3D concept creation of permanent geodetic monitoring installations and the a priori assessment of systematic effects using Virtual Reality

Abstract Logistic processes of construction sites are transferred into virtual and full 3D environments to increase the interoperability for all project partners. These digital twins are emerging for the construction process of modern building processes and are already designed to be used for the operation of the building afterwards. In structural health monitoring (SHM) the sensor installations are also designed to monitor the structure over its whole lifespan. Therefore, the embedding process and the operation of the sensor systems and the Building Information Modelling (BIM) have overlapping long-term goals. Beside these 3D software advances in civil engineering, the working environments in the field of geodesy still follow more established approaches. In many cases using only 2D CAD plans and on-site visits at the existing structure are best practice for the design of geodetic monitoring installations. This paper describes the improvement of the concept creation of permanent monitoring systems with geodetic total stations in an interactive virtual 3D environment. The simulated instruments are behaving according to their specification data and are linked with a physics engine to automatically detect common problems in a network design like obstructed line of sights, disadvantageous incidence angles at the targets or automatic aiming issues due to multiple targets in the field of view. Furthermore, the Virtual Reality (VR) technology is introduced as a user interface for a virtual 3D planning environment. The functionality of the developed VR application is tested in a real-life use case for the feasibility study of the automatic monitoring of a railway tunnel.