FIATECH is an industry consortium that provides global leadership in identifying and accelerating the development, demonstration and deployment of fully integrated and automated technologies to deliver the highest business value throughout the life cycle of all types of capital projects.
Presented by Vineet R. Kamat, Ph.D., University of Michigan
**Recipient of the 2009 CETI Award in Outstanding Early Career Researcher
Visualization of 3D graphical information for design (e.g. architectural rendering) or construction planning (e.g. 4D CAD) has traditionally been achieved on the computer using the Virtual Reality (VR) visualization paradigm. In order to create effective and useful visualizations in VR, detailed graphical information describing a facility’s design, the involved construction operations, and the jobsite environment has to be obtained. The data must describe the design and simulated engineering/construction processes, and contain 3D CAD models of project resources, the facility under construction, and the surrounding terrain. As the size and complexity of a project or operation increase, the creation, collection and maintenance of such graphical data (i.e. Model Engineering) becomes an arduous, impractical, and often impossible task. This directly translates into loss of financial and human resources that could otherwise be productively used in creating effective visual simulations.
In an effort to remedy this situation, Prof. Kamat’s research program has designed and implemented the technology that enables the visualization of engineering graphics in geo-referenced Augmented Reality, by creating mixed views of real objects/artifacts existing on a jobsite, and virtual 3D CAD models of engineering data. Augmented Reality (AR) is the superimposition of computer-generated images over a user’s view of the real world. By presenting contextual information in graphical format, a user’s view of the real world is enhanced or augmented beyond the normal experience. The addition of such contextual computer-generated information spatially located (i.e. geo-referenced) relative to a user can assist in the performance of several engineering and construction tasks. Prof. Kamat’s research exploits this primary idea for improved engineering visualization.
2009 Schedule 
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