There is an increasing growth in the use of virtual models in the construction industry but this use is often limited to the design and tendering/bidding stage. Much more benefit can be derived from these models by extending their use to the construction and operations and maintenance phases of a facility’s lifecycle. A good way of achieving this involves real-time bi-directional coordination between virtual models and the physical construction. This will enable improvements in progress monitoring, construction process control, as-built documentation and sustainable building practices. To maintain bi-directional coordination, computational resources are required to tightly integrate the virtual models and the physical construction such that changes in one environment are automatically reflected in the other. This paper focuses on describing the role of bi-directional coordination in improving the construction project delivery process. A system architecture is presented, which illustrates the necessary technologies and sub-systems needed to facilitate the two way coordination. Future deployment scenarios are also presented to illustrate the potential benefits to the construction industry.
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