Table 1.

Overview of 11 digital technologies

Digital technologiesDefinition
1. BIMDigital representation of physical and functional aspects of a building or facility (e.g. Ashworth and Perera, 2018; Sacks et al., 2018; Gu and London, 2010; Woodhead et al., 2018; Tang et al., 2019)
2. Sensors/IoTDevice or plant that collects some form of signal or data. Sensors help us capture data from the physical world (e.g. Ashworth and Perera, 2018; Skibniewski, 2014), e.g. sensors for light, temperature, humidity, CO2, etc. IoT in AEC is often related to connected and or automated sensors (Chen et al., 2020; Woodhead et al., 2018; Tang et al., 2019)
3. Cloud computingCalculations, analyzes, etc. (not as storage) that are carried out in the cloud (Woodhead et al., 2018; Zhang and Issa, 2012)
4. VR, AR, MRVirtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) or Mixed Reality – various types of computer-generated interactive experiences that represent and visualize a real environment virtually (e.g. Getuli et al., 2020; Johansson et al., 2015; McMeel and Gonzalez, 2019; Lin et al., 2020; Zaher et al., 2018), e.g. head mounted displays
5. 3D scanningDevice that can read the shape of a three-dimensional object and save it as points/3 D coordinates (Guo et al., 2020; Skibniewski, 2014)
6. DronesComputer-controlled unmanned aircraft that can be used for various applications such as filming/photography/3 D scanning and other sensors (Albeaino et al., 2019; Zhou and Gheisari, 2018)
7. Robots and automationRobotization and automation means that manual, repetitive tasks are performed by a computer or machine instead of human (Adán et al., 2020; Bock and Linner, 2015; Skibniewski, 2014), e.g. brick-laying machine, automatic generated design and automated quality control
8. 3D printingMachine that produces three-dimensional material objects after drawings made in computer (Balasubramanian et al., 2017; Marchment and Sanjayan, 2020)
9. Self-driving vehiclesCars, buses or other vehicles that are controlled and driven automatically, by the vehicle sensing its surroundings and navigating without human input, e.g. self-driving cars, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, etc.
10. ML/AIMachine learning (ML) deals with methods for computers to “learn” from data without being programmed for that particular task. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a system of intelligent behavior that perceives its environment and takes action to achieve its set goal (e.g. Ashworth and Perera, 2018; Darko et al., 2020; Nath et al., 2020; Woodhead et al., 2018), e.g. automated monitored construction site safety and risk management; automated production planning; predict and monitor facility management data
11. Digital twinExact digital image of a particular machine/building/construction or a city in the form of software (Boje et al., 2020; Woodhead et al., 2018), e.g. virtual Singapore, a digital copy of a machine, building

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