Innovation Challenges

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Challenge Owner(s)
Admaterials Technologies, Boustead Projects, CapitaLand Group, City Developments Limited, DP Architects, Dragages Singapore, EM Services, Excel, Exceltec, Facebook
, Fortis Construction, Frasers Property, Housing & Development Board (HDB), JTC Corporation, Keppel Land, Keong Hong, Kimly Construction, New Soil, Ong & Ong, Pan-United, P&T Consultants, Samwoh, Siri Ventures, Surbana Jurong, Squire Mech, Straits Construction, Sunray, Teambuild Construction Group, Tiong Seng Construction, Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd
Organiser(s) Building and Construction Authority (BCA)
Industry Type(s)
Application Start Date 5 September 2019
Application End Date 13 December 2019
Website Click here to learn more

About Challenge

BCA, in partnership with JTC and Enterprise Singapore, has launched BEAMP to develop a vibrant ecosystem of innovators for the Built Environment sector. BEAMP provides the platform to encourage collaboration between industry stakeholders and innovators to solve key challenges through accelerated development.

 

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Challenge Owner(s)EM Services
Industry Types(s)Environmental Services

EM Services

The prevalent usage of Personal Mobility Device (PMD) in Singapore has created a pain point for residential estate town councils in the maintenance of lift mats. The frequent riding of PMD into lifts has resulted in wear and tear leaving behind stubborn stain-marks on the lift mats. With the projected rise in the usage of PMDs, the cost of replacing damaged lift mats is expected to rise too.

The existing mat material used in the lifts is unable to withstand the wear and tear due to the frequent riding of PMDs into the lifts, hence, leaving behind stubborn stains and affect the aesthetic of the lift. It is also not cost efficient to replace the lift mats whenever there are such stain-marks.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking an innovative material which is elastic and has high durability to sustain the frequent riding of PMDs into lifts. The material shall withstand abrasion due to the riding of the PMD into the lifts. In addition, the new material shall not compromise the aesthetic of the lifts. The new material and its installation shall also not be cost prohibitive to implement in residential buildings.

Challenge Owner(s)Frasers Property
Industry Types(s)
Environmental Services, Food Services

Frasers Property

The lack of maintenance for kitchen exhaust ducts has often resulted in a built-up of discharged greases and fumes around its exhaust filter and ducting. This has compromised the efficiency of the exhaust duct to filer excessive fumes and unpleasant smell from the fumes discharge. The excessive built-up of greases within the exhaust ducts will pose a fire hazard as well.

Hence, there is a need for a solution to facilitate maintenance to be carried out promptly and effective to upkeep the efficiency of the kitchen exhaust.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking a predictive maintenance solution to improve the maintainability of the kitchen exhaust ducts. The proposed solution shall trigger alerts to the maintenance team to take prompt actions before the aforementioned undesirable outcomes occur.

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Challenge Owner(s)Frasers Property
Industry Types(s)
Electronics, Environmental Services

Frasers Property

Air-conditioning makes up the largest proportion of energy consumption in most residential buildings. In an effort to induce natural ventilation into buildings and reduce dependency of air- conditioning, wind data is often collected to understand natural ventilation. However, the wind data which is currently available is based on seasonal wind direction with little relation on how surrounding structures could alter the wind speed and direction. A more comprehensive wind data could be collected through on-site logging of wind data though the approach is often time-consuming.

Hence, there is a need for a more efficient way to understand natural ventilation in order to maximising its potential to change the design of air-conditioning. In this way, energy efficiency would be increased with reduced dependency of air-conditioning.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking an efficient way to collect wind data and eventually develop a “national” wind data model for Singapore. The wind data model shall be maintained and constantly updated to facilitate architects and engineers in shaping their building designs by incorporate natural ventilation as a passive design solution for new buildings

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Challenge Owner(s)EM Services
Industry Types(s)Environmental Services

EM Services

Bird perching is a recurring issue faced by residents who live in locations frequent by avian flocks.

Besides creating nuisance, birds perching also poses a health hazard to residents. Conventional bird deterrence methods have not been proven effective over time and culling has been used as the last resort when the bird population can no longer be contained.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking a reliable method to deter bird perching near residential areas.

The desired outcome of the proposed solution shall meet the following criteria:

  • It shall not be harmful or affect humans or any other unintended targets in any ways.
  • It shall ideally solve a recurring bird problem at a location.

  • It shall not pose any harms to birds.

  • It shall be cost effective and easy to set up.

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Challenge Owner(s)EM Services
Industry Types(s)
Electronics, Environmental Services, Real Estate

EM Services

The cleaning sectors in residential buildings has been known to be labour-intensive and less-advanced with the heavy reliance on manual labour and simple cleaning tools such as broom and dustpan. With the projected increase in housing population, increasing the number of cleaners to meet the projected increase in demand of cleaning services is unsustainable.

In order to move towards a manpower-lean cleaning sector, the alternative solution is to adopt mechanisation and automation to uplift the operational efficiency and cleaning productivity.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking an automated cleaning solution or equivalent that will be able to perform general routine cleaning in common town council estate areas with minimum human intervention.

The cleaning solution shall meet the basic requirements to perform the following tasks:

  • Able to navigate around common areas of a town council estates
  • Able to be exposed and withstand outdoor conditions
  • Able To perform general cleaning task

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Challenge Owner(s)CapitaLand Group
Industry Types(s)
Electronics, Environmental Services

CapitaLand

The air quality in the outdoor and indoor environment of some overseas cities continues to fall into the unhealthy range and violate the health standard. CapitaLand owns several Business Parks in some of these overseas cities with an average land areas of 50 hectares.

The vast land size has posed a difficult challenge to improve and maintain the air quality at a desirable range over a long period of time. Scaling up existing solutions of air purification to improve air quality within and around these premises is not economical and unsustainable.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking innovative solutions to absorb pollutants and unhealthy particles e.g. bacteria or virus, to improve both internal and external air quality. Possible approaches could involve measuring and reducing the sources of pollutants to improve and maintain the indoor and outdoor air quality at the desirable range.

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Challenge Owner(s)Ong & Ong
Industry Types(s)Digital/ICT

Ong & Ong

Design options and analysis is time-consuming as it requires an architect to manually research and take into account data such as existing surrounding conditions, weather data or zoning restrictions before coming up conceptual designs.

Hence, there is a need to improve design efficiency and productivity through the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Capabilities to aid in the process of developing conceptual designs.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is looking for a collaborative and innovative platform that combines various datasets (e.g. aerial imagery, environment data and etc.) and project requirements to automatically generate multiple design solutions.

The solutions should include these features to aid in the decisions making:

  • Mass conceptualisation through rapid prototyping 
  • Automated design checks against building code compliance 
  • Automated zoning rrangement

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Challenge Owner(s)
Sunray, Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, Boustead Projects
Industry Types(s)Digital/ICT

Sunray, Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, Boustead Projects

Current processes of as-built verification is done both visually and manually only covering 5% of the space. Even when a 3D scanner is used to survey 100% of the space, BIM managers/modellers often find themselves spending weeks sitting visually comparing 3D models against 3D scans to detect deviations before updating their as-built models. 

Hence, such methods are labour-intensive and costly due to time-based survey services costs. In addition, deviations are not detected efficiently as reports usually take weeks to produce. 

As the industry moves from verification of 2D blueprints to 3D BIM, there is a need for these 3D models to be accurately and progressively verified as part of as-built verification process in order to detect and resolve deviation thus avoiding major reworks. Furthermore, with an up-to-date and accurate 3D BIM (i.e. digital twins) it will ease the handover to between Operation Expenditure (OPEX) to Capital Expenditure (CAPEX).

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owners are looking for a solution to achieve greater Operational Efficiency in their 3D BIM verification process:

The proposed solution should be able to:

  • Increase as-built capture coverage to 100% hence reducing the need for on-site survey. 
  • Utilise Artificial Intelligence to identify dimensional deviations and update 3D models quickly so BIM managers / modellers make timely decisions. 
  • Utilise reality capture hardware tools such as Drones, Photogrammetry technologies and scanners

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Challenge Owner(s)City Developments Limited

City Developments Limited

Today, pre-casters prepare the moulds for precast concrete components including concrete PPVC modules using their interpretation of hardcopy drawings. Once the moulds are completed, the Resident Technical Officers (RTOs) would conduct visual inspection on the assembled moulds with reference to the drawings. The common items inspected by the RTOs include dimensions of the moulds, reinforcement bar sizes, spacing and lapping length, cast-in-accessories, concrete cover, services openings and cleanliness etc.

It is often common for the assembled moulds to fail the quality checks due to inaccuracy of interpretation and human errors. This leads to manpower and time loss in rectifying the non- compliant moulds. Furthermore, RTOs may overlook minor details which results in major rectification especially when the precast concrete components have been installed on site. In addition, precast is done overseas and there are very few or no Resident Engineer (RE) or RTOs who would like to travel to carry out this structural inspection. On top of that, these RE or RTOs have to be stationed full time on-site and the travelling takes too much time and is not productive.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking a holistic solution including digital means that is able to improve the productivity and effectiveness of the inspection process as well as the accuracy and quality of works to reduce any manpower and time loss for rectification. Instead of having localized checking inspection, challenge owners are looking for a continuous QA/QC check embedded in the process with the new proposed technology or solution.

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Challenge Owner(s)Siri Ventures

Siri Ventures

Inspection are currently done manually and usually relies heavily on a team of skilled quality assessor to conduct checks on unit.

An assessor would have to conduct 2 checks on a single unit: 

  • The first inspection is done when a unit is 50 – 60% complete. This will entail the visual inspection of size, layout, wet works, M&E test. 
  • The second inspection conducted when the unit is complete covers the visual inspection of wall flatness, floor color/firmness, furniture readiness, etc.

Therefore, there is a need for a solution to automate and improve the productivity for conducting these inspection while reducing the reliance on manual labour to improve inspection accuracy.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is looking for a simple and cost-effective solution to aid in the inspection of units. The proposed solution which could involve the use of Augment Reality or Laser scanning technologies should be able to: 

  • Conduct checks quicker and more accurately as compared to existing methods. 
  • Eliminate the dependence on human judgement during the inspection

Challenge Owner(s)Squire Mech

Squire Mech

The Architect, Engineers and Contractors (AEC) industry has been readily adopting BIM for design and fabrication. During the design stage, the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) system design is often subject to changes. As there is currently no effective tool to facilitate the update of changes from the original schematic design drawing (SDD) to the BIM design model, there are always discrepancies between both the SDD and BIM design model. This has caused unnecessary challenges during the maintenance of MEP systems.

The lack of information links between the SDD and BIM design model has posed a real challenge to design an effective tool to facilitate the synchronising of design changes between both design formats.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking for an effective tool in which changes made in the MEP BIM design model could automatically be shared and reflected in the SDD real-time, automatically and accurately. The network of different MEP systems in the final schematic design model shall be generated based on the connections of piping, ducting, cabling segments or other components within the MEP BIM model. Eventually, the developed platform shall provide only one common data source to facilitate an effective maintenance of MEP systems.

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Challenge Owner(s)
Dragages Singapore, Tiong Seng Construction, Straits Construction, Siri Ventures, Samwoh, Keong Hong
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Logistics

Dragages Singapore, Keong Hong, Samwoh, Siri Ventures, Straits Construction, Tiong Seng Construction

Materials tagging and tracking in construction projects is a key function that significantly contributes to the success of a project. Construction materials that require tracking include steel bars, precast concrete components and others.
This is critical for the pre-casters and site managers as these construction material require proper tracking not just for accountability but also to ensure the quality and reliability of each construction materials.

 

What We Are Looking For

Existing solutions such as physical tagging by barcodes or QR codes can be unreliable with challenges such as stickers being damaged, removed or require additional effort to remove after installation. Using exposed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags also will be subjected to similar concerns. But if these tags are embedded, then signal interference caused by concrete and steel reinforcement, as well as the possibility of malfunction of tags losing the identity of the components, giving rise to another set of concerns. The challenge owner is looking for alternatives to existing solutions and welcome further enhancements to current solutions proposals for new innovative solutions with the emphasis on reliability, durability and viability. 

A dashboard with analytics and notifications to key personnel for the management and tracking of these materials will provide better visibility and efficient progress reporting.

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Challenge Owner(s)
Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, Dragages Singapore, Straits Construction
Industry Types(s)Digital/ICT

Dragages Singapore, Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, Straits Construction

A construction project integrates a large amount of processes, making it hard for the Contractor to understand which processes generate value. Each project generates significant amounts of data which are usually collected by the cost control. However, it is often challenging on how these data can be collected and used for improve future projects.

There is a need to aid Contractors make better make decisions by providing a holistic view of a construction project based on qualitative, factual element to identify areas to be improved and tasks to be outsourced.

What Are We Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owners are looking for a tool that is able to: 

  • Analyse the processes based on existing data from the cost control and;
  • Inform the decision-makers about the added-value of a task or a process

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Challenge Owner(s)Straits Construction
Industry Types(s)
Logistics, Real Estate

Straits Construction

With growing demand on Facilities Management Information developing into BIM Repository, additional processes are being put in place to ensure that consistent information is divulged on labels and facilities before handing them over to project owners.

Due to the inconsistency in information between labels and information captured in BIM repository – there is a need for a solution to achieve greater productivity, quality, consistency and maintainability when handing over projects to support subsequent facilities management. 

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking a solution that could help in the handover process. 

The proposed solution should be able to:

  • Generate Unify QR labels based on information captured in BIM repository that represent the labels of both Facilities Owner and Contractors & Sub-Contractors.  
  • Allow for real-time validation during the handing over process 
  • Generate label to be tagged on Facilities / Items while link it to the BIM Repository during joint-inspection

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Challenge Owner(s)
City Developments Limited, Exceltec
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Real Estate

City Development Limited, Exceltec

Energy consumption accounts for a significant part of the operating cost for commercial buildings. At present there is no holistic way to collect data on the overall health status of equipment in a building. Existing solutions in the market are too cost prohibitive to be adopted in commercial/non-industrial real estate.

There is a need for a cost-effective solution that reduces the reliance on manpower to conduct maintenance check through the use of real-time information to predict building and system failures and break the fragmentation of multi-vendors systems within a building.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owners are seeking for innovative solutions that would be able to: 

  • Gather holistic and relevant building data to enable accurate predictive monitoring (e.g. predict system failure and prescriptive monitoring e.g. algorithms embedded to advise the next course of action / recovery to reduce building disruption and man effort).
  • Measure a variety of outputs by building equipment (e.g. chillers, HVACs and etc) that have greater risk of failure so as to prescribe timely maintenance / fixes. The solution needs to be able to measure outputs with an analytics tool, prescribing maintenance/fixes with low false positive rates to maintain equipment and cost efficiency.

  • Generate appropriate responses and action plans, suggest various ways to conduct better training and refresher programmes, as well as test and certify readiness of maintenance staff.
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Challenge Owner(s)EM Services
Industry Types(s)
Environmental Services, Real Estate

EM Services

Water usage accounts for a significant part of operating cost for HDB residential buildings. From time to time, PUB will inform the Town Council of high water consumption experienced in the common areas. Currently there is no holistic data on the water usage in the common areas, coupled with varied reasons on high water consumption. Therefore, it is difficult to pin-point and address the root cause for the high water consumption. Consequently translating to wastages in both money and precious water resources.

Presently, there are no relevant and live system data for building owners/ occupiers to track water consumption in the common areas of HDB residential building. There is only a sole source of data from PUB that could be fragmented at times, making it challenging to predict.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking innovative solutions that will help:

  • Gather holistic and relevant data of water consumption in the common area of HDB residential building to enable accurate predictive monitoring e.g. predict system failure and prescriptive monitoring e.g. algorithms embedded to advise the next course of action/recovery to reduce man effort and unnecessary wastages of precious water and financial resources. 

  • Measure a variety of tasks that uses water in the common area (e.g. scheduled high pressure block washing, scheduled water tank washing, underground pipe burst) so that any abnormalities in the data could be quickly identified and prescribe timely maintenance / fixes. The solution needs to be able to measure outputs with an analytics tool, prescribing maintenance/fixes with low false positive rates for cost efficiency. 

  • Aided with a consultant to seek for innovative solutions, such as the use of smart water meter that complements with an intelligent monitoring system to monitor and manage the water consumption with precision, cost efficient and low manpower effort.
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Challenge Owner(s)
Dragages Singapore, Straits Construction
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Logistics

Dragages Singapore, Straits Construction

Large construction projects take an average of 20% longer to complete than initial estimates due to poor manpower allocations and unforeseen factors owing to the dynamic nature of a construction project. Such delays could have significant impacts to downstream projects.

Hence, there is a need for the project team to have a detailed overview of all ongoing activities in real-time that relates to manpower, materials, components, equipment/machinery and vehicles in a construction project to enhance productivity.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owners are seeking for an innovative solution that enables the project team to identify areas of bottlenecks in a project which could include site logistics, handling of component and construction cycle activities. The solution should enable the project team to track location and working pattern through a dashboard that divides the site into zones, giving an overview of activities in each zone.

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Challenge Owner(s)Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Logistics

Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd

Within an Integrated Construction Prefabrication Hub (ICPH), there are various equipment and machinery that needs to be maintained. Current processes of maintaining this equipment are reactive and the maintenance process commences only after a fault is detected. Creation of a digital twin for the ICPH can allow paperless transactions and increase efficiency.

The use of paper records is unreliable and inefficient for the facilities management. Further this does not provide real-time data of equipment performance allowing for predictive maintenance

What We Are Looking For

A dynamic virtual representation of the physical assets in the ICPH or a digital twin. Through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), the digital twin shall make use of real-time data from IoT sensors to virtually detect the performance of equipment, how it is operating, and when it may require maintenance. It shall potentially enable remote operation and troubleshooting, reduce energy and water wastage, enable examination of the causes of past issues or breakdowns, and, lastly, provide opportunities to predict future performance or failures to support preventative maintenance.

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Challenge Owner(s)
Dragages Singapore, Keong Hong
Industry Types(s)Digital/ICT

Dragages Singapore, Keong Hong

It is estimated that 60,000 incidents occur annually within construction sites worldwide. In Singapore alone, workplace injuries rose from 12.4k cases in 2017 to 12.8k cases in 2018 (+2.5%). Amongst them, 41 people died due to fatal injuries. At the same time, according to a research report, large construction projects take 20% longer on average to finish than initial estimates due to poor manpower allocations and/or unforeseen safety issues.

In order to enhance construction site safety and productivity, there is a need to provide the project team with clear information such that:

  • Number of workers that are within a construction site, and which subcontractors they belong to.
  • The location of the workers to ensure that each individual is accounted for and are within area of work.
With these information, it could also allow the benchmarking of the current status with historical

data to further enhance productivity of further project.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is looking for a solution to enhances safety at construction sites through labour location tracking and management of services; while providing geo-fencing capabilities, potential accident notifications and proximity warning systems, through innovations such as AI intervention and incident reports to aid investigations.

The solution should also be able to present on a dashboard the workers' locations in divided zones which allows a project team to track workers’ indoor & outdoor location and unusual working patterns that might be a potential safety breach.

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Challenge Owner(s)
Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, Dragages Singapore, Straits Construction
Industry Types(s)Digital/ICT

Dragages Singapore, Soilbuild Construction Group Ltd, Straits Construction

Precast modules are usually lifted by wires with the safety of the lifting process very much dependent on the experience of the crane operator. Further, existing operations does not take into account factors such as; unbalanced loading caused by uneven distribution of stresses across chain pulleys or non- visible damages to cable ropes due to wear and tear. 

Hence, any unintended / accidental release of these precast modules during lifting operation would compromise the safety of the lifting equipment, operator and construction crew. 

It is essential to enable the crane operator to make better decisions when lifting precast modules for installation thereby making the lifting process safer.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking for a solution that enables the crane operator to make adjustments based data collected when lifting precast panels. These data should include factors such as; the distribution of weight when lifting precast modules and stress distribution across the lifting beam. 

The proposed solution could involve the use of sensors integrated to the lifting equipment to provide feedback to the crane operator in the crane cabin in real-time. This feedback could also trigger alarms to both the operator and ground crews while restricting further operations when thresholds are breached.

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Challenge Owner(s)
City Developments Limited, DP Architects, Dragages Singapore, EM Services
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Electronics, Real Estate

City Developments Limited, DP Architects, Dragages Singapore, EM Services

At present, inspection and maintenance of the complex building façade is a labour intensive and dangerous activity that requires a skilled professional using equipment such as gondolas and ropes to work at heights in order to access the building’s surface. Existing façade inspection methods which presently used are largely limited to visual checks of the external surfaces as well as localised examinations on the support system and condition of the rear face of the façade. These checks which are usually intrusive, requires the opening of holes/cavities in the façade in order view these areas using a borescope.

Hence, despite safety training and preventive measures maintaining a building façade is still a high risk activity and labour intensive task. Therefore, there is need for a solution which is able to provide greater accuracy for the assessment of the entire internal and external façade condition that minimises the need for human labour.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owners are looking for solutions to either enhance or provide an innovative alternative to existing methods. Reducing risk and effectiveness of existing methods is imperative. The proposed solution should take the following aspects into consideration: 

  • Be able to conduct comprehensive inspection of the cavity between the façade and the support structure. 
  • If imaging technologies are proposed, it should be able to take images under low light conditions and automatically correlated its location on a 3D building model.
  • Data analytics should also be considered for interpretation and identification of defects. The engine should be able to assess the quality of collected data and generate a report to indicate the level of criticality. 
  • Inspection system should be able to intelligently through data analytics. 
  • Robotics is a possible alternative, but the proposed solution should consider sustainability and reliability for various façade and environment. If robotics platforms are used, it should be capable to manoeuvre around building envelopes, including those with irregular profile. 
  • Design consideration is another aspect that should be looked into, for instance, solutions should be able to assist architects and designers to take into account maintenance of the building façade. This translates into savings by improving a building's life cycle cost and reduce cost required for façade cleaning and maintenance.

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Challenge Owner(s)JTC Corporation
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Electronics

JTC Corporation

Due to the nature of environment and the usage of buildings, existing solutions are unable to accurately determine the condition or reliability of the materials such as steel, reinforced concrete (RC) for the beams, columns and other essential structures that affect structural integrity of a building. Inspection is usually done by a PE (Professional Engineer) through visual inspection periodically, usually in a range of 5 years. Many challenges arise in determining a building structural integrity, one of them is the lack of physical access or unseen parts of the area or structure. Inspection is often limited to visual inspection of accessible areas.

Currently, there are a few existing methods in the market that require sensors to be embedded into the structure but this causes other issues such as sensor data reliability and cost effectiveness for sensors to be embedded into all structure.

What We Are Looking For

Challenge owners are looking for a solution to improve and simplify the inspection process and provide reliable measurable data that is low cost and can be implemented on existing buildings. These data can be in the form of and not limited to yield strength, corrosion of reinforcement, strain, crack width and etc. Early indications can help determine if building should be decommissioned or strengthened or rectified to ensure overall safety.

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Challenge Owner(s)Pan-United
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Electronics

Pan-United

In order to determine the volume of aggregates stocks, vehicles loaded with aggregates stocks have to be weighted twice, before and after unloading of the aggregate stocks at the unloading bay. Since the weighing platform and unloading bay may not be located next to one another, vehicles have to spend unnecessary time travelling between the weighing platform and unloading bay. In addition, the measurement results are not updated real-time and are often prone to human errors.

Hence, despite the effort to minimise disruptions caused administratively, the process of keeping track of these daily aggregate stock is still tedious and time-consuming due to the constant inflow and outflow of these aggregates.

Therefore, there is a need for a more productive measuring solution which is able to provide real- time and accurate results for the measurement of the aggregate stocks volume.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is looking an economical and efficient solution to measure the volume of aggregate stock.

The proposed solution should: 

  • Receive aggregate images and convert it into a 3D model 
  • Calculate the volume of aggregates based on the 3D model and estimate the tonnage of the aggregates 
  • Seamless sharing of information between front end and back end offices

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Challenge Owner(s)Teambuild Construction Group

Teambuild Construction Group

For Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC), modules need to be reinforced with mesh and reinforcing bars (also known as rebars).

The steps involved in fabrication and the assembly free-standing volumetric modules are:

Step 1: Interpretation of rebar drawings by skilled personnel
Step 2: Assembling the mesh and rebar to form a structured cage
Step 3: Install the rebar cage into the mould
Step 4: Closing of steel mould and installing of services ducts

Step 5: Checking and closing of mould

The steps require the effort by a 4-man team that takes 8 – 10 hours a day to prepare the rebar cages.

It is extremely time consuming process to assemble rebar cages. Moreover, as the interpretation of the rebar drawings are conducted by human, it leaves room for misinterpretation of drawings could result in missing rebars and links. If the checks fail (often due to the inaccuracy of rebar drawing interpretation), workers have to amend and rework these the cage from scratch. This means more time required to amend the rebar cage.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking innovative solutions to save time and manpower in the fabrication and assembly of rebars. The proposed solution should also boost the accuracy of the rebar cages’ structural integrity and greatly reduce unnecessary re-work and save time and manpower in reading/interpretation, fabrication and assembly of rebars.

 

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Challenge Owner(s)Pan-United
Industry Types(s)Precision Engineering

Pan-United

3D printing with concrete is an emerging technology which could potentially reduce labour and form-work costs, while increasing reliability of concrete infrastructure. Though high in compressive strength, concrete is fairly weak in handling tension. In order to overcome this challenge, concrete is usually reinforced with plastic or metal fibre.

Though significant progress has been made in non-reinforced concrete 3D printing, there is limited success in incorporating reinforcements into concrete 3D printing. 3D printed reinforced concrete often has weak material properties due to segregation and non-uniform distribution of added fibre reinforcements. This has prohibited their usage for building and construction application.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is seeking for an innovative mechanism or process to incorporate reinforcement into 3D printed concrete. The reinforcement could be added before, during or after the printing process. The 3D printed reinforcement shall comply with the relevant building codes and regulations for building and construction application. The process of addition shall preferably be automated and not too cost prohibitive to implement.

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Challenge Owner(s)Admaterials Technologies
Industry Types(s)
Digital/ICT, Electronics

Admaterials Technologies

Monitoring of the corrosion status of reinforcement bar are estimated from open circuit potential measurement and linear polarisation resistance. Both these tests are intrusive as they require hacking off the concrete cover of the reinforcement bars before reinstating them each time. Alternatively, corrosion status could also be estimated by embedding connection wires and leaving them exposed for the continuous measurement.

Such methods of monitoring of corrosion status are complex. Hence, a simpler and more accurate approach is needed for on-site corrosion monitoring to improve productivity. Ideally, this newly developed method should be connectionless so as to address the stringent site safety requirement when monitoring of corrosion status in areas with limited access (e.g. tunnels or structures in operation).

The Challenge Statement Owner is looking for a solution that should fulfill the following specifications:

  • The corrosion monitoring equipment should be portable in order to ensure accessibility. It should also be able to be operated in a wireless manner (i.e. battery operated) and be rugged enough for field application.

  • The measurement method which could adopt different techniques such as impedance or electrical pulse should stabilize within minutes to ensure the accuracy of results. The testing technique should not leave behind any visible installations or sampling points.

  • The system should also be complete with a platform to enable advanced data sharing and communication to enable real time monitoring.

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Challenge Owner(s)
Samwoh, Dragages Singapore
Industry Types(s)Precision Engineering

Dragages Singapore, Samwoh

Mass Engineer Timber (MET) is a lightweight material which is preferred to reinforced concrete when constructing long-span structures due to its lifting capacity. However, this still reduces the available crane time needed for hoisting other heavyweight materials on site when lifting and shifting MET components during MET installation.

Existing tools which are available that aid in lifting and shifting of MET components are not stable and often require at least 2 workers to operate. This tools still utilize crane, which leaves less crane time available for other activities thereby reducing onsite productivity.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owners are looking for a solution which could improve the efficiency of transporting, lifting and installing MET components. Some of the basic requirements for 

  1. Vertical movement – Sufficient lifting capacity for MET components of up to 4 tons (based on MET density of 500kg/m3, slab dimension 12m x 3.4m x 0.2m)
  2. Horizontal movement – Sufficient lateral movement capacity, requiring at most 1 worker for transportation of MET within the same floor.
  3. Reduce crane time for installation, by at least 50% Easy to maneuver and allow great flexibility in installation height up to 4.5m.

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Challenge Owner(s)
Building and Construction Authority (BCA), New Soil
Industry Types(s)Environmental Services

BCA, New Soil

Singapore has achieved success in the use of alternative building and construction materials such as, recycled concrete aggregates and washed copper slag for various applications.

With the growing emphasis on Circular Economy and Sustainability, a holistic approach is required to close the material loop by optimizing material usage during and beyond the materials’ lifespan, and containing waste generation by converting various wastes into building and construction resources.

If non-Built Environment wastes can be used for building and construction applications, it could reduce the reliance on conventional materials such as sand and granite as resources. Consequentially, reduce environmental impacts of construction projects.

What We Are Looking For

The Challenge Statement Owner is looking for a proposed solution which should incorporate locally generate wastes to be used as alternatives in the generation of recycled building and construction materials. The product should conform to LTA’s Materials & Workmanship Specifications and/or local environmental standards and / or building codes and regulations for non-structural concrete applications. It would be advantageous that the product can demonstrate satisfactory/improved performance compared to conventional building and construction materials.

Existing tools which are available that aid in lifting and shifting of MET components are not be stable and often require at least 2 workers to operate. This tools still utilize crane, which leaves less crane time available for other activities thereby reducing onsite productivity.

Learn More