Low-Cost Internet of Things Solution for Building Information Modeling Level 3B—Monitoring, Analysis and Management

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. Please highlight the novelty

2. "Arduino IDE environment (v1.8.19)" it is better cite some references.

3. The discussion is needed, rather than the data only in Section 4.

4. The conclusion and abstract lack the special data.It 

It is ok

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript introduced a way to integrating low cost  IoT with BIM model for enabling a digital twin solution in a small scale residential building. Nevertheless, the following questions and comments would need to be addressed for significant quality enhancement. 

1. Submitted draft includes predominantly technical specifics of making an Arduino and MQTT based IoT solution with low cost HW/SW components. This technical practice is quite well known and has not significance in academic research domain. Are there noticeable differentiation points of the implemented IoT system compared to other reference systems using similar set of components?

2. Major focus of the study would need to include how BIM model and developed IoT system are integrated to provide real-time variant Digital Twin interface. The process and outcome of the constructed BIM model  were not properly described. How to represent and access IoT sensor values through the BIM enabled digital twin interface was not explained as well. Authors would need to describe how final BIM+IoT based digital twin interface is being experienced by users considering potential use scenarios. 

3.  IoT related technical details including source codes in Figure 2- Figure 6 are not significant information for the potential readers. Source codes and HW components' assembly images may either need to be eliminated or put into Appendix. Constructed BIM model, IoT implementation specifics and overall system architecture of the proposed digital twin system combining both elements could be redrawn, separately instead of mixing all of those in a confused manner. 

4. As for the generalization point of view, authors need to explain how the suggested system could be used in various contexts such as diversified building types, increased number of sensors and actuators along with possible ways of visualizing sensed values and control actions targeted to certain BIM objects. 

5. Results and conclusion part of the daft may need to reinforce or clarify what exactly are the potential contribution points of this research beyond technical details of the claimed low-cost IoT implementation. 

Overall English expressions in the manuscript seemed acceptable if minor refinements could be made. 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper deals with an important task. The author try to find a low-cost IoT solution for monitoring, analysis, and management, and integrate it with a BIM model

The paper has practical value.

It has a logical structure and all necessary sections.

Suggestions:

1.     It would be good to add clear, point-by-point the main contributions at the end of the Introduction section

2.     It would be good to add the remainder of this paper at the end of the Introduction section

3.     The related works section should be extended using existing research like DOI 10.1016/j.procs.2023.12.173, DOI 10.3390/smartcities6010004 among others

4.     It is unclear why the author added parts of the program code to the research paper.

5.     It is unclear why the author chose the BMP280 sensor. What are its advantages among many others?

6.     As “The main contribution of the article enables the design, construction, and use of low-cost circuits even in small developments.” The authors should show in the results some numerical indicators that will show that the proposed solution is low-cost circuits

7.     The conclusion section should be extended using: 1) numerical results obtained in the paper; 2) limitations of the proposed approach; 3) prospects for future research.

Other suggestions

1.     All figs are very small. The reader can’t see anything on it. Please fix it

2.     Some of the references are outdated. Please fix it using 3-5 years old papers in high-impact journals.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Since the author did not address some of the previous comments that have been given by 1st round review session. At least the following concern would need to be responded in more serious manner. 

1. Low cost IoT + BIM seems to be the main focus of the submitted manuscript. BIM model normally has both geometry and attributes(properties) of a building elements and assembly. Current manuscript has more than enough descriptions on the technical implementation specifics of an IoT  alternative but includes no or little presentation on the developed BIM model itself and how BIM and IoT are integrated and visualized (presented) to the users. Please show the developed BIM model, BIM information slots assigned for real-time  IoT sensor values, and explain how users could access BIM embedded IoT sensor values in real-time.

English in the draft might need refinements for better expression. 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Paper can be accepted in current form

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

thank you for your positive consideration of my manuscript.

Sincerely,

Author