Green buildings help in sustainability, in terms of achieving energy efficiency and minimizing the utilization of natural resources. Additional benefits include long-term sustainable building management and maintenance. There is, therefore, compelling motivation for the building of sustainable projects. This inspiration has led to the development of the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) rating systems and projects by the United States Green Building Council and the Canadian Green Building Council. Proper building project management (BPM) of such projects is warranted. Pre-project planning is a crucial part of BPM that ensures delivery and performance of construction projects. Pre-project planning is defined as the process that encompasses all the tasks between project initiation and detailed design. There is a positive relationship between comprehensive pre-project planning and enhanced project performance. Given the motivation for environmentally sustainable projects and proper management of constructing such projects, diligent pre-project planning for such projects is required. This paper investigates the use of the LEED rating system in pre-project planning of sustainable construction projects by developing a matrix that combines the LEED and the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) developed by the Construction Industry Institute. The conceptual matrix and its application to a case study demonstrates that the value of linking pre-project planning with LEED to improve the decision making process during planning and designing of building projects to improve sustainability.
This paper presents an approach for the automated inspection and quality control of manufactured parts from a remote site. A web-based control system was developed to establish communication among the various components of the experimental manufacturing cell, consisting of an IBM 7535 robot, a measuring station and a part feed station. The various cell components are interfaced with the computer through digital and analog interface modules from National Instruments and is controlled using a graphical programming language called LabVIEW. A dedicated web page was developed for the cell that allows remote users to perform online quality tests. Details pertaining to the cell and the control architecture developed to automate the quality control task are presented in this paper. The feasibility of providing non-site based hands-on engineering and technology education is also explored through this project.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.