Interoperability in semi-intelligent civil engineering agent

Bavafa, M; Kiviniemi, AO

Abstract

Design process in the construction industry involves multiple stakeholders who may carry out their tasks in widely distributed locations. Therefore the interaction between those participants is often the cause of mistakes and misunderstandings and some of these problems are related to the lack of sufficient software interoperability. The underlying problem for this research is the misunderstandings caused by information exchanges between structural engineer organization and client, architect and building services engineer.
In the course of model exchanging many authors use the term ‘agent’ (Anumba et al, 2002) rather than ‘participant’. There is much discussion about whether a particular design system is an ‘intelligent agent’ or merely software system. The term “intelligence” is used to describe a system which behaves as an actor by percept of the environment and provides action to the environment. The actions should support the overall system aims. In this research ‘semi-intelligent agents’ mean a combination of programmed IT systems and human actors; communication is not completely based on IT systems replacing human users. This research argues that the key factor that could solve the misunderstandings between participants is enhanced interoperability. The previous studies in this area have categorized interoperability between design participants in four levels: 1- File level 2- Syntax level 3- Simulation level & 4- Semantic level (Steel et al, 2012). In this research the semi-intelligent structural agent will be used to improve the interaction, communication and understanding by describing the solutions and limitations in an accessible way to all shareholders. This system is expected to reduce significantly the degree of mistakes and errors in structural and civil engineering design coordination.
This research reviews the state of the art and is based on interviews of civil engineers in the UK construction industry. Based on the findings the key challenges for semi-intelligent civil engineering agents are unstructured data, data mapping, unstructured evaluation and data consistency. Based on the findings a process map has been developed and it will be tested and expanded in the future research to find a solution for these challenges.

Citation

Bavafa, M., & Kiviniemi, A. (2013, October). Interoperability in semi-intelligent civil engineering agent. Presented at Proceedings of the CIB W78 2013: 30th International Conference, Beijing, China

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Proceedings of the CIB W78 2013: 30th International Conference
• Conference Location: Beijing, China
• Start Date: Oct 9, 2013
• End Date: Oct 12, 2013
• Acceptance Date: Oct 9, 2013
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2015
• Related Public URLs: http://www.cibworld.nl/site/home/index.html
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference