Generating Construction Schedules with Case-Based Reasoning Support

Abstract

Current construction practice usually provides a variety of different execution alternatives for each project objective. Normally, only one possible construction schedule is selected and defined manually. Thus, decisions are often narrowed down and made at a stage where this cannot be done in a reliable way. In many cases it would be useful if more than one alternative solution could be investigated. However, modeling solution alternatives is very tedious and is not supported by standard solution approaches. This paper presents an approach for generating a construction schedule that includes various alternatives within a single model as well as provisions for the reuse of experiences from former projects. The schedule can be generated on the basis of independent construction tasks. Associated constraints are formally described by the use of Feature Logic theory. Thus, a schedule can be generated automatically at any time in the process. This should lead to a higher degree of flexibility and the application of proven solutions to problems that might occur on construction sites. In such cases, a faster reaction can be achieved by responding with predefined, tested alternatives. For practical reasons the reuse of already predefined solutions is extremely significant. Therefore, the application of case-based reasoning is investigated in this work. Partial construction solutions can be stored, retrieved, and re-used using a casebased system.

Automation in construction scheduling: a review of the literature

“…They presented a method to generate various taskordering alternatives for a construction plan, along with an evaluation of each alternative. Their algorithm was able to automatically generate project schedules at any time and took advantage of using feature logic generic language [72] to associate existing constraints [74]. Later on, they used 3D model data in the form of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) along with the cases from previous projects.…”

“…Kataoka [42] described his new way for automating construction simulations with the help of "construction method templates" stored as a knowledge base. Tauscher et al [74] works described earlier could also be mentioned here as a model-based approach, since his team explicitly used IFC as 3D model input to their algorithm. Büchmann-Slorup and Andersson [8] reviewed the construction scheduling process, taking into account the BIM-based approaches.…”

Knowledge Management for Construction Scheduling

“…Feature graphs are modeled by tree data structures. Detailed information about the application of Feature Logic to represent construction problems is shown in [13].…”

Supporting consistency in linked specialized engineering models through bindings and updating

“…In [Tauscher et al 2007] different execution alternatives for a specific project are modelled in one model. This approach allows the generation of a construction schedule that contains alternative processes to achieve the same end goal based on a set of independent construction tasks.…”