RFID in building: proposal of a system model for organizing maintenance information

Abstract

The construction industry is seen as a knowledge-based industry. Throughout the process of designing a building, much information is generated, and it is written down in a series of documents that, upon completion of the work, must be delivered to the owners and managers of the buildings for the proper maintenance of the property. This information must be organised in such a way as to enable it to be retrieved and used where necessary. The use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) helps in this organisation. These include the Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, an automated data collection technology that have already been adopted by some industries. This paper aims to propose a computerised system model for accessing maintenance information, using RFID tags installed in building elements, mobile reading devices and free software in order to reduce the costs of implementation and operation of the system. An experiment was carried out in order to validate the proposed model, as well as to demonstrate the contribution of the model to the improvement of access to information. This paper contributes to the discussion on the application of RFID technology associated with mobile devices to building maintenance.

Keywords:
Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID); Maintenance of buildings