Virtual Immersive Construction Site For Remote Experts (VICTOR)

VICTOR is a new solution that enables construction professionals to fully engage with on-site activity and personnel without having to go to site. It is an immersive, virtual 'environment' that uses a screen 'dashboard' and virtual/augmented reality headset to present live feeds from on-site cameras (and other sensors) and to overlay these with latest data from the project 'digital twin'.

Construction contractors are responsible for managing projects across multiple sites that are often geographically widely dispersed. The project-based nature of site construction work means that specialist engineering/managerial staff need to cover multiple sites from a central office. Their attendance on-site needs to be planned in advance (with consequential impacts on task and overall programme progress where urgent input is needed). Travel to and from site is time consuming and expensive as well as having a significant environmental impact.

VICTOR emulates the experience of being on-site in near real-time, enabling office-based experts to provide high-quality technical/managerial support to construction sites that can be located anywhere in the world. It takes advantage of the growing use of digital technology on-site such as cameras/scanners for surveying and monitoring site activity, safety and task progress (potentially enhanced by high-speed, low latency 5G communications networks) as well as digital Building Information Modelling (BIM) and project digital twins. VICTOR uses state-of-the-art gaming technology to integrate these data streams to create an immersive experience for the user.

The project will develop a minimum-viable-product version of VICTOR for rapid deployment and which can also be enhanced over time as the quantity and quality of on-site visual data increases.

VICTOR will be led by UK SME **Unit9** with **Glideology**, supported by leading construction contractor **Ferrovial** and the Building Research Establishment (**BRE**).