Artificial Intelligence Applied to Conceptual Design. A Review of Its Use in Architecture

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract] Conceptual architectural design is a complex process that draws on past experience and creativity to generate new designs. The application of artificial intelligence to this process should not be oriented toward finding a solution in a defined search space since the design requirements are not yet well defined in the conceptual stage. Instead, this process should be considered as an exploration of the requirements, as well as of possible solutions to meet those requirements. This work offers a tour of major research projects that apply artificial intelligence solutions to architectural conceptual design. We examine several approaches, but most of the work focuses on the use of evolutionary computing to perform these tasks. We note a marked increase in the number of papers in recent years, especially since 2015. Most employ evolutionary computing techniques, including cellular automata. Most initial approaches were oriented toward finding innovative and creative forms, while the latest research focuses on optimizing architectural form.This project was supported by the General Directorate of Culture, Education and University Management of Xunta de Galicia (Ref. ED431G/01, ED431D 2017/16), and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness via funding of the unique installation BIOCAI (UNLC08-1E-002, UNLC13-13-3503) and the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER)Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Xunta de Galicia; ED431D 2017/1

Applications of Biological Cell Models in Robotics

In this paper I present some of the most representative biological models applied to robotics. In particular, this work represents a survey of some models inspired, or making use of concepts, by gene regulatory networks (GRNs): these networks describe the complex interactions that affect gene expression and, consequently, cell behaviour

A Methodology for daylight optimisation of high-rise buildings in the dense urban district using overhang length and glazing type variables with surrogate modelling

Urbanization and population growth lead to the construction of higher buildings in the 21st century. This causes an increment on energy consumption as the amount of constructed floor areas is rising steadily. Integrating daylight performance in building design supports reducing the energy consumption and satisfying occupants' comfort. This study presents a methodology to optimise the daylight performance of a high-rise building located in a dense urban district. The purpose is to deal with optimisation problems by dividing the high-rise building into five zones from the ground level to the sky level, to achieve better daylight performance. Therefore, the study covers five optimization problems. Overhang length and glazing type are considered to optimise spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA) and Annual Sunlight Exposure (ASE). A total of 500 samples in each zone are collected to develop surrogate models. A self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm is used to obtain near-optimal results for each zone. The developed surrogate models can estimate the metrics with minimum 98.25% R2 which is calculated from neural network prediction and Diva simulations. In the case study, the proposed methodology improves daylight performance of the high-rise building, decreasing ASE by approx. 27.6% and increasing the sDA values by around 88.2% in the dense urban district. - Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.We would like to thank Cemre Cubukcuoglu for the collaborative work while implementing the optimisation algorithm. M. Fatih Tasgetiren, who is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51435009), acknowledges the HUST project in Wuhan.Scopu

Evolution for our time: a theory of legal memetics

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance for legal thought of recent developments in evolutionary theory which are associated with the notion of 'memetics'. 'Memetics' aims to account for processes of cultural transmission and change using a version of the 'genetic metaphor'. This is the idea that patterns of cultural evolution are closely analogous to those which occur in the natural world as a result of the interaction between genes, organisms and environments. At a further, more ambitious level, the initial metaphor gives way to a search for mechanisms which unite biological and cultural evolution. Identifying these general evolutionary mechanisms is part of a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary research agenda.legal evolution, memes, path dependence, employment contract, corporate governance

Past, present and future mathematical models for buildings (i)

This is the first of two articles presenting a detailed review of the historical evolution of mathematical models applied in the development of building technology, including conventional buildings and intelligent buildings. After presenting the technical differences between conventional and intelligent buildings, this article reviews the existing mathematical models, the abstract levels of these models, and their links to the literature for intelligent buildings. The advantages and limitations of the applied mathematical models are identified and the models are classified in terms of their application range and goal. We then describe how the early mathematical models, mainly physical models applied to conventional buildings, have faced new challenges for the design and management of intelligent buildings and led to the use of models which offer more flexibility to better cope with various uncertainties. In contrast with the early modelling techniques, model approaches adopted in neural networks, expert systems, fuzzy logic and genetic models provide a promising method to accommodate these complications as intelligent buildings now need integrated technologies which involve solving complex, multi-objective and integrated decision problems