Towards Assembly Information Modeling (AIM)

Nowadays digital tools support architects, engineers and constructors in many specific tasks in the construction industry. While these tools are covering almost all aspects of design and manufacturing, the planning and design for the assembly of buildings remain an unexplored area. This research aims to lay the foundations of a new framework for the design for assembly in architectural applications entitled Assembly Information Modeling. In practice, it is a central digital model containing the structure architectural design, construction details, three dimensional representations, assembly sequences, issue management and others. This framework forms the base for a multitude of novel applications for assembly design, planning and execution, such as assembly simulation and strategies communication, problem detections in the early design phases and interdisciplinary coordination. This paper describes the specifications of the digital assembly model and illustrate two use cases: collaborative assembly design using AEC cloud-based platforms and Augmented Assembly using Augmented reality devices.