State of Advances in Reality Capture for Construction Progress Monitoring and Documentation

Construction documentation is necessary on every project. Information captured must be accurate, timely and actionable. With several technologies and techniques available, the aim of this study is to determine the current state of the industry on this topic. The objectives of this study are to investigate the status of construction documentation, understand different technologies efficiency and practicality for their deployment to monitor construction progress. A mixed methods approach used a survey and interview instrument to distribute to professionals within the construction industry. Data from surveys was analyzed and later validated with thematic analysis of interview data. Main findings include that a single documentation technique or technology is not available to fit all scenarios and solve all documentation problems. Most of the documentation is done on the job site by project team members that are there, including superintendents and project managers. Still imagery and video are being captured daily on almost every job site. It takes more technically trained professionals to deploy more advanced technologies like laser scanning and drones. The primary decision for when a technology is deployed is determined by the type of data to be collected or the problem to solved. Within each of these groups, the decision is made based on four key issues including cost, speed, data value, and training required.