Construction site 4.0 - Digital Ecosystem conquers the construction industry

Industry: Automotive & Mobility, Commercial Vehicles, Software and Digital Economy, Construction Industry / June 01, 2020

Intelligent, networked, and always up to date – what has long been commonplace in areas such as Industrie 4.0 is also to become reality in infrastructure construction projects. How exactly can this be achieved? To help make this reality, Fraunhofer IESE is engaged in the research consortium “Infra-Bau 4.0”, where it is working intensively on the development and testing of a digital integration platform.

Referenzprojekt: Infra-Bau 4.0, Fraunhofer IESE — © iStock.com/ipopha

Last modified: June 01, 2020

The challenge: Increasing the efficiency of construction projects with the help of digitalization

Short-term process changes, delayed deadlines, exploding costs: Infrastructure projects such as road and bridge construction are complex and expensive construction projects. The more complex the project, the more challenging it gets to meet the agreed deadlines, quality goals, and cost targets. It is therefore undisputed by now that digitalization is an essential factor for increasing effectiveness and efficiency in the construction industry.

This issue is addressed by the research project “Infra-Bau 4.0”. The aim is to develop a platform on which all partners involved in a construction project are digitally mapped with their resources and processes, and are networked with each other in a Digital Ecosystem. This is intended to enable effective and efficient planning as well as replanning at construction sites – even for highly complex projects in a volatile context.

The support: Digital Ecosystem for the dynamic planning and realization of infrastructure construction projects

The open and intelligent integration platform to be developed in this research project is intended to connect all organizations, systems, and people involved in a construction project, enable end-to-end data exchange, and provide quick and well-founded decision support for problems at the construction site at any time. This will improve transparency for all stakeholders involved in the construction project, optimize the underlying processes in infrastructure construction projects, and accelerate the processes at the construction site.

An example: If an excavator at a construction site unexpectedly delivers less output, this information can be transmitted in real time via the platform to the responsible process stakeholders. Planning changes can also be transmitted in this way without time delay and media breaks, if necessary all the way to the construction machines. This prevents planning backlogs and allows resources to be used sensibly throughout.

To check whether the current status of a construction site corresponds to the original plan, so-called “Digital Twins” are also used – virtual images, for example of construction machines. With their help, problems can be identified at an early stage and construction processes can be better replanned digitally.

As the technical-scientific project lead, Fraunhofer IESE takes care of ecosystem modeling and platform design, in particular – but also of the integration of Digital Twins and end-to-end data security.

The result: Mapping of a real-digital construction site to a central platform

Comprehensive linking of data – as well as continuous comparison of the planning with the actual situation – offers a great opportunity for infrastructure projects. In Infra-Bau 4.0, planning data is linked and supplemented by extensive “construction process data” reflecting the current construction situation. Thus, the platform simulates a real-digital construction site and the construction process can be recorded, analyzed, and optimized without delay.

For road builders and civil engineers, this is good news. After all, more efficient construction planning and implementation could give them more time – and thus more orders – in the long term.

This is what Denis Feth, technical-scientific project manager for Infra-Bau 4.0 and Expert “Security and Privacy Technologies” at Fraunhofer IESE, has to say:

“This project is not purely about digitalization, but about the comprehensive networking of systems and the automation of construction processes – analogous to Industrie 4.0.”

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Reference Project: Infra-Bau 4.0