A knowledge based system for linking information to support decision making in construction

This work describes the development of a project model centred on the information and knowledge generated and used by managers. It describes a knowledge-based system designed for this purpose. A knowledge acquisition exercise was undertaken to determine the tasks of project managers and the information necessary for and used by these tasks. This information was organised into a knowledge base for use by an expert system. The form of the knowledge lent itself to organisation into a link network. The structure of the knowledge-based system, which was developed, is outlined and its use described. Conclusions are drawn as to the applicability of the model and the final system. The work undertaken shows that it is feasible to benefit from the field of artificial intelligence to develop a project manager assistant computer program that utilises the benefit of information and its link

Proposed genetic algorithms for construction site layout

The positioning of temporary facilities on a construction site is an area of research which has been recognised as important but which has received relatively little attention. In this paper, a genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the problem in which m facilities are to be positioned to n available sites such that the total cost of construction and interactive cost due to facility layout constraints are minimised. A sequence-based genetic formulation of the problem is presented. Genetic crossover and mutation operators are developed for the problem and their performance evaluated and compared on an example project. The results obtained suggest that the different operators perform very differently but that one could be relied on to find the optimum. Overall, experiments suggest that the technique will prove useful when tackling real problems

Genetic Algorithms for Construction Site Layout in Project Planning

Construction site layout is concerned with the existence, positioning, and timing of the temporary facilities that are used to carry out a construction project. Typically these problems are very complicated to formulate and difficult to solve. They are, however, very important to virtually any construction project, since the site layout can significantly affect the cost of the project. This paper describes the general site layout problem from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. It proposes genetic algorithms as a possible solution technique and includes a theoretical example of positioning temporary facilities. This is extended to a practical problem in which the cost of movement is modeled realistically using an augmented genetic algorithm. Some preliminary conclusions are drawn for the application of genetic algorithms to construction site layout problem