Integrating BIM and Project Schedule Information Using Semantic Web Technology

Abstract

A construction project requires collaboration of a large number of individuals working in different organizations to deliver the project on time and within the budget. Architecture, engineering, and construction industry spends time and money to solve the information sharing and interoperability issues between different domains. With the advent of building information modeling, a 3D CAD model of a project is used as a shared knowledge resource during the design, construction, and facility management phases of a project's life cycle. Currently, 4D models are created by combining CAD and schedule information. A 4D model is useful for detecting potential construction conflicts during the project planning and design and a valuable tool during construction. However, creating 4D models requires a great amount of human involvement. An approach that facilitates integrating BIM and schedule information can improve efficiency and is highly desirable. This paper presents a new approach to information modeling using the Semantic Web technology. The Semantic Web provides an infrastructure and a data modeling format that allows computers to access and combine information distributed over the Internet. The paper discusses:(1) ontologies that the authors have developed for BIM and project schedule information; (2) how ontologies are used for creating project knowledge bases in RDF/OWL format; and (3) how project knowledge bases can facilitate machine processing of project information and semantic interoperability among project knowledge bases. The Semantic Web approach allows information to be saved once at the provider source and be used by authorized users as needed. This means BIM information is created and maintained by designers and project schedule is created and maintained by schedulers on their respective servers. This would allow the latest BIM and project schedule information to be accessed over the Internet and combined for various purposes.

Semantic Web and Linked Data for Information Exchange between the Building and Product Manufacturing Industries: A Literature Review

“…Gudnason and Pauwels (2016) mentioned how building product information are heterogeneous, unstructured and produced in incompatible semantics in the building industry. It is a current trend that manufacturers provide their product information mostly in PDF format (Niknam et al, 2019, Costa and Madrazo, 2015, Berlo et al, 2019. Consequently, building designers are obliged to manually insert this information into their BIM tools, which is usually errorprone and inefficient (Niknam et al, 2019).…”

“…It is a current trend that manufacturers provide their product information mostly in PDF format (Niknam et al, 2019, Costa and Madrazo, 2015, Berlo et al, 2019. Consequently, building designers are obliged to manually insert this information into their BIM tools, which is usually errorprone and inefficient (Niknam et al, 2019). Hence, there is a need for an integration of product data using ontology where data is structured and connected on the web so that it can be processed by machines (Niknam and Karshenas, 2017).…”

A shared ontology approach to semantic representation of BIM data

“…The three knowledge bases include the BIM knowledge base discussed in Section 4, a cost estimating knowledge base, 32,42 and a scheduling knowledge base. 43 Information access and integration in a shared ontology architecture is demonstrated for three scenarios:…”

“…SchO in Query 3 is the prefix the authors assigned to the scheduling ontology. 43 Query 3. Retrieve design and schedule properties.…”

Supply Chain Semantic Information Modeling for Data Integration with BIM and FM

“…Each company needs to semantically define its web services and publish semantic descriptions of its web service on the web so that other companies' computer applications can communicate with it. A few studies have shown the applications of Semantic Web and Semantic Web services in AEC-FM projects [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Figure 2 shows the communication system between a BIM knowledge base [9] and a supplier's semantic web service that we have developed.…”