Towards a semantic Construction Digital Twin: directions for future research

As the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector is embracing the digital age, the processes involved in the design, construction and operation of built assets are more and more influenced by technologies dealing with value-added monitoring of data from sensor networks, management of this data in secure and resilient storage systems underpinned by semantic models, as well as the simulation and optimisation of engineering systems. Aside from enhancing the efficiency of the value chain, such information-intensive models and associated technologies play a decisive role in minimising the lifecycle impacts of our buildings. While Building Information Modelling provides procedures, technologies and data schemas enabling a standardised semantic representation of building components and systems, the concept of a Digital Twin conveys a more holistic socio-technical and process-oriented characterisation of the complex artefacts involved by leveraging the synchronicity of the cyber-physical bi-directional data flows. Moreover, BIM lacks semantic completeness in areas such as control systems, including sensor networks, social systems, and urban artefacts beyond the scope of buildings, thus requiring a holistic, scalable semantic approach that factors in dynamic data at different levels. The paper reviews the multi-faceted applications of BIM during the construction stage and highlights limits and requirements, paving the way to the concept of a Construction Digital Twin. A definition of such a concept is then given, described in terms of underpinning research themes, while elaborating on areas for future research

Development of an adaptation table to enhance the accuracy of the predicted mean vote model

The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) model is extensively used by current thermal comfort standards, such as ASHRAE 55 and ISO 7730, despite its discrepancy in predicting Thermal Sensation (TS). The implicit assumption is that PMV can be applied for predicting TS of a large population. Our statistical analysis of a subset of ASHRAE global database of thermal comfort field study shows that occupants’ expectations towards TS are affected by factors that are not accounted for in the classic PMV model, such as climate, building type, age group, season and gender. The influences of the climate and building type are more determinant. An adapted PMV (PMVa) model and an adaptation table were developed based on the selected samples to reduce this discrepancy. After adaptation, the medians of each category corresponding to the discrepancy are zero or near zero. The results also show that the adapted PMV outperforms the classic PMV in predicting TS, while increasing the overall accuracy from 36% to 39%

The data acquisition system of the CHORUS experiment

In the years 1994-1998 the CHORUS Collaboration has recorded data in the CERN WA95 experiment. Here we describe the data acquisition system that has been used, featuring concurrent hierarchical state machines, a remote operating system, a buffer manager, a dispatcher, a control panel and a supervisor

La représentation de la confiance dans l'activité collective Application à la coordination de l'activité de chantier de construction

Specificities of the construction sector generate uncertain cooperative work context. Especially, the building construction is an "on-site" production activity. Therefore numerous dysfunctions can appear during the activity. For example we underline possible problems due to the ground composition, to the bad weather conditions, or dysfunctions related to interactions between participants (e.g. material supply, workers interfaces...). Coordination of building construction depends on a subtle combination between explicit vs. implicit interactions, where organization takes various forms (i.e. hierarchic, adhocratic and transversal). Quality of the collective process is thus largely dependent on autonomy capability and responsibility sharing of each of the involved actors. Our hypothesis is that such a collective context is mainly based on the notion of trust. Indeed trust has the capability to reduce the perception of risk and to enable action in uncertain environments. Consequently, we suggest applying trust notion to the issue of design of cooperation support tools, towards a new vision of collective activity management based on trust representation. This Ph.D research introduces the notion of "trust in the good process of the activity". We suggest that this one is dependent on each dimension of collective construction activity: its progress, the actors involved in its execution, the resulting building works (and their construction difficulty), as well as required execution documents (i.e. plans, reports...). Our methodology consists firstly in identifying the various trust criterions that we validate through a first terrain survey. Secondly we establish a mathematical model aiming at evaluating trust level based on cooperation context information. Then the proposition suggests a prototype tool, called Bat'iTrust, implementing a multi-views service-based software architecture. Finally the validation is assessed through both surveys and an experimentation stage. These ones allow us to confront our results to experimental subjects representative of the construction domain.Les spécificités du secteur de la construction engendrent un contexte de travail coopératif que nous pouvons qualifier d'incertain par nature. L'activité de chantier se caractérise par un mode de production in situ. Dès lors, nombreux sont les dysfonctionnements qui peuvent apparaître. Nous citerons, par exemple, les problèmes liés à la nature du sol, aux intempéries ou encore ceux qui sont propres aux interactions entre les intervenants (ex. fourniture en matériaux, interfaces entre les corps de métier...). Aussi, la coordination repose sur un mélange subtil entre interactions implicites et explicites, où l'organisation prend de multiples configurations (hiérarchique, adhocratique ou transversale), et où la qualité du processus collectif repose sur l'autonomie et le sens des responsabilités de chacun des intervenants. Nous faisons l'hypothèse qu'un tel contexte est largement fondé sur la notion de confiance, car celle-ci a la capacité de réduire la perception du risque et de permettre l'action dans un environnement marqué par de nombreuses incertitudes. En conséquence, nous suggérons un rapprochement entre les outils d'assistance à la coordination et la notion de confiance, et nous proposons une nouvelle approche du pilotage de l'activité collective à partir de la représentation de la confiance. Ce travail de doctorat se structure autour de la notion de «confiance dans le bon déroulement de l'activité». Nous suggérons que celle-ci est dépendante de chacune des dimensions de l'activité collective : sa progression, les acteurs chargés de son exécution, les ouvrages en résultant (et leur difficulté de mise en œuvre), ainsi que les documents nécessaires à sa réalisation. Aussi, notre méthode consiste d'abord en l'identification des divers critères de confiance, consolidés par une étude de terrain. Puis, nous établissons un modèle mathématique destiné à évaluer cette confiance à partir des informations issues d'un contexte de coopération. Sur base de ces éléments, s'en suit la proposition d'un prototype dénommé Bat'iTrust, reposant sur une architecture logicielle multi-vues et orientée services. Pour l'utilisateur, la navigation au sein de ce prototype est guidée par un tableau de bord centré sur le concept de confiance. Enfin, la validation de cette proposition repose sur des enquêtes et une phase d'expérimentation qui nous ont permis de confronter nos résultats à des sujets expérimentaux représentatifs du domaine

Representation of trust in collective activity. Application to the coordination of the building construction activity

L’activité de chantier se caractérise par un mode de production in situ. Dès lors, nombreux sont les dysfonctionnements qui peuvent apparaître. La coordination du chantier repose sur un mélange subtil entre interactions implicites et explicites, où l’organisation prend de multiples configurations (hiérarchique, adhocratique ou transversale), et où la qualité du processus collectif repose sur l’autonomie et le sens des responsabilités de chacun des intervenants. Nous faisons l’hypothèse qu’un tel contexte est largement fondé sur la notion de confiance, car celle-ci a la capacité de réduire la perception du risque et de permettre l’action dans un environnement incertain. En conséquence, nous suggérons un rapprochement entre les outils d’assistance à la coordination et la notion de confiance, et nous proposons une nouvelle approche du pilotage de l’activité collective à partir de la représentation de la confiance. Ce travail de doctorat se structure autour de la notion de « confiance dans le bon déroulement de l’activité ». Notre méthode consiste d’abord en l’identification des divers critères de confiance, consolidés par une étude de terrain. Puis, nous établissons un modèle mathématique destiné à évaluer cette confiance à partir des informations issues d’un contexte de coopération. Sur base de ces éléments, s’en suit la proposition d’un prototype dénommé Bat’iTrust. La navigation au sein de ce prototype est guidée par un tableau de bord centré sur le concept de confiance. Enfin, la validation de cette proposition repose sur des enquêtes et une phase d’expérimentation qui nous ont permis de confronter nos résultats à des sujets expérimentaux représentatifs du domaineThe building construction is an “on-site” production activity. Therefore numerous dysfunctions can appear during the activity. The coordination of building construction depends on a subtle combination between explicit vs. implicit interactions, where organization takes various forms (i.e. hierarchic, adhocratic and transversal). Quality of the collective process is thus largely dependent on autonomy capability and responsibility sharing of each of the involved actors. Our hypothesis is that such a collective context is mainly based on the notion of trust. Indeed trust has the capability to reduce the perception of risk and to enable action in uncertain environments. Consequently, we suggest applying trust notion to the issue of design of cooperation support tools, towards a new vision of collective activity management based on trust representation. This Ph.D. research introduces the notion of “trust in the good progress of the activity”. Our methodology consists firstly in identifying the various trust criterions that we validate through a terrain survey. Secondly we establish a mathematical model aiming at evaluating trust level based on cooperation context information. Then the proposition suggests a prototype tool, called Bat’iTrust. User-navigation inside the prototype is guided by a dashboard view centred on the trust concept. Finally the validation is assessed through both surveys and an experimentation stage. These ones allow us to confront our results to experimenters subjects representative of the construction domai

Multi-visualization of the Cooperative Context in Building Construction Activity A Model-Based Approach to design AEC-specific Visualization Interfaces

Cooperation between actors in design and construction activities in architecture is an essential stake nowadays. In professional practices the actors involved in construction projects use numerous tools. The project is unique but the “views ” that actors manipulate are various and sometimes fundamentally different. Their common characteristic is that they partially represent the cooperation context through a “business specific ” point of view. Bat’iViews suggests to the actors a multi-view interface of the context and enables to navigate through the different views. This proposition is based on a model-driven approach. We distinguish between “context modelling ” and modelling of concepts represented in each “business-view”. A model integrative infrastructure allows us to develop the prototype and to manage user interaction through the definition of models ’ transformations. Keywords--- Building construction, Coordinatio

Aligning IFC and SRI domains for BIM supported SRI assessement

Although more assessment and certification schemes aimed at buildings appear on the market, professionals always face the same challenges: information scarcity and data flow interruptions. It therefore becomes crucial to rigorously assess the information workflows associated with built assets in order to help deliver the subsequent assessment services and certification schemes. The Smart Readiness Indicator is a new assessment scheme directed at harmonizing the smartness levels of buildings and intelligent installations at a European level. While the European Union defines the Smart Readiness Indicator scope and assessment methodology towards new regulations with the member states, the availability of data should strategically rely on existing sources such as the Building Information Model in order to automate and simplify the efforts of assessors. This paper explores the potential of Building Information Model data, more specifically relying on the Industry Foundation Classes schema, to support assessors with more automatic extraction of relevant information on the building and its equipment. The adopted methodology looks at the semantic alignment between the two domains. An initial alignment of concepts from several versions of the Industry Foundation Classes is proposed. This alignment was implemented using several rules, which were tested on the architectural and mechanical models of the same building. The study shows the convenience of employing such a methodology, the usefulness of data from existing building models, but also their limitations in correctly identifying relevant concepts

Digital twins for the built environment

The increasing availability of data and new ways to leverage it have pushed engineering domains into investigating a Digital Twin (DT) paradigm, which assumes full integration and cohesion between the physical and the virtual worlds. Although the prospects of digital twinning have been gradually explored within the fields of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and various BIM uses, the next level of integration needs to consider available methods and tools (procedures and technologies) which would give a digital twin more cohesion over the managed information, more adaptability and bring out more value from our virtual models. Within this chapter, we introduce the recent relevant aspects related to digital twin in research, along with existing initiatives and potential future paths. These are presented through the lenses of various application domains within the built environment by looking at digital twin requirements, technologies, architectures, modularity of services, as well as the role of semantics in achieving communication between different entities. Although the future of the digital twin paradigm remains uncertain, the vision of being able to monitor, simulate, optimise and then consequently automate and actuate the real world at various levels remains one of the most valuable prospects for our built environment, thus ensuring lower negative effects on the environment in the long-run