TY - JOUR
T1 - Linking permissioned blockchain to Internet of Things (IoT)-BIM platform for off-site production management in modular construction
AU - Wu, Liupengfei
AU - Lu, Weisheng
AU - Xue, Fan
AU - Li, Xiao
AU - Zhao, Rui
AU - Tang, Maohong
N1 - Funding Information:
The work presented in this paper was financially supported by the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) with the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) (No. ITP/029/20LP ). This funding source had no role in the design and conduction of this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - Traditionally, construction managers were considered more experienced in project management than off-site production management, although the latter is gaining importance with the renaissance of modular construction worldwide. Various Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled Building Information Modelling (BIM) platforms have been developed to facilitate production management by providing better information visibility, traceability, and a more collaborative working environment. Nevertheless, by and large, existing platforms suffer from two shortcomings: (a) the ‘single point of failure’ problem of IoT networks and (b) how to guarantee the provenance of BIM modifications from multi-sources. This research aims to develop a blockchain-enabled IoT-BIM platform (BIBP) for off-site production management in modular construction (OPM-MC) that can overcome the shortcomings. A design science research method is adopted to develop a three-layer BIBP system architecture. The system architecture is implemented and then compared with the existing IoT-enabled BIM platform. It was found that BIBP can avoid a single point of failure in IoT networks and ensure the provenance of BIM modifications with reduced storage costs in OPM-MC. The system architecture developed in our study can help the industry advance beyond the rhetoric to develop practical blockchain-enabled IoT-BIM applications. Future works are recommended to fine-tune the platform and test and evaluate it in various scenarios.
AB - Traditionally, construction managers were considered more experienced in project management than off-site production management, although the latter is gaining importance with the renaissance of modular construction worldwide. Various Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled Building Information Modelling (BIM) platforms have been developed to facilitate production management by providing better information visibility, traceability, and a more collaborative working environment. Nevertheless, by and large, existing platforms suffer from two shortcomings: (a) the ‘single point of failure’ problem of IoT networks and (b) how to guarantee the provenance of BIM modifications from multi-sources. This research aims to develop a blockchain-enabled IoT-BIM platform (BIBP) for off-site production management in modular construction (OPM-MC) that can overcome the shortcomings. A design science research method is adopted to develop a three-layer BIBP system architecture. The system architecture is implemented and then compared with the existing IoT-enabled BIM platform. It was found that BIBP can avoid a single point of failure in IoT networks and ensure the provenance of BIM modifications with reduced storage costs in OPM-MC. The system architecture developed in our study can help the industry advance beyond the rhetoric to develop practical blockchain-enabled IoT-BIM applications. Future works are recommended to fine-tune the platform and test and evaluate it in various scenarios.
KW - BIM
KW - Blockchain
KW - Internet of Things
KW - Modular construction
KW - Off-site production management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119987988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compind.2021.103573
DO - 10.1016/j.compind.2021.103573
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85119987988
VL - 135
JO - Computers in Industry
JF - Computers in Industry
SN - 0166-3615
M1 - 103573
ER -