Past, present and future of information and knowledge sharing in the construction industry: Towards semantic service-based e-construction

The paper reviews product data technology initiatives in the construction sector and provides a synthesis of related ICT industry needs. A comparison between (a) the data centric characteristics of Product Data Technology (PDT) and (b) ontology with a focus on semantics, is given, highlighting the pros and cons of each approach. The paper advocates the migration from data-centric application integration to ontology-based business process support, and proposes inter-enterprise collaboration architectures and frameworks based on semantic services, underpinned by ontology-based knowledge structures. The paper discusses the main reasons behind the low industry take up of product data technology, and proposes a preliminary roadmap for the wide industry diffusion of the proposed approach. In this respect, the paper stresses the value of adopting alliance-based modes of operation

An ontology framework for developing platform-independent knowledge-based engineering systems in the aerospace industry

This paper presents the development of a novel knowledge-based engineering (KBE) framework for implementing platform-independent knowledge-enabled product design systems within the aerospace industry. The aim of the KBE framework is to strengthen the structure, reuse and portability of knowledge consumed within KBE systems in view of supporting the cost-effective and long-term preservation of knowledge within such systems. The proposed KBE framework uses an ontology-based approach for semantic knowledge management and adopts a model-driven architecture style from the software engineering discipline. Its phases are mainly (1) Capture knowledge required for KBE system; (2) Ontology model construct of KBE system; (3) Platform-independent model (PIM) technology selection and implementation and (4) Integration of PIM KBE knowledge with computer-aided design system. A rigorous methodology is employed which is comprised of five qualitative phases namely, requirement analysis for the KBE framework, identifying software and ontological engineering elements, integration of both elements, proof of concept prototype demonstrator and finally experts validation. A case study investigating four primitive three-dimensional geometry shapes is used to quantify the applicability of the KBE framework in the aerospace industry. Additionally, experts within the aerospace and software engineering sector validated the strengths/benefits and limitations of the KBE framework. The major benefits of the developed approach are in the reduction of man-hours required for developing KBE systems within the aerospace industry and the maintainability and abstraction of the knowledge required for developing KBE systems. This approach strengthens knowledge reuse and eliminates platform-specific approaches to developing KBE systems ensuring the preservation of KBE knowledge for the long term

A survey on 3D CAD model quality assurance and testing

[EN] A new taxonomy of issues related to CAD model quality is presented, which distinguishes between explicit and procedural models. For each type of model, morphologic, syntactic, and semantic errors are characterized. The taxonomy was validated successfully when used to classify quality testing tools, which are aimed at detecting and repairing data errors that may affect the simplification, interoperability, and reusability of CAD models. The study shows that low semantic level errors that hamper simplification are reasonably covered in explicit representations, although many CAD quality testers are still unaffordable for Small and Medium Enterprises, both in terms of cost and training time. Interoperability has been reasonably solved by standards like STEP AP 203 and AP214, but model reusability is not feasible in explicit representations. Procedural representations are promising, as interactive modeling editors automatically prevent most morphologic errors derived from unsuitable modeling strategies. Interoperability problems between procedural representations are expected to decrease dramatically with STEP AP242. Higher semantic aspects of quality such as assurance of design intent, however, are hardly supported by current CAD quality testers. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund, through the ANNOTA project (Ref. TIN2013-46036-C3-1-R).González-Lluch, C.; Company, P.; Contero, M.; Camba, J.; Plumed, R. (2017). A survey on 3D CAD model quality assurance and testing. Computer-Aided Design. 83:64-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2016.10.003S64798

Explicitly representing the semantics of composite positional tolerance for patterns of holes

Representing the semantics of the interaction of two or more tolerances (i.e. composite tolerance) explicitly to make them computer-understandable is currently a challenging task in computer-aided tolerancing (CAT). We have proposed a description logic (DL) ontology based approach to complete this task recently. In this paper, the representation of the semantics of the composite positional tolerance (CPT) for patterns of holes (POHs) is used as an example to illustrate the proposed approach. This representation mainly includes: representing the structure knowledge of the CPT for POHs in DL terminological axioms; expressing the constraint knowledge with Horn rules; and describing the individual knowledge using DL assertional axioms. By implementing the representation with the web ontology language (OWL) and the semantic web rule language (SWRL), a CPT ontology is developed. This ontology has explicitly computer-understandable semantics due to the logic-based semantics of OWL and SWRL. As is illustrated by an engineering example, such semantics makes it possible to automatically check the consistency, reason out the new knowledge, and implement the semantic interoperability of CPT information. Benefiting from this, the ontology provides a semantic enrichment model for the CPT information extracted from CAD/CAM systems

Document-Driven Design for Distributed CAD Services in Service-Oriented Architecture

Current computer-aided design (CAD) systems only support interactive geometry generation, which is not ideal for distributed engineering services in enterprise-to-enterprise collaboration with a generic thin-client service-oriented architecture. This paper proposes a new feature-based modeling mechanism—document-driven design—to enable batch mode geometry construction for distributed CAD systems. A semantic feature model is developed to represent informative and communicative design intent. Feature semantics is explicitly captured as a trinary relation, which provides good extensibility and prevents semantics loss. Data interoperability between domains is enhanced by schema mapping and multiresolution semantics. This mechanism aims to enable asynchronous communication in distributed CAD environments with ease of design alternative evaluation and reuse, reduced human errors, and improved system throughput and utilization

Analyzing and Implementing a Feature Mapping Approach to CAD System Interoperability

Interoperable information exchange between computer-aided design (CAD) systems is one of the major problems to enable information integration in a collaborative engineering environment. Although a significant amount of work has been done on the extension and standardization of CAD data formats as well as the cooperation of CAD systems in both academy and industry, these approaches are generally low-level and narrowly targeted. Lack of fundamental study of interoperability and generic solution to this problem is the major issue. Our intention of this research is to design a solution of CAD feature interoperability as generic as possible based on a theoretical foundation of language types. In this paper, we present a fundamental model of semantic features and feature mapping process based on the type theory. We implement and demonstrate our approach for automated feature exchange between commercial CAD systems

Extending product lifecycle management for manufacturing knowledge sharing

Product lifecycle management provides a framework for information sharing that promotes various types of decisionmaking procedures. For product lifecycle management to advance towards knowledge-driven decision support, then this demands more than simply exchanging information. There is, therefore, a need to formally capture best practice through-life engineering knowledge that can be fed back across the product lifecycle. This article investigates the interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems concept. Interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems use an expressive ontological approach that drives the improved configuration of product lifecycle management systems for manufacturing knowledge sharing. An ontology of relevant core product lifecycle concepts is identified from which viewpoint-specific domains, such as design and manufacture, can be formalised. Essential ontology-based mechanisms are accommodated to support the verification and sharing of manufacturing knowledge across domains. The work has been experimentally assessed using an aerospace compressor disc design and manufacture example. While it has been demonstrated that the approach supports the representation of disparate design and manufacture perspectives as well as manufacturing knowledge feedback in a timely manner, areas for improvement have also been identified for future work