Agent-Based Simulation Modeling for Construction Processes-A step toward Digital Twins

The construction industry is progressing toward digital twins in planning, design and operations through various digitalized tools and techniques. Digital twins could help improve the productivity of construction processes. Previous studies have presented digital twins on a conceptual level, but examples of data fusion are still scarce. This study aims to take initial steps toward such a digital twin concept using agent-based modelling and simulation. An agent-based model (ABM) was developed to simulate the real-time progress data from a construction site. Various data sources, i.e. Indoor positioning system (IPS), 360-degree camera videos and construction schedules were used to monitor the progress of the task. The ABM focused on the integration of IPS data directly into the model and simulating movement of the worker to reduce wasted effort and enhance productivity. It was concluded that the automatic updating of the data and the adding more data streams to the model can help in achieving a digitized process, which can be the foundation for the digital twin for construction processes.