Virtual Reality for SMART Facilities Management

Digital technologies and solutions have been proven by many researchers to be beneficial in the construction industry in terms of cost, time and quality. The proposed research project would like to venture into similar approaches but to focus specifically on the facilities management industry. The facilities management industry in Malaysia particularly is progressing very slowly and yet to take up and adapt to changes especially in terms of digitalization. Hence, it is significant for the project to be carried out to enhance the adaptation by demonstrating the actual benefits that could be gained by means of the digitalization. Instead of theoretical proof, the project provides an actual demonstration that could be adopted by the facilities managers in improving their current conventional practices and helps facilities managers to make informed decisions, produced better services and improved productivity for the facilities team.

The aim of the research project is to apply virtual reality for SMART facilities management to enhance visualization of facilities and assets via virtual simulations. The research target is to explore the implementation of a virtual environment that represents actual physical space to enable interaction between the facilities and facilities management team. It will exploit and experiment with the accuracy of measurement of the digital modeling and provide a platform for the facilities management team to plan, design and use space effectively. The research also will explore the possible impact of the VR environment from safety and health point of view.