Toward Automated Spatial Change Analysis of MEP Components Using 3D Point Clouds and As-Designed BIM Models

The architectural, engineering, construction and facilities management (AEC-FM) industry is going through a transformative phase by adapting new technologies and tools into its change management practices. AEC-FM Industry has adopted Building Information Modeling (BIM) and three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning technologies in tracking changes in the whole lifecycle of building and infrastructure projects, from planning to design and construction, and finally to facilities management. One of the challenges of using these technologies in change management is the difficulties of reliably detecting changes of densely located objects, such as Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) objects in building systems. This paper presents a novel relational-graph-based framework for automated spatial change analysis of MEP components. This framework extract objects and spatial relationships from 3D laser scanned point clouds, and use relational structures of objects in data and designed BIM models for fusing 3D data and as-designed BIM. The authors validated the proposed change analysis approach using data acquired from real building construction sites.