Benefits of IOT (Internet of things) in AEC Industry

The construction industry is known as one of the largest industries in the world. However, it can also be considered as one of the most conservative industry in terms of the adaptation of new methods or technologies. The developing technologies force the construction industry to utilize novel approaches to overcome cost and time overruns of construction projects.

Internet of Things (IoT), an example of these approaches, is one of the most recent technologies that has drawn a great interest in several industries, such as telecommunication, automotive, healthcare, and logistics, and is nowadays beginning to attract the attention of the construction industry.

What is IOT ?

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the application of unique identifiers to physical objects that enables them to be connected to a network allowing the transfer of data to and from those objects.

History :

The ability to connect objects via the Internet has existed since the 1980's, and the phrase 'Internet of Things' was first coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999 who wrote; 'If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things - using data they gathered without any help from us - we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best'.

IOT Concept :

 The IoT concept is the convergence of three different visions such as

(i) things oriented vision -  integrate generic objects into a common framework

(ii) internet-oriented vision -  enables to connect a large number of communicating devices

(iii) semantic oriented vision, this has a key role to overcome the problem of dealing with the huge information generated by IoT due to the extremely high number of items involved in the future internet.

Uses in Construction Industry :

• Asset management systems.
• Building management systems.
• Remote operation of appliances, plant, security systems and so on.
• Energy use and conservation.
• Monitoring equipment and diagnosing faults or prognosis of future potential problems.
• Targeting maintenance activities.
• Monitoring, ordering, directing and tracking resources such as materials, vehicles, plant and labour to maximise productivity.
• Inventory control and storage management.
• Building information management.
• Knowledge management.
• Condition monitoring for comfort, safety and efficiency.
• Performance monitoring and tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Preventing theft.
• Obtaining up-to-date information for bid preparation.
• Providing feedback on building behaviour to improve the accuracy of modelling, analysis and simulation techniques.
• Verifying worker skills.
• Payroll management.