Last week, Wojciech Tecław, Ellika Taveres-Cachat and Christian Dalheim Øien from SINTEF organized a DigitalTwin Lego workshop at Construction City in Oslo intending to increase awareness and popularity, allowing users among AECO professionals.

What was the workshop about?

SINTEF team developed a web application using IFC.js and IFC format, allowing users to integrate the “construction” data with the BIM model using RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tags placed on bricks. Every tag containes information about an element’s colour, geometry and unique identifier. Such data is sent to the application using a dedicated device to validate every step of the “construction” process. During each step of the construction, users scan a brick by placing it with a code at the device and confirm the action in the application. If brick properties match the properties of an element in the application, the application goes to the next step and allows a user to continue the process. Otherwise, the notification is displayed indicating which features of a scanned block are wrong.

How the users took part in the game?

In the workshop, SINTEF created three groups combining people from different organizations with diverse professional experiences. They competed hard to deliver assets of the best possible quality and according to game rules.

The users of the workshop participated in two iterations of the game:

  1. In the first iteration, BIM + pdf drawings were used. Users manually noted down all bricks with their features.
  2. The second iteration used the BIM model uploaded on a dedicated website, providing integration with the scanner and saving all information gathered during the game.

To make the workshop more real and aligned to market reality, SINTEF created “EPDs”, which were an additional obstacle in the classic approach because, from time to time, users had to report the current status of the work according to the schedule and among of generated CO2.

The BIMprove project, which uses the DT technology to prevent falls from height, provide fire safety and optimize the schedule on the construction sites was the inspiration for this activity where diversity of tasks and challenges and reporting based on connectivity with the application allowed users better understand the advantages of implementing a Digital Twin on a real construction site.

It was an interesting and fun exercise and from BIMprove we would like to thank all participants for their active involvement.

Would you like to engage in these kind of activities?

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