BLSC – Construction Site Management Sim

Challenge

Create a series of 3D timeslices for the Master Builders Victoria building construction site management training simulator being installed at BLSC (Building Leadership Simulation Centre) in Melbourne, covering three main areas of training: residential rebuild, new build and commercial site. Improve onsite health & safety and operations by reducing the number of onsite incidents, costs and delays caused through error

Use Case

Following on from the successful deployment of the first UK building construction site management mixed reality training simulator, providing 10 timeslices based upon real-world locations in Birmingham (commercial) and Coventry (residential), the contextual content needed to be updated to reflect Australian building styles and regulations to ensure relevancy of the training provided

Hardware

Deployed via x3 Barco multi-channel 60 FPS NVidia Quadro G-Sync system with one agent PC controlling three projection operative PCs, running Presagis Vega Prime, to provide 3D timeslices displayed across 15m parabolic screen. Input provided via either wireless remote joystick or networked Android tablet application for entire system control.

Build

Originally intended to be developed from early 4D BIM data, 3D modelling ended up being carried out manually per asset required, over a period of 18 months, from architectural drawings of each floor and photos provided from the live site. The commercial site construction occurred in real time alongside the virtual 3D modelling, allowing for accurate representation and texturing to occur from real world imagery provided weekly.

For each of the low-rise residential locations, a 2x2km2 low-poly environment was created, with a high-detail central area containing relevant surround detail; the high-rise commercial timeslices required 4x4km2 surround to be modelled due to the end height of the skyscraper building being created and increased possible maximum view distance as a result. Installation occurred onsite at the Building Leadership Simulation Centre by our team of simulation deployment specialists.

Impact

Since opening in 2014, over 60,000 construction site managers and trainees have passed through the doors of BLSC annually.

Statistics tracked of trainees onsite working professionally have shown a 90% reduction in onsite safety incidents as a result of their training.

In 2018, the system was updated to incorporate the Unity engine, reducing operational costs considerably by not requiring expensive annual simulation software licences whilst improving ease of operation by only requiring one simulator PC system.