Modeling construction equipment in 4D simulation

Construction equipment constitutes an important portion of the resources used on construction sites. Every year, many construction workers lose their lives at work due to being struck by equipment or caught between objects. In the construction planning phase, equipment movements and workers' performance can be simulated in a 4D model with a high Level of Detail (LOD) to analyze the safety, productivity, and constructability of the construction project. This type of high 4D-LOD modeling requires a very detailed schedule, which can capture micro-tasks (e.g. the swing movement of the boom of a crane). Although many research works discussed the possibility of improving the safety of construction sites using sensors and analyzing the equipment workspaces, these works cannot be linked with available 4D Building Information Model (BIM) tools, which cannot easily represent equipment movement. The objective of this paper is to compare the available commercial and research platforms in terms of visualizing, animating, and simulating equipment movements, and to identify the potential improvements.