provide their insights about specific construction concerns to junior personnel [4]. However, these meetings require a senior practitioner to travel to the project site, increasing expenses. As a result, many companies opt to use phone calls to resolve construction challenges, enabling discussions between experts and novices without requiring individuals to travel to the site. However, phone calls rely on the ability of a person on-site to describe the situation clearly and effectively to a person on the other end of the phone. Furthermore, the off-site individual must do his or her best to accurately understand the situation described by the on-site individual, which can lead to misunderstandings, and in some cases, ineffective decisions. Therefore, a better way to transfer knowledge between on-site and off-site practitioners is necessary.

Augmented Reality (AR) may provide an effective method of enabling contextually relevant communication between off-site and on-site personnel. AR is a technology that allows users to see the real world with virtual objects superimposed upon, or composited with, the real world [5]. Various applications of AR have been explored in construction contexts, including: equipment operator training [6]; visualization of sub-surface environment [7]; design visualization and design review [8], [9], [10]; maintenance operations [11]; and engineering education [12]. Most of these prior studies aim to intuitively present graphical content to users, such as presenting design concepts in the context of a physical space. Recent AR developments are allowing users to annotate virtually on physical objects in real-time with remote collaborators. This functionality may address near-term communication needs by providing contextually relevant dialogue between personnel on-site and in-office in order to support effective and efficient meetings between individuals in remote environments. Such AR use has the potential to aid group decision-making in a changing construction environment. However, it is likely that such use of AR technology will not be able to replace all types of construction-related communication. Due to the newness of this technology, the specific ways in which this technology may or may not support real-time communication in real-world contexts remain unclear.

To better understand how AR may support construction communication, this paper defines the contexts in which AR may enable, or potentially hinder, remote communication between practitioners, based on current workflows. More specifically, the authors address the following research questions:

  • 1.

    For what types of communication scenarios do practitioners believe that AR may (or may not) be able to replace in-person meetings to resolve construction challenges?

  • 2.

    What contextual factors would impact the willingness of practitioners to adopt AR for communication?

These questions were answered using semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of transportation practitioners who hold various positions and have varying levels of experience. The responses reported by these practitioners were analyzed and organized to identify trends related to contextual factors that may impact the success of AR use for on-site to off-site communication. The contribution of this work is in defining the contexts in which AR is perceived to be effective or ineffective. These defined contexts will help in empirically field testing the communication use-cases for which the greatest potential benefit could exist. This knowledge can also be used to potentially avoid the situations in which the practitioners perceived least value for the initial field testing.

Section snippets

Importance of experience in construction

The presence of an experienced professional on-site who can address various challenges that arise during field construction is crucial to the success of a construction project. Accordingly, companies rely on seasoned practitioners’ experience, professional intuition, and tacit knowledge to carry out design and construction efficiently [13]. As a result, the experience possessed by project team leaders plays a major role in the success or failure of a construction project [1], which underscores

Methodology

The objective of this study is to identify the contextual factors reported by practitioners that may enable, or potentially hinder, the success of AR use to support remote meetings between on and off-site construction personnel. These factors will help define appropriate use-cases for testing AR to enable efficient and effective construction communication. To achieve this result, an interview protocol was developed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry professionals with

Participants

Seventeen (17) industry professionals participated in the interviews. These participants included state DOT employees at different levels in the organization, such as Resident Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, Assistant Chief Construction Engineer, Supervisor and Constructability Manager. Table 2 provides an overview of the participants’ years of experience. The interview durations varied from 30 to 50 min. Transcripts from the audio recordings of the interviews and notes from the

Conclusions

This paper identifies the communication scenarios in which current industry practitioners perceive possible use of AR in replacing in-person meetings to resolve construction challenges. It also defines the contextual factors that would impact the willingness of construction practitioners to adopt AR for supporting remote communication necessary in construction environments. The findings of this study provide insights into the ways in which practitioners that would eventually use AR on their

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work funded by the Nevada Department of Transportation under Grant No. AGR P676-19-803. The authors would like to thank Mr. Steven L. Hale, Mr. Steve J. Conner, Mr. Manjunath Kumar, and all Nevada Department of Transportation participants and interviewees for making this study possible.

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