From IT-Supported Offices Towards IT-Supported On-site Activity: Vision, Issues and Initial Directions

摘要

The majority of the current IT-supported activities are primarily office-based and most are focused on the earlier phases of design and construction. However, in civil engineering projects, a great deal of activity goes on outside of an office setting, such as many aspects of construction project management, inspection, and building commissioning. Future IT development must focus on supporting the creation of, access to, and augmentation of information during on-site activity. For example, a large amount of effort to date has been dedicated to the creation of extensive product and process models for representing the life-cycle of a construction project. However, very little has been done to date to explore how these product and process models will be accessed, referenced, and augmented by project managers, designers, and construction personnel as they move about the workface. Another example is the rapidly changing nature of sensing and wireless communication technologies. Many researchers and practitioners are starting to think about using ubiquitous sensing within civil infrastructure construction and maintenance contexts, but we currently lack a systematic framework from which we can design, manage and evolve these sensor systems. Without such a framework, we will end up with unmanageable, complex, chaotic environments from which very little sensemaking will be possible. This presentation will discuss some future directions for IT research and development that we might undertake to better support our non-office-based civil engineering activities. This paper first presents several scenarios that present possible ways in which information technology will help various types of field personnel effectively access and collect the information they need while moving about a dangerous and rugged construction site. The paper then discusses several issues that will need to be addressed by future research in order to move closer to these envisioned beneficial uses of information technology. Finally, the paper presents several recent research projects that begin to address some of these issues.