TY - JOUR
T1 - Blockchain-enabled cyber-physical smart modular integrated construction
AU - Jiang, Yishuo
AU - Liu, Xinlai
AU - Kang, Kai
AU - Wang, Zicheng
AU - Zhong, Ray Y.
AU - Huang, George Q.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the partial supports from National Key R&D Program of China No. 2019YFB1705401 , Research Grants Council Research Impact Fund No. R7027-18 , and Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme No. S2019.A8.013.19S , Seed Fund for Basic Research in HKU under Grant 201906159001 , Guangdong Special Support Talent Program - Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leading Team under Grant 2019BT02S593 and ITF project ( PRP/068/20LI ). Authors are grateful to industrial collaborators for providing field studies and technical supports.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) has been one of the most innovative solutions to address the ever-growing housing demands in megacities such as Hong Kong. MiC offers a range of benefits including cost-effectiveness, high productivity, and high sustainability for construction industry. Multiple stakeholders in MiC project, such as project client, module manufacturer, logistics company, and building contractor, normally use their own proprietary and centralized Enterprise Information System (EIS). However, stakeholders are facing challenges to share information throughout MiC projects. “Islands of Information” issue is commonly existing and creates information fragmentation and discontinuity. As an emerging Information and Communication Technology (ICT), blockchain provides unified standards and protocols for information sharing based on decentralized P2P framework with enhanced transparency and security. Aiming to address the information fragmentation and discontinuity in MiC project, this paper proposes a blockchain-enabled cyber-physical smart MiC platform to facilitate cross-enterprise information sharing among multiple stakeholders based on User-Centered Design (UCD) method. A practical roadmap is presented for the design, development, deployment, and application of MiC blockchain with new opportunities and guidelines. Initial investigations based on an industrial collaborated company are analyzed and the blockchain-enabled cyber-physical MiC workflow is designed. The user-centered blockchain explorers with high-fidelity digital twins are illustrated. Some preliminary results are found that MiC blockchain not only facilitates cyber-physical construction progress traceability, and real-time KPI visualization & evaluation, but also improves the information reliability, immutability, and transparency in MiC projects.
AB - Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) has been one of the most innovative solutions to address the ever-growing housing demands in megacities such as Hong Kong. MiC offers a range of benefits including cost-effectiveness, high productivity, and high sustainability for construction industry. Multiple stakeholders in MiC project, such as project client, module manufacturer, logistics company, and building contractor, normally use their own proprietary and centralized Enterprise Information System (EIS). However, stakeholders are facing challenges to share information throughout MiC projects. “Islands of Information” issue is commonly existing and creates information fragmentation and discontinuity. As an emerging Information and Communication Technology (ICT), blockchain provides unified standards and protocols for information sharing based on decentralized P2P framework with enhanced transparency and security. Aiming to address the information fragmentation and discontinuity in MiC project, this paper proposes a blockchain-enabled cyber-physical smart MiC platform to facilitate cross-enterprise information sharing among multiple stakeholders based on User-Centered Design (UCD) method. A practical roadmap is presented for the design, development, deployment, and application of MiC blockchain with new opportunities and guidelines. Initial investigations based on an industrial collaborated company are analyzed and the blockchain-enabled cyber-physical MiC workflow is designed. The user-centered blockchain explorers with high-fidelity digital twins are illustrated. Some preliminary results are found that MiC blockchain not only facilitates cyber-physical construction progress traceability, and real-time KPI visualization & evaluation, but also improves the information reliability, immutability, and transparency in MiC projects.
KW - Blockchain
KW - Cyber-Physical System (CPS)
KW - Information communication and sharing
KW - Modular Integrated Construction (MiC)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117186354&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compind.2021.103553
DO - 10.1016/j.compind.2021.103553
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85117186354
SN - 0166-3615
VL - 133
JO - Computers in Industry
JF - Computers in Industry
M1 - 103553
ER -