Emergency Construction for COVID19: A Voice-Activated BIM System for Boosting Productivity for On-Site ASSEMBLAGE and DISASSEMBLY

BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM STATEMENT: According to WHO (2020), the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that has recorded more than 40million cases, resulting in more than 1.13million deaths. Although more than 28million people have recovered, evidence suggests that there may be a possibility of relapse or reinfection (Independent, 2020). As UK activities resumes back to normal, there is an imperative need for plethora of sectors, particularly the construction industry to Build-Back-Better from COVID-19 by significantly improving Health & Safety and Productivity which have bedevilled the industry (Ajayi et al., 2019). According to PBC Today (2019), Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been unanimously agreed to being central to boosting productivity for on-site assemblage and disassembly. However, evidence suggests that to further improve on-site construction productivity through BIM, its usability needs to be modernised (Goucher and Thurairajah, 2012). At present, BIM provides Conventional Web and Mobile interfaces for interactions that require tremendous time and efforts to master their usage. In this trying time where time is of the essence and workers are fearful about their susceptibility to COVID-19, the last thing on-site assemblage and disassembly workers need is to spend needless time searching BIM models while performing their routine tasks. It is on this premise that Clytell (UK) Limited has spent the last 14 months developing a VOICE-Activated BIM system for boosting productivity for on-site assemblage and disassembly (VOICE-BIM). THE INTERVENTION OF VOICE-BIM AND ITS BENEFIT: In light of this COVID-19 pandemic, VOICE-BIM will significantly improve productivity by enabling users to quickly interact with BIM Models using their voice. This will aid on-site assemblage and disassembly. Also, VOICE-BIM will potentially reduce the spread of COVID-19 amongst on-site workers as the amount of time they touch on-site hardware to access BIM tools will be significantly reduced.