According to the general development trend of technology, the development path of smart construction can be divided into three stages.
Primary Stage
In the primary stage of smart construction development, enterprises and projects actively explore the integrated application of contemporary advanced technologies represented by BIM, the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile communication, cloud computing, smart technology, and robots. This expansion enhances human vision, sensory abilities, and certain skills, assisting on-site personnel in managing the construction process.
For example, IoT sensors can be utilized to monitor equipment operation and construction workers' safety behaviors, and smart technology can be employed to enhance construction workers' skill sets. Simultaneously, there's a beginning accumulation of industry, enterprise, and project big data, laying the foundation for later data-driven project management.
Intermediate Stage
In the intermediate stage of smart construction development, most enterprises and projects have mastered the new information technologies represented by BIM, IoT, mobile communication, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and robots. They have accumulated rich experience in integrated applications, and the accumulation of big data in industries, enterprises, and projects has reached a certain scale. There's an attempt to apply data-driven project management to engineering practices.
Additionally, with the assistance of artificial intelligence technology, human labor is partially replaced in some fields, helping humans complete previously impossible or highly risky tasks. Research and exploration of intelligent robots for on-site operations make certain construction scenarios fully automated. This substitution is based on specific application scenarios, assuming conditions and paths for implementation, with strictly defined substitution boundaries within a certain range.
Advanced Stage
In the advanced stage of smart construction, the integration and application of contemporary advanced technologies represented by BIM, IoT, mobile communication, big data, cloud computing, smart technology, and robots are widespread at the technical level. Management is supported by highly integrated information management systems and AI systems based on big data.
Leveraging artificial intelligence's "human-like" thinking ability, human involvement in the construction production and management process is significantly reduced. A "construction brain" directs and manages intelligent machinery and equipment throughout the entire construction process. This "construction brain" possesses a powerful knowledge base management and self-learning ability, namely "self-evolutionary ability." It comprehensively understands the past of the project and its present status. It predicts the future, providing scientific decision-making and response plans for various issues that have occurred or may occur.
From the analysis of the above three development stages, it can be seen that we are currently still in the primary stage of smart construction.
This above is excerpted from "Construction in China under the Dual Carbon Goals (双碳目标下的中国建造) " by Mao Zhibing (毛志兵) for the AAPM official WeChat account.