BIM-based immersive collaborative environment for furniture, fixture and equipment design

Prabhakaran, Abhinesh; Mahamadu, Abdul-Majeed; Mahdjoubi, Lamine; Boguslawski, Pawel

Abstract

One of the most critical issues related to the current application of virtual reality during design appraisal is the inability to have a collaborative virtual environment where a group of geographically remote stakeholders can interact and communicate effectively in real-time. This paper addresses this shortcoming by proposing a collaborative furniture, fixture and equipment virtual environment (COFFEE) that allows concurrent multi-users to interact, communicate and collaborate virtually during the design appraisal of interior furnishings of a facility. The testing of the proposed system among various construction stakeholders (n = 26) to demonstrate the usability and functionality showed high degree of acceptance by stakeholders as a result of improved visualisation, multi-user communication, and collaboration in the virtual environment. In practice COFFEE is expected to assist interior design stakeholders to make informed decisions and create shared understanding before commencement of construction activity.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 12, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 18, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 18, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 13, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 19, 2024
• Journal: Automation in Construction
• Print ISSN: 0926-5805
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-7891
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 142
• Pages: 104489
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104489
• Keywords: Virtual environment; equipment design; BIM; immersive environment; Multi-user, Virtual reality, Design communication, Immersive collaboration
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9690415
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/automation-in-construction