Design and Implementation of Loose-Coupling Visualization Components in a Distributed Construction Simulation Environment with HLA

Abstract

Construction simulation provides a way to experiment with various scenarios of large-scale complicated construction projects, which can help meet project goals while taking into consideration uncertainties, resource constraints, space limitation, and so forth. However, simulation output in the form of statistics tables, bar charts, pie charts, etc., is not the best, most intuitive way to represent data to engineers, supervisors, and stakeholders. This research proposes a distributed simulation visualization framework (DSVF) to integrate computer visualization and geographic information technologies with discrete-event simulation (DES) under the High Level Architecture (HLA) framework; the visualization components (federates) will thus be readily reusable. To demonstrate the feasibility of DSVF, three federates, the two-dimensional animation federate, the three-dimensional animation federate, and the Map federate, are developed in the Construction Synthetic Environment (COSYE) at the University of Alberta. These federates can be reused and work with other federates harmoniously. A real-life tunnel project presented in the paper shows that the visualization federates can greatly facilitate the understanding of simulation results in a collaborative environment.