According to Sonetic Corporation, the main trends for 2018 in construction engineering include cloud computing, data, mobile apps, virtual reality design, holographic headsets, thermal imaging, construction exoskeletons, engineering living materials, autonomous equipment and the Internet of things.
Last year’s list included remote surveillance, drones, wearables, building information modeling (BIM), unified communication, 3D printing, digital documentation, vehicle-mounted cameras, mobile field services software and business intelligence.
Virtual Reality & Mixed Reality in Construction Engineering
Virtual reality includes VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). According to Microsoft “mixed reality with Microsoft HoloLens” blends 3D holographic content into your physical world, giving your holograms real-world context and scale. Interact with both digital content and the world around you as you explore 3D in 3D.”
According to Autodesk client communications are being revolutionized, leading to improved construction-site performance. Autodesk and similar software combine complex data with visualizations to help engineers and designers make better products. VR, AR & MR are “immersive technologies” that allow engineers, architects, and designers to better understand construction engineering challenges.
The overarching goal in engineering construction these days is to reduce construction costs and create buildings that are highly efficient. Whether building bridges, skyscrapers or municipal buildings Autodesk software allows all key personnel to brainstorm using mental images as reference points. Teams become much more powerful when they are able to share these types of ideas in real time.
The following video shows how augmented reality helps construction projects finish on time.
