Dynamic Simulation of Construction Activities Using Real Time Field Data Collection Reza Akhavian University of Central Florida, USA reza@knights.ucf.edu Amir H. Behzadan University of Central Florida, USA amir.behzadan@ucf.edu Abstract. Simulation has been evolved to facilitate the process of designing, analyzing, planning and controlling of engineering processes and to aid decision-makers in setting long term project goals. Computer simulation tools thus provide an opportunity for engineers to create models that represent activities, resources, and the environment under which a project is taking place. However, such models would be more useful if they include latest project updates and changes to help engineers in short term decision-making and control, and to assist in taking immediate corrective actions. This paper presents a novel concept in construction simulation and the latest results of an ongoing research that uses dynamic data driven application simulation (DDDAS) and real time filed data collection to create live animations and self-adaptive simulations of ongoing construction projects. 1 Introduction Operations level planning is a critical component of managing and controlling different aspects of an ongoing construction project. A comprehensive operations level plan can help project decision-makers and site personnel foresee potential problems such as spatial conflicts and resource underutilization before the actual operation takes place. This in turn will minimize the time that would have otherwise been spent on reworks, resolving conflicts, and performing change orders, and will ultimately translate into significant savings in project time and cost. Computer applications have thus evolved to facilitate the process of planning, modelling, simulating, and visualizing operations during the past several years (Halpin 1977, Paulson et al. 1987, Liu and Ioannou 1992, Oloufa 1993, Martinez and Ioannou 1994, Shi 1999, Kamat and Martinez 2003, Behzadan and Kamat 2009). In order to create reliable simulation models, one needs to carefully examine every detail of an operation and identify major events and processes that will be represented in the simulation. Once such events and processes are identified, attributes such as resource consumption levels and activity durations should be determined. For a small operation, this can be done in a relatively short time using existing numerical tools and statistical data from similar projects. However, as the size of the operation increases and with the introduction of more resources and activities, creating a simulation model that realistically represents the actual operation turns into a tedious if not an impossible task. In addition, unforeseen site conditions, equipment breakdowns, work delays, and the evolving nature of a construction project will also introduce uncertainties that may be hard to model. As a result, it is very likely that strict rules, simplifying assumptions, and rigid design parameters of traditional simulation models do not precisely reflect an actual dynamic construction operation. In this paper, a comprehensive review of recent research efforts in the area of construction simulation is presented in Section 2. In Section 3, a relatively new simulation paradigm known as Dynamic Data Driven Application Simulation (DDDAS) is introduced. Section 4 describes how this paradigm is currently used by the authors in order to 1