An investigation of the coupling of the physical and digital assets and resources across lifecycle stages in the built environment

Abstract

The rapid digitalization of the built asset industry is pushing towards a tighter information coupling of physical and digital assets and resources. Such information coupling allows stakeholders to unlock opportunities for considerable gains in terms of performance and value generated through integrated information management. Within the context of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Digital Twins (DT)s, a growing number of studies are emphasizing on the technical aspects of CPS and DT. However, there still lacks a common definitions, dimensions, characteristics, and concepts pertaining to lifecycle information coupling. Taking full advantage of these concepts requires new constructs, principles, and mechanisms to define and put into relationship various components that comprise the lifecycle information coupling of physical and digital assets and resources. This thesis aims to address existing coupling gaps and issues through a taxonomy of Built Asset Lifecycle Information Couples which provides the dimensions and characteristics framing the physical-digital coupling of assets and resources in the built asset industry. Additionally, a Coupling Action Instantiation Framework was proposed to operationalize and instantiate the key dimensions of the developed taxonomy in the real-world practices. The proposed taxonomy and its instantiation framework contribute to the effort aimed at structuring the knowledge domain of lifecycle information management through the coupling of physical and digital worlds in the built environment.

Date	2 Feb 2023
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Erik Andrew Poirier (Supervisor)