BIM-BVBS integration with openBIM standards for automatic prefabrication of steel reinforcement

• Published in: Automation in construction 2021-05, Vol.125, p.103654, Article 103654
• Main Authors: Liu, Yuhan, Li, Mingkai, Wong, Billy C.L., Chan, Chun Man, Cheng, Jack C.P., Gan, Vincent J.L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applications programs; Automation; Building information modeling; Building management systems; BVBS; Data exchange; Industry foundation classes; Interoperability; Off-site construction; Prefabrication; Process mapping; Reinforcement; Steel reinforcement; Workflow
• ISSN: 0926-5805; 1872-7891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103654

Processing steel reinforcement is an on-site activity that includes cutting and bending, which are time-consuming and uneconomical. When moving toward the construction automation, off-site prefabrication is important with the aid of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) which are utilized as a collaborative approach to facilitate the fabrication workflow and data interoperability. This paper presents the integration of BIM and steel fabrication machine codes (BVBS) with openBIM standards to interoperate the computerized design and prefabrication automation of steel reinforcement. The integration begins with the reference of Information Delivery Manual (IDM) which involves the identification of information requirement in the process map for identifying the necessary data exchange within the prefabrication process. Definition of IFC model views is conducted to ensure that the exchange of data meets the end user's needs and is implementable for software applications. Next, the process information model of steel reinforcement fabrication is established by connecting the IFC entities with relationships among the specific tasks. A new approach is developed to extend the IFC data schema with prefab-related entities. The proposed BIM-BVBS integration is demonstrated utilizing IFC viewers and visual programming tools (Dynamo) in illustrative examples, the results of which reveal that prefab-related entities and attributes in IFC-based BIM models can be extracted efficiently to cater to the BVBS data transformation toward automatic prefabrication. •Present a framework for BIM-BVBS integration to underpin automatic steel prefabrication.•Propose a process map with identified information requirement to support data exchanges.•Establish the process information model for automatic prefabrication of steel reinforcement.•Develop an approach to extending the IFC data schema with prefab-related entities.•Verify the developed methods and algorithms in transforming design BIM models to BVBS.