A review of building information modeling (BIM) and the internet of things (IoT) devices integration: Present status and future trends

The integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) with real-time data from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices presents a powerful paradigm for applications to improve construction and operational efficiencies. Connecting real-time data streams from the rapidly expanding set of IoT sensor networks to the high-fidelity BIM models provides numerous applications. However, BIM and IoT integration research are still in nascent stages, there is a need to understand the current situation of BIM and IoT device integration. This paper conducts a comprehensive review with the intent to identify common emerging areas of application and common design patterns in the approach to tackling BIM-IoT device integration along with an examination of current limitations and predictions of future research directions. Altogether, 97 papers from 14 AEC related journals and databases in other industry over the last decade were reviewed. Several prevalent domains of application namely Construction Operation and Monitoring, Health & Safety Management, Construction Logistic & Management, and Facility Management were identified. The authors summarized 5 integration methods with description, examples, and discussion. These integration methods are utilizing BIM tools’ APIs and relational database, transform BIM data into a relational database using new data schema, create new query language, using semantic web technologies and hybrid approach. Based on the observed limitations, prominent future research directions are suggested, focusing on service-oriented architecture (SOA) patterns and web services-based strategies for BIM and IoT integration, establishing information integration & management standards, solving interoperability issue, and cloud computing.