Automated progress tracking using 4D schedule and 3D sensing technologies

Efficient and effective construction progress tracking is critical to construction management. Current manual tracking methods are time consuming and/or error prone. Three dimensional (3D) laser scanners are being investigated in the construction industry and have shown potential for supporting progress tracking. However, their full potential has not yet been achieved. The reason may be that commercial software packages are still too complicated for processing scanned data. Methods have however been developed for the automated recognition of project 3D CAD model objects in site laser scans. A novel system is thus described herein that combines 3D object recognition technology with schedule information into a combined 4D object oriented progress tracking system. This system is tested on a comprehensive field database acquired during the construction of the Engineering V Building at the University of Waterloo. It demonstrates a degree of accuracy for automated progress tracking that meets or exceeds typical manual performance.