Perspectives on a BIM-integrated software platform for robotic construction through Contour Crafting

Robotic construction through concrete 3D printing is an in-progress revolution in construction industry. While significant progress is made on hardware related challenges, software and information related issues of such innovative system are less discussed. In this paper, a software platform is proposed for data retrieval and analysis from BIM models and utilizing it efficiently during various stages of the process. While the general idea of using BIM for automated construction has been mentioned before, the implementation details (the focus of this paper) were not previously discussed. To this aim, a framework is proposed to integrate BIM into an automated construction system. A Planning and Operations Control Software for Automated Construction (POCSAC) is developed as a major enabler for a seamless integration of BIM and Contour Crafting. The interoperation between different components of the construction system and BIM platform are designed to maximize the realized benefits through synergy of the two technologies.