2021 IEEE International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Mechatronics Technology (ICEEMT 2021)
Research on the Path Planning of the Construction
2021 IEEE International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Mechatronics Technology (ICEEMT) | 978-1-6654-4128-5/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICEEMT52412.2021.9601494
Robot Based on BIM
Fenghao Zhu
Tianjin Key Laboratory for Advanced Mechatronic System Design
and Intelligent Control
National Demonstration Center for Experimental Mechanical and
Electrical Engineering Education
School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of
Technology
Tianjin, China
zhu1183461960@163.com
Abstract—Aiming at the problem of the optimal global path
planning of the construction robot entering the target point of the
construction site and the efficient construction of the navigation
map, a BIM(Building information modeling)-based construction
robot job planning method is proposed. The traditional method of
building a map environment for construction robots is obtained by
its own sensors, which has a large amount of calculation. Firstly,
the real construction environment is established through the BIM
model, which effectively improves the efficiency of generating
navigation map . Secondly, adding goal-directed functions to the
RRT algorithm, combined with the target bias expansion
algorithm based on the idea of artificial potential fields to further
accelerate the search efficiency. Finally, the pruning algorithm is
used to reduce the redundant points, which shortens the running
time of the algorithm and the simulation time of the robot. The
improved RRT algorithm before and after was compared and
simulated in the construction environment of BIM in V-rep. The
experimental results demonstrate a reduction of more than 50%
in the final path simulation time for the improved RRT algorithm.
Keywords-optimal global path; BIM; goal-oriented; RRT;
artificial potential fields
I. INTRODUCTION
Building information modeling (BIM) provides efficient
communication and information management for the whole
process management of construction projects. Its application to
information management and communication technology in the
construction industry and work coordination in construction
engineering has become more widespread in recent years. The
BIM model is highly refined and rich in semantic information,
while supporting the informatization inheritance and sharing of
the entire life cycle of construction projects. As researchers and
suppliers continue to develop BIM technology, it has become
more diverse and is gradually gaining acceptance in the
construction industry [1]. It has been documented that the
application of BIM technology to construction projects can
reduce change budgets by up to 40%, and the construction
period and operating costs are also reduced to a certain extent.
In particular, greenhouse gas emissions have been significantly
improved [2-4]. Xu et al. [5] combined BIM with urban rail
transit and verified them through theory and practice
respectively, demonstrating the efficiency and feasibility of this
method. Shi et al. [6] apply BIM technology to the organisation
978-1-6654-4128-5/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
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Zhenzhong Liu*
Tianjin Key Laboratory for Advanced Mechatronic System Design
and Intelligent Control
National Demonstration Center for Experimental Mechanical and
Electrical Engineering Education
School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of
Technology
Tianjin, China
zliu@email.tjut.edu.cn
of train operations and passenger management, and conducted
research on it.
Path planning is an important and dominant factor in mobile
robot navigation problems [7]. The global path planning
algorithm are simple, which can search an optimal or nearly
optimal collision-free path according to the environmental map,
A* [8], D*, grid method, topology method [9] and RRT
algorithm [10-11] are commonly used global path planning
algorithms. Among the global path planning algorithms, RRT
has unique advantages: 1) it has extensive and flexible search
ability, and can be applied to path planning in complex scenes;
2) the random tree has wide expansion range, high speed and
high search efficiency; 3) it can be applied to path planning in
high-dimensional environment. However, the randomness of
the RRT algorithm leads to low search efficiency.
Based on the above discussion, given the computational
complexity of robots using sensors to acquire navigation maps
in known construction environments and the low efficiency of
RRT algorithm in path planning, the path planning framework
system which combines the improved RRT algorithm with BIM
effectively improves the work efficiency. This article
introduces a BIM-based research on construction robot
operation planning. First of all, the BIM model is created
through Revit and used to simulate the real construction
environment. Secondly, the combination of goal-oriented
functions, target bias extension based on the idea of artificial
potential fields and the RRT algorithm guarantees path
optimality. Use pruning algorithms to reduce redundant points
on the final path, and the efficiency of the simulation is
guaranteed by reducing the turning points. At last, the
simulation is performed in V-rep. The technical route provides
strong technical support to improve the efficiency of building
construction operations and maintenance management.
II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
At present, the traditional method of building a map for
navigation by construction robots is mainly to obtain the
surrounding environment through its own sensors. Because the
environmental information is collected through the sensor,
which lead to a large amount of data calculation, and for the
construction robot size, construction speed is slow and other
characteristics, it takes a lot of time and effort. To ensure
efficient path generation by construction robots , the RRT
algorithm is improved by adding a search mechanism for the
RRT algorithm towards the target and improving the search
efficiency, and by optimising the search path. The feasibility of
this research method is verified by building a BIM construction
environment in V-rep for simulation. The technical route is
shown in Fig. 1.
Fig.1 Technical route framework
A. BIM Model Establishment
The establishment of an informationized three-dimensional
model through BIM technology, which integrates a large
amount of construction engineering information, provides a
reliable basis for the planning of construction projects,
construction and operation routes and other stages. Use Revit
software to establish a BIM model, as shown in Fig. 2, the BIM
model established in accordance with the north side of the sixth
floor of our mechanical college.
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Fig.2 Building model of teaching building
B. RRT Algorithm Based on Target Constrained Sampling
The RRT algorithm is an efficient path generation method
developed in recent years for application to complex scenes. Its
principle is to define the starting point as the initial growth point
of a random tree, which grows quickly into a random tree by
randomly growing and adding valid growth points. When the
valid growth points of the random tree contain the target point
or are at a safe distance from the target point, a path from the
start point to the end point is eventually generated. The
traditional RRT algorithm is shown in the following pseudo
code:
RRT algoriothm
T.init
for i = 1 to n
qrand = get_random_node()
qnearest = get_nearest_node(qrand, T)
qnew = steer(qrand, qnearest , StepSize)
if check_collision(qnew, Obstacle) then
T.add(qnew)
if qnew = qgoal then
return ture
The randomness of sampling in the traditional RRT
algorithm eventually reduces the target-orientation [12], which
leads to the problem of blind search and results in reduced
efficiency when searching. To speed up the random tree search
and improve the target-orientation of sampling, the random tree
decides whether the qrand is a random sampling point or a target
point by random probability in each random growth. First, a
parameter pbias is set as the target bias probability, which is set
to 0.35 in this paper, by the to a random value p from 0 to 1.0,
when 0<p<pbias, the sampling point is the target point; when
pbias<p<1.0, the sampling point is a random point and the
random tree grows in a random direction. The target constraint
sampling formula is as follows
𝑞 𝑝 𝑝
𝑞 (1)
𝑇 𝑝 𝑝
where T is the random point generating function.
C. Target Bias Extension Based on the Idea of Artificial
Potential Fields
The core idea of this improved algorithm is to attract the
object to the target point by the combined force of the
gravitational force generated by the target point and the
repulsive force generated by the obstacle, so as to guide the
growth node to expand and grow to the end point. The locus of
the new node qnew is no longer determined by the sampled node
qrand, but by both the sampled node qrand and the target node qgoal,
its pose is no longer determined solely by the step length t, but
by assigning two weights determined jointly by the step size t
and the gravitational coefficient r. The improved formula for
producing new nodes is
q .x q .x t cos α r cos β
q .y q .y t sin α r sin β
where qnew.x is the horizontal coordinate of the new node, qnew.y
is the vertical coordinate of the new node; qnear.x is the
horizontal coordinate of the nearest node, qnear.y is the vertical
coordinate of the nearest node; α it is the connection from the
nearest node to the random sampled node the angle with the x-
axis; β is the angle between the line from the nearest node to the
end point and the x-axis; t is the step length, which is taken as
10 in this paper; r is the gravitational coefficient based on the
artificial potential field. After many experiments, it is known
that the path is optimal when r=1.6. The new node generation
based on the artificial potential field's target bias expansion is
shown in Fig. 3, where x and y are both positive.
Fig.3 Diagram of target bias extension
D. RRT Pathway Pruning
Because of the randomness of RRT sampling, the obtained
path has many redundant nodes, which increases the length of
the path. In order to eliminate unnecessary redundant points in
the path, a smoother driving route is obtained through the
pruning algorithm to avoid unnecessary inflection points.
The general process of the path pruning algorithm is as
follows: connect the current growing node to the next feasible
node as a straight line, determine whether this line is too close
to the obstacle, if too close then abandon the connection,
otherwise continue the connection and determine the farthest
feasible point. Eventually, update the current point with the
farthest feasible point. The random tree growth nodes planned
by the RRT algorithm before and after the improvement are
shown in Fig. 4 respectively.
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(a)
(2)
(3)
(b)
Fig.4 Comparison of path points before and after improvement of RRT
algorithm (a) Traditional RRT algorithm (b) Improved RRT algorithm
III. EXPERIMENTS
To verify the accuracy of trajectory planning of construction
robot based on BIM model, the simulation platform and
configuration: V-rep edu version, 64-bit Windows 10 system,
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700 processor, CPU frequency of
3.0GHz and memory of 16 G.
The virtual robot experimental platform (V-REP) is a robot
3D integrated development environment which integrates
various physical engines, and can simulate the real physical
environment, the combination of V-REP and Pycharm
simulation can not only utilize powerful computing power, but
also make 3D graphics vividly displayed in V-REP, which is an
ideal simulation tool for mobile robot path planning.
At first, create BIM models based on construction sites
using the modelling software Revit. Import the BIM model into
V-REP scene. Then, Pycharm and V-REP interaction are
realized by using V-REP Python Remote API. A planar image
of the building is acquired and the acquired image is binarised
and edge extracted using the cv2 function library. Finally, a
simple two-wheel differential drive construction robot mobile
platform is created in V-rep to verify the accuracy of the
improved RRT algorithm trajectory planning. Its initial point is
(1.6420,0.8800,0.0275), and its end point is (-
0.6658,1.4916,0.0276). In the improved RRT algorithm,
according to formula (2), (3) take the value multiple times, as
shown in Fig. 5, when r=1.6, the number of iterations is the least.
The final planning path is shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7.
As shown in Table 1: Comparing the RRT algorithm before
and after the improvement, the improved RRT algorithm
reduces the path planning time by 23.6%, the overall simulation
time is shortened by 56.3%, and the number of iterations has
been reduced by 28.3%. The path is relatively smoother due to
the path pruning algorithm eliminating unnecessary redundant
points in the path. Both algorithms can plan effective and
feasible paths, but the improved algorithm has a shorter
planning time and better paths.
576
 the random point selection strategy of the RRT algorithm,
combined with the target bias expansion algorithm based on the
idea of artificial potential field, and uses the pruning algorithm
to delete redundant points in the path to increase the smoothness
of the path. Simulation in V-rep resulted in a reduction of more
than 50% in the time taken by the construction robot to travel
the path. The experimental results prove the accuracy and
efficiency of the construction robot construction route. The
establishment of the navigation map in this article is mainly
based on the BIM model, so in the future, we need to further
study the BIM model IFC information extraction, model
material and other issues.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig.5 The number of iterations corresponding to different gravitational This research is supported by The Joint Funds of the
coefficients r National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No.U1813222).
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RRT 7 137
seconds seconds
algorithm

IV. CONCLUSION
In the complex 3D modeling of the construction site,
considering that the construction robot uses its own sensor data
to establish a map for navigation, the calculation amount is
large. This paper introduces the BIM model to establish the
construction environment map to ensure the efficiency of
establishing the construction site navigation map, and optimises

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