AI and Drone Innovations Rise, Unleash BIM Advanced Technology... Smart Construction Pioneer 'DL E&C'

Digital Innovation Surpassing Construction Company Limits

BIM to be Applied to Common Areas Design of Apartment Complexes Next Year

Expectations to Reduce Trial and Error and Construction Costs

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] ‘Integrating advanced digital innovation into construction.’

DL E&C is taking on the challenge to surpass the traditional limits of construction companies. The company is focusing its entire capabilities on expanding digital technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), drones, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all stages of construction work.

Kim Jeongheon, a specialist executive at the company, stated in an interview with Asia Economy on the 17th, "Starting next year, the design of common areas in apartment complexes will be conducted based on BIM." BIM is a technology that integrates and manages the entire lifecycle information of construction through three-dimensional modeling containing data such as materials, processes, construction costs, and specifications. Kim explained, "Although the preparation stage for applying BIM to site design documents is still ongoing, it will be possible to prioritize its application to common areas of apartment complexes next year." Once a platform for all construction stages is established, it is expected to significantly reduce trial and error during construction and also achieve cost reduction effects.

◆Challenging ‘Zero Error’ Design with BIM= Since this year, DL E&C has been the first in the industry to manage the entire construction cost, including electrical and mechanical equipment, as big data through BIM. Various information generated from major construction types has been collected as big data since last year, and currently, budgets for all sites’ frameworks and finishes are calculated and organized using BIM.

DL E&C began seriously investing in BIM from 2018. The company established a BIM team internally to build the foundation for digital innovation. The BIM team, which initially had 10 members only in the housing division, has now expanded to 50 in housing, 20 in plants, and 6 in civil engineering. Additionally, this year, a Convergence Technology Team was established under the Technology Development Institute to research and apply smart construction-related technologies such as drones, smart homes, and robotic construction on site.

DL E&C aims to perfect the quality of design documents before construction through BIM. Kim said, "We are currently developing various necessary IT technologies," adding, "For this purpose, we established a design part within the BIM team." The design part consists of 5 housing design experts and 5 general architectural design experts. He emphasized, "We review the design of the entire project and check for document errors (especially inconsistencies between structural and architectural documents), and since applying this, the number of corrected design errors has more than doubled."

Typically, the design period is linked to the approval period, so it is difficult to shorten or extend the design time itself. However, even with the same design time, producing higher quality design documents can increase construction efficiency and reduce trial and error. Kim said, "Assuming perfect documents are created, it will be possible to reduce manpower and time during construction by 3 to 4 times or more."

◆Machine Learning Technology in Underground Parking Lots?= Another area where DL E&C is putting great effort is AI. AI is applied from the project planning stage. In particular, the company has introduced generative design using machine learning technology to derive optimal designs according to site conditions. By applying this technology, more than 1,000 apartment building layout designs that meet conditions such as floor area ratio, view, and sunlight can be generated within a few hours, and the optimal plan can be selected. It is mainly used in underground parking lot design.

In fact, DL E&C has applied this technology to ePyeonhansesang Duryu Station, ePyeonhansesang Unjeong Urban Prime, ePyeonhansesang Yeongjong International City Centum Venue, Anyang Urban Foret Jayeon & ePyeonhansesang, and ePyeonhansesang Geumbit Grand Maison. All these complexes saw a 20-30% improvement in PC application rates compared to before, and the number of parking spaces increased by 10 to over 60.

Kim said, "Recently, this was applied to the Sanbon Ureuk remodeling site, optimizing the construction method and design to secure the maximum number of parking spaces," adding, "Next year, we plan to undertake a project to derive the optimal plan linked to cost, construction period, and customer preferences."

The drone technology introduced in 2018 aims for internalization. By next year, drones will be able to fly automatically according to pre-input schedules without operators, and also handle battery charging and photo uploads. DL E&C uses drones to take high-resolution photos during construction work and derives 3D data results for use.

◇AI Detects Torn Wallpaper= Another example of applying digital technology on site is the defect inspection system using AI, for which a patent has been filed. There are about 30 types of defects in wallpaper alone, including tears, stains, twists, and poor seams, and defects also occur in many other construction types such as tiles, furniture, and flooring. The defect inspection system works by photographing the wallpaper, and AI autonomously determines whether there are tears and their locations. This allows simple photo inspections to replace the difficult manual checks of wallpaper defects by workers or site managers.

Kim explained, "Currently, after filing the patent, we are in the stage of training AI on other defect types besides wallpaper tears," adding, "To do this, we are collecting and classifying 50,000 to 60,000 defect photos per construction type for training."

DL E&C is also developing a smartphone application to be applied on site. Kim said, "After filing the patent, we have completed a pilot platform for the app," adding, "It will probably be possible to apply it on actual sites after about a year of further training and adding various detecting engines."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.