Title: Management and Communication of Distributed Conceptual Design Knowledge in the Building and Construction Industry
1Management and Communicationof Distributed
Conceptual Design Knowledgein the Building and
Construction Industry
Dr.ir. Jos van LeeuwenEindhoven University of
Technology Department of Building and
ArchitectureDesign Systems Group
2Topics in this presentation
- Distributed Conceptual Design Knowledge
- Design Support requirements
- Knowledge modelling dissemination
- Feature-Based Modelling
- XML concept and potentials
- Artificial Intelligence
- Feature Management System
- Feature Type recognition
3Design Knowledge
Jos Harnischmacher
identification
uniqueness
analysis
creativity
iterative processes
Design conceptsthe notion of how a type of
solution can be designed
4Distributed Conceptual Design Knowledge
- Distributed
- Multi-designer projects (collaborative design)
- Sharing design knowledge (outside project-scope)
- Conceptual
- Early design stages
- Concerning the design rationale
Niels Olivier
5Design Support requirements
- Find information
- Acquire information
- Store information
- Retrieve information
- Adapt information
- Correct information
- Structure information
- Restructure information
- Define information
- Refine information
Dynamic process
6Design Support requirements
- Allowing architects to formalise their own design
concepts, to use their own typologies when
modelling a design.
7Knowledge modelling
- Designer specific
- Conceptual level of design informationnot only
what is designed,but also how is designed - Technique Object orientationboth description
and behaviour are involvedinstance level and
typological level
8Knowledge dissemination
- Collaborative design
- Sharing of design knowledge
- AI approaches for knowledge re-use,e.g.,
case-based design - Evaluation, adaptation
- Knowledge management
9Role of Internet
- Increasing importance for collaboration
- Becoming the main / first source of information
- Free, world-wide, accessible, standard,
10Topics in this presentation
- Distributed Conceptual Design Knowledge
- Design Support requirements
- Knowledge modelling dissemination
- Feature-Based Modelling
- XML concept and potentials
- Artificial Intelligence
- Feature Management System
- Feature Type recognition
11VR-DIS Design Information System
- Some of the objectives
- VR interface for design activities
- Support for design in early stages
- Support for collaborative design
- Dynamic way of dealing with informationextensibi
lity and flexibility of bothdesign models and
conceptual design models
12Integration of 3 research disciplines
InternetTechnology for Management
Communicationof Knowledge
13Feature-Based Modelling
- Features are instantiations ofFeature Types
(formalised design concepts) - Feature Types can be defined to represent simple
data, or complex structures of other Feature
Types - Feature models contain Features that may possess
non-typical characteristics(i.e. ad-hoc
properties and relationships)
14Feature-Based Modelling
Example a type Roof with characteristics such
as slope, material, thermal insulation, etc.
15Feature-Based Modelling
16Feature-Based Modelling Framework
- Extensibilitydesigner can define typologies
- Flexibilityreferential structures,ad hoc
modelling(e.g., associative reasoning)
17Feature Management System
- Feature Management Moduleprevious implementation
was based on Object Oriented DB
18XML eXtensible Markup Language
- Concept
- Structured documents
- Document structure can be defined by user
- Internet facilities for linking and re-using
documents - Standardised document management
19XML eXtensible Markup Language
- Potentials
- Standard for document storage / management /
exchange - Standard interface for databases
- Replacement for HTML
20XML eXtensible Markup Language
- Example
- ltbuilding nameMain Buildinggt
- ltfloor level4gt
- ltroom number01 purposestudio/gt
- lt/floorgt
- ltfunction namestudiogt
- ltsize activitydesigngt6lt/sizegt
- ltsize activitylecturegt20lt/sizegt
- ltfacilitygtmultimedia presentationlt/facility gt
- lt/functiongt
- lt/buildinggt
21XML-Schema defining XML doc. structures
- ltxsdcomplexType name"Space"gt
- ltxsdcomplexContentgt
- ltxsdextension base"ftrbaseFtrType"gt
- ltxsdsequencegt
- ltxsdelement name"area" type"ftrbaseRo
le" minOccurs"0" ftrbaseroletype"spec
" - ftrbaseftrtyperef"Area"/gt
- lt/xsdsequencegt
- lt/xsdextensiongt
- lt/xsdcomplexContentgt
- lt/xsdcomplexTypegt
ltxsdcomplexType name"Room"gt ltxsdcomplexConten
tgt ltxsdextension base"Space"gt ltxsdsequence
gt ltxsdelement name"enclosedBy" type"ft
rbaseRole" minOccurs"0" maxOccurs"unb
ounded" ftrbaseroletype"assoc" ftrbase
ftrtyperef"Wall"/gt lt/xsdsequencegt lt/xsdex
tensiongt lt/xsdcomplexContentgt lt/xsdcomplexTypegt
ltArea name"Area1" value"29.7"/gt ltRoom
name"Office1"gt ltarea ref"Area1"/gt ltenclosedBy
ref"WallB" index"1"/gt ltenclosedBy ref"WallC"
index"2"/gt ltnumberOfWorkplaces
refNoDesksInOffice1/gt lt/spatialRoomgt
22Implementation issues
- Microsofts .NET environment
- Offers cross-platform capabilities
- Allows easy re-utilisation of codee.g., for
standalone applications or forweb-based
applications - Extensive XML facilities
23Artificial Intelligence
- AI in this project is used to enableKnowledge
Dissemination - Indexing a design case in order to generate a
database of design concepts(design problems and
solutions) - Find similar cases for a given design case
- Search for existing solutions to a design problem
- Restructure information to facilitate the above
- Adaptation of found design solution to existing
situation(adjusting the set of variables) - Application of design solution to current
problem(filling in the variables)
24Artificial Intelligence
- Technologies required
- Matching information structuresboth at the
typological and instantiated level - Finding similar types, finding new
types,recognising new types, - Application of heuristics for non-exact matching
- How to fill in the gaps or skip the irrelevant
- Conversion of information structures
- Resolve linguistic, cultural, stylistic
differences - Adaptation techniques for both the conceptual
level and the instantiation procedure - How to evaluate the variables of the design
concept and how to apply them to the existing
situation
25Feature Management System
- Based on XML technology
- Makes resources from Internet available
- Enables sharing through Internet
- Standard communication format for design data and
design knowledge
26Feature Type Recognition
- Recognising the emergence of new concepts
- Recognising and verifying known typologies
- Finding similarities between typologies for,
e.g., exchange purposes
27Topics in this presentation
- Distributed Conceptual Design Knowledge
- Design Support requirements
- Knowledge modelling dissemination
- Feature-Based Modelling
- XML concept and potentials
- Artificial Intelligence
- Feature Management System
- Feature Type recognition
28Feature Type Recognition
- Support for consistency in the design task
- Support for Case retrieval
- Matching functional specs with technical
solutions - Support for exchange of design data
- Support for design evaluation
- Support for consistency in the design task
29Recognising the emergence of new concepts
Instanceswith ad-hoc modelled properties and
relationships
30Recognising the emergence of new concepts
- Involves
- Examining the existing model, trying to find
recurring patterns of interrelated concepts - Checking if such patterns match with existing
typologies (e.g. aggregations), - if not
- Proposing the definition of new Feature Types to
represent the newborn design concepts
31Recognising and verifying known typologies
illustration 1
32Recognising and verifying known typologies
illustration 2
33Recognising and verifying known typologies
- Involves
- Searching for instances of known major
types(so-called root types) - If found attempt to match the context inthe
model with the context in the typology - If not found attempt to infer instances of known
types by examining the model and applying
heuristics
34Topics in this presentation
- Distributed Conceptual Design Knowledge
- Design Support requirements
- Knowledge modelling dissemination
- Feature-Based Modelling
- XML concept and potentials
- Artificial Intelligence
- Feature Management System
- Feature Type recognition
35To conclude
- Feature-Based Modelling
- enables designers to follow a dynamic design
approach while benefiting from the capabilities
of computer support - XML technology
- confirms that the dynamic approach of design
information modelling is a feasible and enhanced
approach with great potentials - Case-Based Reasoning technologies
- are currently being investigated and will be
incorporated in the FBM information management
environment
36Discussion
- Modelling approach
- Artificial Intelligence methods and techniques
- Application and testing environment
- Organisational implementation issues
37Thank you very muchfor your time and attention
- More information and this presentationcan be
found at these websites - www.ds.arch.tue.nl/jos
- jos.civil.ist.utl.pt