Automated Generation of Construction Sequences using Building Information Models

ABSTRACT Construction scheduling is usually limited to the documentation of one final construction schedule, and construction alternatives that might have been considered during the planning process are usually not included in the final schedule. Moreover, a formal control of construction schedules in terms of completeness and correctness is very limited, because existing methods, such as 4D visualization, are insufficiently integrated into the construction planning process. This paper addresses the development of a software framework that has been designed to support the process of construction scheduling. As will be shown in this paper, the process of construction scheduling, which is usually carried out manually, is conducted automatically to a large extent using building information models (BIM) and 4D visualization. Due to the logical interconnections of BIM objects and construction tasks, flexible schedules and visual representations of construction processes are automatically generated without permanent human interaction

An Autonomous Landslide Monitoring System based on Wireless Sensor Networks

Landslides cause significant damages to civil infrastructure. Over the years, methods and technologies have been proposed to determine the risk of landslides and to detect hazardous slope movements. There have been increasing interests in developing and landslide monitoring systems to observe movements using sensors installed on the slope. Although providing accurate data, many landslide monitoring systems are not operating in an automated fashion and lack the ability to analyze the collected data in a timely manner. This paper presents an autonomous landslide monitoring system based on wireless sensor networks. Self-contained, autonomous software programs (“software agents”) are embedded into the wireless sensor nodes. In cooperation with each other, the software agents are continuously collecting and analyzing sensor data, such as recorded ground acceleration and the orientations of the sensor nodes along the slope. If movements are observed, the collected data sets are automatically transmitted to a connected server system for further diagnoses. The landslide monitoring system presented in this paper is remotely accessible via Internet and provides real-time information about the current state of the monitored slope. Laboratory tests have been conducted to validate the reliability and the performance of the monitoring system