Live semantic data from building digital twins for robot navigation: Overview of data transfer methods

Increasing reliance on automation and robotization presents great opportunities to improve the management of construction sites as well as existing buildings. Crucial in the use of robots in a built environment is their capacity to locate themselves and navigate as autonomously as possible. Robots often rely on planar and 3D laser scanners for that purpose, and building information models (BIM) are seldom used, for a number of reasons, namely their unreliability, unavailability, and mismatch with localization algorithms used in robots. However, while BIM models are becoming increasingly reliable and more commonly available in more standard data formats (JSON, XML, RDF), they become more promising and reliable resources for localization and indoor navigation, in particular in the more static types of existing infrastructure (existing buildings). In this article, we specifically investigate to what extent and how such building data can be used for such robot navigation. Data flows are built from BIM model to local repository and further to the robot, making use of graph data models (RDF) and JSON data formats. The local repository can hereby be considered to be a digital twin of the real-world building. Navigation on the basis of a BIM model is tested in a real world environment (university building) using a standard robot navigation technology stack. We conclude that it is possible to rely on BIM data and we outline different data flows from BIM model to digital twin and to robot. Future work can focus on (1) making building data models more reliable and standard (modelling guidelines and robot world model), (2) improving the ways in which building features in the digital building model can be recognized in 3D point clouds observed by the robots, and (3) investigating possibilities to update the BIM model based on robot feedback.

Automated summary

Increasing reliance on automation and robotization can improve the management of construction sites and existing buildings. Robots rely on laser scanners and rarely use building information models (BIM) due to their unreliability, unavailability, and mismatch with robot localization algorithms. However, as BIM models become more reliable and available in standard formats, they can be used for localization and navigation, particularly in existing buildings. This article explores the use of BIM data for robot navigation, demonstrating the possibility and outlining future work for improving building data models and recognition of building features in 3D point clouds.