Construction metaverse: Application framework and adoption barriers

• DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105422
• Publication Date: 2024-04-18T16:15:56Z
• Authors: Zhen-Song Chen; Jun-Yang Chen; Yue-Hua Chen; Witold Pedrycz
• Keywords: Metaverse; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; Pest; 02 engineering and technology; Barrier Analysis; Cyber-Physical-Social System; Bi-Objective Optimization

This paper addresses the limited research on the metaverse's application in the construction industry. It aims to investigate how the metaverse can empower construction, identify adoption barriers, and determine the most significant barriers. We propose a novel application framework of construction metaverse based on cyber-physical-social systems, identify 17 barriers using the political-economic-social-technological framework, and employ an expert survey and bi-objective optimization to rank the barriers. Results indicate that scalability, lack of policy incentives, and immature business models are the most critical barriers. The findings provide valuable insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the construction industry, helping to allocate resources effectively and drive metaverse development. The study's importance lies in its potential to guide successful metaverse integration in construction, leading to improved efficiency and innovation. This research inspires future work on specific metaverse applications in construction and interdisciplinary research to understand and overcome the identified barriers. © 2024 Elsevier B.V. National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC: 72171182 This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 72171182.