Uwe Rüppel

Indoor Navigation Integration Platform for firefighting purposes

In Germany about eighteen fire fighters lose their lives and more than 16.000 accidents happen on duty every year. One of the main problems is the orientation in complex buildings during operations, especially if rooms are full of smoke. Route cards (printed on paper) to find fire detectors in buildings, are means, which often do not meet all requirements with regard to orientation and up-to-datedness. The aim of the presented research project “Context Sensitive Indoor-Emergency-Navigation-System for Complex Buildings” is to develop a solution for response and recovery to support rescuers in finding the shortest way within a complex building. Existing building models are exported and used for displaying plans on mobile devices and for routing purposes. The indoor navigation is based on Wireless LAN, Ultra-Wide-Band and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

Vernetzt-kooperative Planungsprozesse im Konstruktiven Ingenieurbau

In der Ingenieurplanung des Bauwesens sind die Bearbeitungsprozesse stark arbeitsteilig, die Bauprojektorganisation besteht aus ortlich verteilten Partnern mit teilweise konkurrierenden Zielstellungen und komplexen Abstimmungsprozessen. Die okonomischen Bedingungen spiegeln die scharfe Wettbewerbssituation wieder. Hinzu kommen hohe Qualitatsanspruche an Gebaude im Hinblick auf die technische Ausstattung und ressourcenschonende Ausfuhrungen. Die Rahmenbedingungen erfordern die Evolution traditioneller Prozessstrukturen und Kooperationsformen unter Einsatz innovativer Software-Methoden im Computernetz. Aufgrund der inzwischen gegebenen Verfugbarkeit vn leistungstarken Computer-Netzen ergeben sich viel versprechende Moglichkeiten fur die Neugestaltung der Kooperation in der Ingenieurplanung. Verfugbare Software-Infrastrukturen fur die Telekooperation bilden eine geeignete Basis. Essenzielle Anforderungen an ein Network-Computing in der Ingenieurplanung, insbesondere die netzwerkgerechte Strukturierung aller Teilprozesse mit Verarbeitung der gegenseitigen Abhangigkeitn und die transparente Darstellung der Konsequenzen von Planungsentscheidungen im Gesamtzusammenhang werden jedoch bisher nicht erfullt. Wirkliche Fortschritte sind deshalb erst zu erwarten, wenn die bisher stattfindende intuitive Partner-zu-Partner-Kommunikation um netzwerkfahige Kooperationsmodelle erganzt wird, die uber eine disziplinubergreifende Semantik verfugen, die Zeitdimension der Projektarbeit erfassen und Leitungs- und Lenkungsstrukturen der Projektbearbeitung abbilden. In den folgenden Ausfuhrungen werden die Grundlagen der Kooperation sowie innovative Software-Infrastrukturen zur vernetzt kooperativen Ingenieurplanung am Beispiel aktueller Forschungsprojekte vorgestellt. Die Ausfuhrungen werden abschliessend zusammengefasst, und ein Ausblick auf das aktuelle DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm der Bauinformatik zur vernetzt kooperativen Ingenieurplanung wird gegeben. Das Programm hat zum Ziel, die Planungsprozesse des konstuktiven Ingenieurbaus fur die Nutzung verteilter Ressourcen zu gestalten, geeignete Kooperationsmodelle fur die Fachplanung im Informationsverbund der Projektbeteiligten zu entwickeln und die kooperative Projektbearbeitung unter Nutzung verteilter Fachmodelle in Netzen zu ermoglichen.

Investigating Human Factors in Fire Evacuation: A Serious-Gaming Approach

Applying a performance-based approach to fire protection design emphasizes the safe performance of a building as a whole rather than meeting detailed code requirements. To this effect, fire safety engineers make use of computer models and simulations to describe the expected spread of fire and smoke, and the safety evacuation. Since the protection of human life is the primary aim of the performance-based approach, predicting the behavior of people in danger is an essential purpose of such modeling. Particularly, the relevant human factors (individual decisions and parameters to describe human behavior) have to be taken into account. There is some controversy in the Fire Safety Engineering community on how to model human behavior, because appropriate methods for data collection and validation are not available. The aim of the present research is thus to achieve a better understanding of what actually happens during an extreme situation and how people come to decisions by using a serious gaming approach. The research hypothesis to be examined is: Can human evacuation behavior be explored using a computer game?

Visualization of a Fire Risk Index Method with Combined Deferred Maintenance Cost Estimation within a BIM Environment

The goal of fire protection activities are to prevent fires, rescuing people and ensuring the effectiveness of firefighting. To achieve these goals for complex buildings, holistic fire protection concepts are developed which should take into account the special characteristics of each building. To ensure fire safety during the building lifecycle a maintenance strategy is required. This includes recurring site inspections by experts, especially when a building needs to be refurbished or in the context of a technical due diligence during real estate transactions. If a malfunction of a fire safety element is detected in the context of these inspections, this is called a fire protection deficiency. These deficiencies decrease the fire safety rating of the building, increase the risk level and results in deferred maintenance costs. For the analysis of the fire risk level and for risk comparisons between buildings and fire protection concepts different techniques and approaches are available, that are summarized under the term risk methods. A problem during this process is, that findings and results from risk assessments are difficult to bring together with the real building. Information of the influence of individual fire safety deficiencies (technical, structural fire protection elements/components) on the risk level of the whole building and the associated repair and replacement costs are not directly related. This relationship must be associated in the experts mind based on different documents. To overcome these limitations and to support the planning of deferred maintenance tasks the goal of the presented approach is to visualize all required information within a BIM environment.

IoT - An Opportunity for Autonomous BIM Reconstruction?

While the concepts and technologies of Building Information Modeling (BIM) are on their way to become an industry standard, there is an increasing demand for the digitalization of the existing building stock. Based on our previous work on this subject we present a framework for autonomous BIM reconstruction using an IoT-based approach. We show that it is possible to integrated depth sensing technologies with common devices that move regularly throughout a building. By autonomously conducting several scans of the same region it is possible to enhance the quality of the reconstructed model while reducing the human workload. The use of (semi-)autonomous devices however comes with a trade-off and in this study could not achieve results equal to human-made scans.

Collaborative Immersive Planning and Training Scenarios in VR

Virtual reality is a promising technology to create fully immersive exercises in various fields such as civil safety engineering, security, teaching or facility management, designed as serious games for engineering purposes. Based on previous research and cooperation with industry partners and public institutions a concept for a collaborative virtual environment for multiple organizations with different hardware systems was devised. The approach focused on the integration of 1st person virtual reality together with the corresponding interactions as well as a roles and rights management for all participants involved. Additionally, the setup allows for traditional desktop solutions to be included and enables users to build a dynamic and ever-changing training scenario based on an interactive planning phase. The concept was implemented and tested within a specific civil safety scenario using modern head-mounted displays as well as controllers and object tracking capabilities. This paper outlines the necessary steps in order to achieve such a collaborative virtual environment including various responsibilities for different roles and hierarchy levels and examines its potential. Together with the use of different hardware systems the described approach results in a flexible concept for planning and training applications in order to create dynamic, individual scenarios that facilitate the effectiveness of learning.

Real-time collaborative reconstruction of digital building models with mobile devices

Abstract Many software-based building processes require digital building models. Since the building stock does not have sufficient data in this regard, the demand for Scan-to-BIM processes is increasing. In this paper we present a system for the reconstruction of ‘as-built’ BIM content of house interiors based on the Google Tango technology. The strength of our approach is the use of low-cost mobile scanning devices and a client-server system that allows for a real-time collaborative scanning and reconstruction of indoor scenes. We developed a server application that continuously aggregates scan data of multiple scanning devices (clients) and applies the data stream to a real-time post-processing pipeline to reconstruct rooms, walls, doors and windows. The reconstruction result is then distributed to all clients, where it is visualized in real time. The collaborative workflow and real-time data processing make our system especially useful in situations that are time-critical and require concurrent collection and processing of data. One of our targeted use cases therefore is the model generation for crime scene documentation. The effectiveness of our approach was demonstrated on three test sites. Our results compare well to other state-of-art methods regarding the reconstruction of walls, but they also revealed potential for improvement regarding the detection of doors and windows in occluded and cluttered environments.

BIM und Sensorik im Brandschutz

Im Brandschutz ist die schnellstmogliche Rettung von Menschen durch die Einsatzkrafte ein primares Ziel. In komplexen Gebauden – insbesondere bei beeintrachtigten Sichtverhaltnissen durch Rauch – ist die Bestimmung der Position der Einsatzkraft und die Wegfindung zu den zu rettenden Personen sowie das schnelle Verlassen des Gebaudes zeitkritisch. Um diesen Prozess zu unterstutzen, sind Methoden zur Ortung und Wegberechnung (Navigation) in Gebauden erforderlich (indoor). Die Navigationsmethoden, die auserhalb von Gebauden verwendet werden, sind indoor nicht geeignet. Fur den Aufbau einer Indoor-Funk-Infrastruktur zur Ortung und Wegberechnung bietet die Radio-Frequency-Identification (RFID) Sensortechnologie in Kombination mit BIM eine hervorragende Ausgangsbasis. Fur den Bereich der Wegfindung konnen Wegegraphen (auch Routingnetze genannt) auf Grundlage des BIM berechnet werden. Dafur sind Informationen uber die Topologie und Topografie des Gebaudes mit zusatzlicher Semantik uber begehbare Wege (z. B. Flure, Treppen, Turen) erforderlich. Diese Informationen sind in BIM grundsatzlich vorhanden und konnen fur diesen Anwendungsfall – angereichert um die Positionen der im Gebaude verteilten RFID-Sensoren – effizient weiterverwendet werden. Die neuen Methoden zur BIM-basierten Ortung und Wegberechnung mit RFID-Sensoren in Gebauden fur den Anwendungsfall Brandschutz werden in diesem Beitrag vorgestellt.

Agentenbasierter Modellverbund für die kooperative Gebäudeplanung

Im Rahmen dieses Projekts wurde ein agentenbasierter Modellverbund fur die kooperative Gebaudeplanung entwickelt. Hierbei werden die ortlich verteilten Teilproduktmodelle der verschiedenen Planungsdomanen unter Nutzung von Softwareagenten zu dem Modellverbund verknupft. Der Fachplaner erhalt damit die Moflichkeit, seine Planungen modellbasiert durchzufuhren und zusatzlich auf Teilproduktmodelle anderer Fachdomanen zuzugreifen.

Prozessorientierte Vernetzung von Ingenieurplanungen am Beispiel der Geotechnik

Im Rahmen der Fachplanung von Projekten im Bauwesen ist ein hohes Mas an Kooperation zwischen den Planungsbeteiligten notwendig. Dies resultiert aus der fall- und projektbezogenen Arbeitsteilung zwischen den Planern, wobei der einzelne Fachplaner oft nicht in der Lage ist, die Auswirkung seiner Planungsent-scheidungen in den Kontext der Gesamtplanung einordnen zu konnen, da ihm der vollstandige Uberblick uber die Zusammenhange der Planungsprozesse fehlt.