Deploying 3D scanning based geometric digital twins during fabrication and assembly in offsite manufacturing
Christopher Rausch, Ruodan Lu, Saeed Talebi, Carl T. Haas
Abstract
Verifying geometric compliance in offsite manufacturing (OSM) is key for ensuring adequate fit-up, structural integrity, building system performance, and assembly alignment on site. The use of a geometric digital twin (gDT) from 3 D scanning can be used to digitize an assembly to detect and resolve potential problems in a prescient manner. The contribution of this article is the development of a framework for deploying and comparing three distinct gDT approaches for use during fabrication and assembly in OSM: (1) a scan-vs-BIM approach, (2) a scan-to-BIM approach and (3) a parametric BIM updating approach. Results from a commercial building project show that scan-vs-BIM is the most accurate approach, parametric BIM updating produces the most semantically rich gDT, and scan-to-BIM is a middle-tiered option, striking a balance between representational accuracy and semantic enrichment. This study concludes that future research should develop a hybrid solution of these gDT approaches and additional more accurate measurement technologies for optimal deployment in OSM.