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Site layout planning involves processing and visualizing complex information residing with different team members. Usually, this exercise is carried out using iterative exchange and understanding of information on paper documents and 2D drawings in team meetings. In the present work, it is hypothesized that aiding the project team with an AR based system would help better tap into the insights and experience of team partners. For this, a BIM enabled Android-based AR site layout planning tool was developed. This tool uses markerbased identification and tagging scheme to visualize the construction site. An initial study of the user behavior while using this system compared to conventional systems points that in addition to improving visualization the planners' faculties and experience are employed towards optimization of the site rather than understanding the site layout plan. The study illustrates the utility of using AR/VR in planning processes. Keywords Motivation and Research ObjectiveSite Layout Planning (SLP) is an initial task to be performed by every planning team on a construction project. Site Layout Planning (SLP) is considered to be laying out temporary facilities (TFs) necessary for future construction in line with route planning. An optimal layout ensures safe working conditions for labors, optimum usage of available space, low activity interference and reduction in on-site travel time. Team members having significant experience in the field of construction are considered most suitable for the layout planning. The task of SLP is equally important for every team or stakeholder of the construction project; since on the site integration of planning is essential and have to be most efficient for a successful project. The multiple operations that happen simultaneously on construction site in addition to the uniqueness exhibited by each project, it is usually not possible to envision every need of the future. Therefore, planners usually resort to certain heuristics, intuition gained with experience on similar projects to come up with the best possible site layouts [1].At present, the site layout planning (SLP) is carried out based on 2D plans for the site. The paper-based drawings are arduous for planners to plan since they do not offer visualization in 3D perspective. Hence, to get optimal layouts for increasing the efficiency of projects, the collaboration among project teams and stakeholders is very crucial. The ability to anticipate and finding a feasible solution to the site layout remains a key challenge for planners to address. The ability to visualize the site and aggregate experience from the various team members effectively remains a big hurdle in the conventional SLP being followed in the construction projects across the world. Thus, SLP poses key challenges in visualizing the site constraints with respect to SLP on one hand and achieving coordination and collaboration among the various team members. In this context, it is hypothesized that the emerging applications of technologies like...

Site layout planning (SLP) aims at the efficient placement of temporary facilities on a construction site. Improper planning can lead to tremendous wastes in terms of unnecessary transport of materials and other resources around the site. A plethora of research has presented SLP as an optimization problem, but a few have focused on the wastes involved and that occur due to an improper layout of the construction site. To develop the 'SLP waste' typology, a comprehensive literature review was done, and the experts of SLP were interviewed. The identified wastes were found to be resulting due to inefficient layouts, improper coordination and collaboration among the project stakeholders and conflict of their interest. The interviewed experts highlighted the inefficiency of two-dimensional (2D) drawings and requirement of three-dimensional (3D) visualization that can aid in envisioning the future site scenarios. Therefore, utilizing Augmented Reality (AR) integrated Building Information Modeling (BIM), a conceptual tool 'AR-BIM' is proposed, and the anticipated working is briefed out in this study. The tool is under development and is expected to ease out the planning of site layouts and will aid in enabling lean, along with value generation in construction projects.

Site layout planning (SLP) is categorized as a non-deterministic polynomial time (NP) hard or complete class problem. Inefficient SLP can lead to congestion, safety conflicts and productivity reductions. Significant attention to the problem is evident in the field of construction management. A number of optimization routines and mathematical models are suggested in past research to reduce costs associated with improper layouts. However, such models are seldom adopted on real-life projects, where SLP is primarily carried out based on heuristics. The two significant inhibitors to the adoption of sophisticated approaches identified in this study are; lack of realism in the mathematical models and the significant effort involved in setting up the model for each construction site. These two inhibitors tend to reflect as reluctance on the part of the project teams to adopt SLP models. In the present study, the first inhibitor is addressed by incorporating realism into the mathematical model for SLP. The SLP is formulated as an optimization problem involving the reduction of transportation cost on construction site with associated constraints. Realism to the optimization model was brought through the modelled travel distances utilizing Building Information Modelling (BIM). Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to optimize the objective function. The combined model thus incorporates all the site constraints in terms of travel paths as captured in the BIM model thus bringing in more realism into the SLP modelling. This work is preliminary work in developing a fully automated SLP process where the second inhibitor would also be addressed.

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