BIM-based augmented reality inspection and maintenance of fire safety equipment

Abstract The purpose of fire safety equipment (FSE) inspection and maintenance is to ensure that this equipment is in good working condition during emergencies, so that fire damage could be kept to a minimum. At present, the maintenance and inspection of FSE must be performed according to the standards and methods specified by fire safety regulations, which makes it necessary to consult relevant files and drawings. However, the reading of maintenance and inspection information can be a very time-consuming endeavor as the majority of these files are in paper. To solve the aforementioned issues, building information modeling (BIM) was used in this study to construct the FSE elements so that the required information could be rapidly acquired by FSE inspectors. A cloud database for equipment inspection and maintenance was then generated by organizing the compiled information. This database was combined with the augmented reality (AR) technology to facilitate FSE inspection and maintenance using mobile devices, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by paper files on these tasks. The results of the demonstration and validation shown that the proposed BIM AR FSE system provides highly comprehensive, mobile, and effective access to FSE information. The combination of information and real-life objects via AR effectively facilitated the presentation of information in an immediate, visual, and convenient manner.