A 3-dimensional Visualized Approach for Maintenance and Management of Facilities

The maintenance and management of facilities is an emerging issue. Decisions on maintenance-related works usually are made based on various types of accumulated historical data, such as design drawings, inspection records, sensing data, etc. There are systems for storing and maintaining such maintenance-related data electronically in database. However, the data accessing mode of these systems is based on text input on web form, which sometimes is not intuitive enough for interpreting retrieved information for decision making. In addition, most systems are only developed for one type of data, and for a specific facility. This limited the completeness and extensibility of these systems. This research proposes a 3-dimensional (3D) visualized approach for maintenance and management of facilities. A prototype system which can apply the proposed method to different facilities is developed for concept proofing. A 3D facility model is provided in the system as the interface for accessing various maintenance-related data intuitively. In addition, the presentations of various maintenance-related data are visualized on the model as possible to provide user an intuitive understanding about the states of the facility in many aspects. Behind the 3D visualized interface is a database which systematically integrates and stores various maintenance-related data together. The data of this database should be constantly accumulated via input from users and sensors in appropriate and suitable formats, and can be analyzed and handled by available methods, such as reliability and knowledge management, to provide processed information for aiding decision making in maintenance.