Mixed Reality Technology in Steel Construction and Education

Earn 1 PDH / 1 LU

How can we use innovative technology to augment the steel construction industry and educational outcomes for students? This presentation covers the results of a pilot study on the use of mixed reality for structural steel fabrication with the aim of spurring ideas and discussions of how the technology can be modified to benefit the cold-formed steel industry. Additionally, two extended reality teaching aids are presented. One teaching aid is a virtual reality tour of a metal building system where the presentation will focus on the cold-formed steel components of the tour. The second teaching aid is an augmented reality interactive module on bolted steel connections with the aim of demonstrating the capabilities to the audience for future development towards cold-formed steel extended reality teaching aids. At the end of the presentation, the audience will have a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of extended reality technology in the construction industry and how it might be beneficial to the cold-formed steel industry.

A new method to augment the structural steel fabrication process was developed through a custom mixed reality program using the HoloLens 2 headset. The overall aim is to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the structural steel industry by reducing costly errors of the fabricated parts. The tool assists the steel fabricator in indicating where and which fabrication operations need to be performed on the steel section using a model of the shop drawings and projecting that model and relevant information as holograms. Viewing the connection with 3D holograms in mixed reality is a significant improvement over 2D images and section cuts to help the technician view in advance what the assembled connection will look like and how all the elements are connected. Additionally, the custom program can be used for quality control purposes before shipping the finished parts to the construction site. It is envisioned this will reduce costly errors and can be widely implemented in various structural steel fabricator shops.The custom program can achieve a 1/16th inch accuracy between the physical steel and the hologram. The program allows the user to select a dimension specified in the design drawings on the overlaid hologram, as well as includes a step-by-step tutorial of a fabrication process. This indicates to the user which operations need to be completed to which part of the steel section and in what order. A user interface was developed to display all relevant information needed from the design files.

Furthermore, a means for easily recording information, including pictures and speech, was developed. A full list of developed features includes: Validate part manufacturing dimensions; Accurate digital overlay alignment; Dimension inquiry and measurements; IFC file integration, including weld location; Calibration/alignment update; View shop drawings; Table layout for quicker part validation; Place notes on model with voice to text and photo integration; On-device storage of models; Interact / pull-apart model; Step-by-step assembly guide prototype. The features are demonstrated during the presentation.

Hannah Blum
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hannah Blum is the Alain H. Peyrot Associate Professor in Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UW-Madison. Dr. Blum conducts research in the broad areas of Infrastructure Resilience, Next Generation Structural Design, and Advanced Visualization and Extended Reality in Structural Engineering. Her research portfolio encompasses both conventional structural engineering research and collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects. Blum receives funding from federal government sources, industry associations, and individual companies. Dr. Blum has a range of active research on metal structural systems including structural steel, cold-formed steel, and stainless-steel members, steel joist and deck systems, steel framing, metal buildings, and extended reality in structural steel fabrication.

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