Press releases

The software company Open Experience, based in Karlsruhe, is known for their extensive range of software solutions for mobile construction documentation with which they have already supported a large customer base in digitizing their building construction. As the next step, Open Experience is revolutionising the digital construction documentation space with their self-developed product DIGIBAU, a helmet attachment used for capturing 360° images. Following the first successful deployments on large construction sites, DIGIBAU has its customers excited. Given its many positive reviews, the company is pleased to have achieved a milestone in 360° construction documentation. The helmet attachment DIGIBAU does not only stand out because of its bright orange appearance, but also because of its simple design which does not compromise on any technical features. The products weight has been minimised to make it hardly noticeable when wearing on the helmet. The innovative product has two camera modules with wide-angle lenses to capture 360° images, 6 power LEDs for lighting and a powerful processor integrated in its compact design. The cabling for the attachment runs down the back to a replaceable battery module worn on the belt. This makes it non-disruptive and provides high mobility to the user. DIGIBAU is controlled via the DIGIBAU app designed by the professional software developers at Open Experience, which allows for images to be taken at predefined locations in the construction plan. Capturing 360° images to document the construction progress has never been this easy, it requires no technical know-how and can be done at anytime and anywhere, even offline. A major advantage of DIGIBAU is the virtual tour of the construction site through the 3D representation of the images. It is also possible to travel through time with the complete history of captures of a location. Furthermore, DIGIBAU supports a complete construction plan overview in which the captured images are displayed and new 360° images can be taken. Open Experience benefits from the perfect integration of its own services Construction defects and Construction photos. With the product DIGIBAU the company based in Karlsruhe has proactively responded to the digital transformation and has achieved a milestone towards complete 360° construction documentation. Open Experience has always been innovation-driven and has set as its goal the complete digital control of construction sites – with DIGIBAU, it is one step closer to its goal.

The ESKIMO research project is in the implementation phase. The innovative concepts for the construction site of tomorrow are now becoming reality. And there are challenges waiting around every corner. Little review: Since April 2020, the ten partners of the ESKIMO project have been working on the three planned project pilots with their respective basic technologies. The Open Experience team deals with the automated support of technical quality assurance. The Munich project space-Manufacturer PMG is leading the work on the pilot as part of the project-Module for commercial quality assurance. The German-French IT-Advice Actimage developed together with the construction logistics-Experts from Frankfurt Economics developed an innovative prototype for the automatic support of construction logistics-planners. Now the crucial phase has begun: The first results of the basic technology modules are available, now the project pilots based on them can be implemented. The basic modules of the project were developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT), Fraunhofer IOSB and the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. The KIT provides a module for image recognition that is intended to recognize different situations on the construction site. Because for the successful training of complex image recognition methods, a sufficiently large training- and amount of test data is required, the active support of the application partners of the project, the construction company Karl Gemünden GmbH & Co. KG and Ed. Züblin AG, a crucial role. They have created a large image database with annotated images, which provides the basis for the image recognition algorithms. The scientists from Fraunhofer IOSB and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences are working on the topic of real-time position detection. The IOSB is particularly concerned with a module for the topological comparison of BIM-model and reality. Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences is working on real-time-Position determination using sensor technology to optimize construction processes. Since the last project update in March, both research partners have been able to complete the first prototypes of their work, which are already delivering promising results. In the coming months, the partners of the ESKIMO project will try to merge the developed modules into the three project pilots. After that, the first tests should be carried out on the construction site and with real data. So it remains exciting!

From the Federal Ministry of Education and Research(BMBF) The funded research project ESKIMO has been working on the question of how the construction site of tomorrow can be supported with artificial intelligence for almost a year. Time for a mid-term review! In April 2020, the ESKIMO project was officially kicked off-started off. Three project pilots are being developed as part of ESKIMO. The Open Experience team deals with the automated support of technical quality assurance. The Munich project space-Manufacturer PMG is leading the work on the pilot as part of the project-Module for commercial quality assurance. The German-French IT-Advice Actimage developed together with the construction logistics-Experts from Frankfurt Economics developed an innovative prototype for the automatic support of construction logistics-planners. Within the last few months, detailed concepts for the implementation of the planned scenarios have been developed and the first proof-of-Concept-implementations developed. A central part of all project pilots are image recognition algorithms, which were developed with the support of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT) to be implemented. A sufficiently large training is important for the successful training of complex image recognition methods such as ANNs- and test data set. This crucial input comes from the application partners of the project, the construction company Karl Gemünden GmbH & Co. KG and Ed. Zueblin AG. In the meantime, more than 200,000 images have already been taken. The Gemünden construction company alone, for example, provided over 100,000 images, sorted and tagged thousands of images and created around 55,000 labels. The first results of the image recognition algorithms, which have been trained on the basis of this data, are already showing promising results. Equally central for the ESKIMO-Developments are the modules for real-time position detection developed by scientists from Fraunhofer IOSB and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. The IOSB is working on a module for the topological comparison of BIM-model and reality. Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences is working on real-time-Position determination using sensor technology to optimize construction processes. The Technical University of Darmstadt(TUD) accompanies the project from an occupational science perspective. The ESKIMO project is designed for a total of two years of research. The half-time status shows that many of the ideas have great potential and are on a promising path. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to do, so that next year will definitely remain exciting! We will report regularly on the current status as the project progresses.

Im from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research(BMBF) The funded research project ESKIMO is all about how the construction site of tomorrow can be supported with artificial intelligence. On April 28, 2020, the ESKIMO project was officially kicked off-started off. Because of the corona virus-Due to the crisis, this first event had to be replaced by an online meeting, but this did not detract from the motivation of everyone involved. Incidentally, the acronym ESKIMO stands for "Development of system modules of artificial intelligence for a digital mobile value chain for construction" and thus describes the project goals of the project funded by the BMBF very well. Three project pilots are to be developed as part of ESKIMO. The experts from Open Experience deal with the automated support of technical quality assurance. There should be optical deviations from the target-Condition, i.e. surface features such as damage, stains, discoloration, etc. can be recognized with the help of image recognition algorithms and also structural differences to the BIM-Model of how missing or incorrectly installed components are automatically recorded. The Munich project space-Manufacturer PMG is leading the work on the pilot as part of the project-Module for commercial quality assurance. The goal is to perform a performance comparison based on the BIM-determine model and reality. Based on regular actual-Recordings can be used to determine the time at which individual components were installed and compared with the planning based on the model. Here, too, the latest technologies from the fields of artificial intelligence and image recognition are to be used. The third project module is supported by the deutsch-French IT-Advice Actimage together with the construction logistics-Experts from Frankfurt Economics developed and aims at an application of the most modern algorithms in the field of construction logistics. Here the focus on logistical processes becomes inner- and placed outside the construction site so that the available resources such as possible storage areas and processing routes can be used as optimally as possible. In order to be able to realize these three modules, basic technology is being developed by three partners within the framework of ESKIMO-developed modules. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT) is used for the adaptive recognition of building objects from images- and sensor data responsible. The scientists from Fraunhofer IOSB create a basis-Module for topological matching of BIM-model and reality. Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences is working on real-time-Position determination to optimize the construction processes. The Technical University of Darmstadt(TUD) accompanies the project from an occupational science perspective. The projects are carried out with strong practical relevance and support from the application partners Bauunternehmung Karl Gemünden GmbH&Co.KG and Ed. Züblin AG implemented. An active test phase is also planned on the respective pilot construction sites of the application partners. The duration of the ESKIMO project is set at two years. On this website we will report on the current status over the entire course of the project!