The building division of Vinci Construction UK will attempt to save a total of 5,200 hours or work across 25 sites by using an AI-based tool that allows the remote monitoring of construction progress.
Vinci hopes that the new tool, OpenSpace, developed by a Californian start-up company, will also help fulfil requirements for a golden thread of information on projects.
Marco Bonelli, lead digital engineer at Vinci Construction UK, said his company has signed a three-year deal with OpenSpace to use its system across all of its building projects. The agreement has been signed in partnership with construction technology integrator Sektor.build. Bonelli said that time savings will be made because staff will no longer have to take pictures, then sort, organise, and label them once they are uploaded.
The system uses a standard 360-degree camera attached to a hardhat that passively records images as a builder walks the site carrying out their duties.
The image data is uploaded to the cloud, where algorithms automatically map the photos to project plans and “stitch” them together to create an accurate visual representation of the site without any human intervention.
The data accumulates to give construction professionals the ability to review all aspects of a site over previous days, weeks or months. This can be harnessed to improve co-ordination between project stakeholders, resolve disputes, clarify requests for information and change orders, as well as creating a historical record of construction for future renovation projects.
Vinci is making the tool available from the middle of March onwards across all sites in its building division, as part of its newly launched digital engineering strategy, which will see BIM rolled out routinely across the company.
“We can save 5,200 hours across all our projects, because we don’t need to go around sites taking pictures, which is what happens currently to chart progress,” said Bonelli. “We record the video and use AI and computer vision to identify where we are in the process and then it compares the info against the BIM model.”
Vinci intends to use the tool to provide remote site visits to everyone that will require it, reducing the number of visitors on site, which has been valuable throughout the pandemic.
Bonelli said that OpenSpace will also be a useful tool in ensuring quality and safety of construction. “Even when walls have been installed, we can go back in time and see what has been put in place, without breaking the wall or the ceiling.
“This is all central to the golden thread, the big topic of the moment. It gives us a digital record of our construction. And all the information is on one platform.”
Bonelli said it would probably be expanded across Vinci Construction UK. The benefits will be “huge”.
OpenSpace has been trialled on six projects, including student accommodation for UCL in London and restoration work on an old municipal building in York.
“We expect to expand to all our live projects by mid-March and new sites will be automatically enrolled.”
OpenSpace does not identify if a part of the building has been constructed incorrectly. But it can identify if only 50% of a work package is complete.
In the future, it will be used to carry out a progress check for ceiling, MEP, flooring, walls, as well as photogrammetry and measurements.
