A Text Classification-Based Approach for Evaluating and Enhancing the Machine Interpretability of Building Codes

Interpreting regulatory documents or building codes into computer-processable formats is essential for the intelligent design and construction of buildings and infrastructures. Although automated rule interpretation (ARI) methods have been investigated for years, most of them highly depend on the early and manual filtering of interpretable clauses from a building code. While few of them considered machine interpretability, which represents the potential to be transformed into a computer-processable format, from both clause- and document-level. Therefore, this research aims to propose a novel approach to automatically evaluate and enhance the machine interpretability of single clause and building codes. First, a few categories are introduced to classify each clause in a building code considering the requirements for rule interpretation, and a dataset is developed for model training. Then, an efficient text classification model is developed based on a pretrained domain-specific language model and transfer learning techniques. Finally, a quantitative evaluation method is proposed to assess the overall interpretability of building codes. Experiments show that the proposed text classification algorithm outperforms the existing CNN- or RNN-based methods, improving the F1-score from 72.16% to 93.60%. It is also illustrated that the proposed classification method can enhance downstream ARI methods with an improvement of 4%. Furthermore, analyzing the results of more than 150 building codes in China showed that their average interpretability is 34.40%, which implies that it is still hard to fully transform the entire regulatory document into computer-processable formats. It is also argued that the interpretability of building codes should be further improved both from the human side and the machine side.

LLM-FuncMapper: Function Identification for Interpreting Complex Clauses in Building Codes via LLM

As a vital stage of automated rule checking (ARC), rule interpretation of regulatory texts requires considerable effort. However, interpreting regulatory clauses with implicit properties or complex computational logic is still challenging due to the lack of domain knowledge and limited expressibility of conventional logic representations. Thus, LLM-FuncMapper, an approach to identifying predefined functions needed to interpret various regulatory clauses based on the large language model (LLM), is proposed. First, by systematically analysis of building codes, a series of atomic functions are defined to capture shared computational logics of implicit properties and complex constraints, creating a database of common blocks for interpreting regulatory clauses. Then, a prompt template with the chain of thought is developed and further enhanced with a classification-based tuning strategy, to enable common LLMs for effective function identification. Finally, the proposed approach is validated with statistical analysis, experiments, and proof of concept. Statistical analysis reveals a long-tail distribution and high expressibility of the developed function database, with which almost 100% of computer-processible clauses can be interpreted and represented as computer-executable codes. Experiments show that LLM-FuncMapper achieve promising results in identifying relevant predefined functions for rule interpretation. Further proof of concept in automated rule interpretation also demonstrates the possibility of LLM-FuncMapper in interpreting complex regulatory clauses. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to introduce LLM for understanding and interpreting complex regulatory clauses, which may shed light on further adoption of LLM in the construction domain.

A Multilayer Perceptron-based Fast Sunlight Assessment for the Conceptual Design of Residential Neighborhoods under Chinese Policy

In Chinese building codes, it is required that residential buildings receive a minimum number of hours of natural, direct sunlight on a specified winter day, which represents the worst sunlight condition in a year. This requirement is a prerequisite for obtaining a building permit during the conceptual design of a residential project. Thus, officially sanctioned software is usually used to assess the sunlight performance of buildings. These software programs predict sunlight hours based on repeated shading calculations, which is time-consuming. This paper proposed a multilayer perceptron-based method, a one-stage prediction approach, which outputs a shading time interval caused by the inputted cuboid-form building. The sunlight hours of a site can be obtained by calculating the union of the sunlight time intervals (complement of shading time interval) of all the buildings. Three numerical experiments, i.e., horizontal level and slope analysis, and simulation-based optimization are carried out; the results show that the method reduces the computation time to 1/84~1/50 with 96.5%~98% accuracies. A residential neighborhood layout planning plug-in for Rhino 7/Grasshopper is also developed based on the proposed model. This paper indicates that deep learning techniques can be adopted to accelerate sunlight hour simulations at the conceptual design phase.

Adaptive Control of Resource Flow to Optimize Construction Work and Cash Flow via Online Deep Reinforcement Learning

Due to complexity and dynamics of construction work, resource, and cash flows, poor management of them usually leads to time and cost overruns, bankruptcy, even project failure. Existing approaches in construction failed to achieve optimal control of resource flow in a dynamic environment with uncertainty. Therefore, this paper introducess a model and method to adaptive control the resource flows to optimize the work and cash flows of construction projects. First, a mathematical model based on a partially observable Markov decision process is established to formulate the complex interactions of construction work, resource, and cash flows as well as uncertainty and variability of diverse influence factors. Meanwhile, to efficiently find the optimal solutions, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based method is introduced to realize the continuous adaptive optimal control of labor and material flows, thereby optimizing the work and cash flows. To assist the training process of DRL, a simulator based on discrete event simulation is also developed to mimic the dynamic features and external environments of a project. Experiments in simulated scenarios illustrate that our method outperforms the vanilla empirical method and genetic algorithm, possesses remarkable capability in diverse projects and external environments, and a hybrid agent of DRL and empirical method leads to the best result. This paper contributes to adaptive control and optimization of coupled work, resource, and cash flows, and may serve as a step stone for adopting DRL technology in construction project management.

Automatic Design Method of Building Pipeline Layout Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

The layout design of pipelines is a critical task in the construction industry. Currently, pipeline layout is designed manually by engineers, which is time-consuming and laborious. Automating and streamlining this process can reduce the burden on engineers and save time. In this paper, we propose a method for generating three-dimensional layout of pipelines based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL). Firstly, we abstract the geometric features of space to establish a training environment and define reward functions based on three constraints: pipeline length, elbow, and installation distance. Next, we collect data through interactions between the agent and the environment and train the DRL model. Finally, we use the well-trained DRL model to automatically design a single pipeline. Our results demonstrate that DRL models can complete the pipeline layout task in space in a much shorter time than traditional algorithms while ensuring high-quality layout outcomes.

Earthquake Impact Analysis Based on Text Mining and Social Media Analytics

Earthquakes have a deep impact on wide areas, and emergency rescue operations may benefit from social media information about the scope and extent of the disaster. Therefore, this work presents a text miningbased approach to collect and analyze social media data for early earthquake impact analysis. First, disasterrelated microblogs are collected from the Sina microblog based on crawler technology. Then, after data cleaning a series of analyses are conducted including (1) the hot words analysis, (2) the trend of the number of microblogs, (3) the trend of public opinion sentiment, and (4) a keyword and rule-based text classification for earthquake impact analysis. Finally, two recent earthquakes with the same magnitude and focal depth in China are analyzed to compare their impacts. The results show that the public opinion trend analysis and the trend of public opinion sentiment can estimate the earthquake's social impact at an early stage, which will be helpful to decision-making and rescue management.

Text Mining-Based Patent Analysis for Automated Rule Checking in AEC

Automated rule checking (ARC), which is expected to promote the efficiency of the compliance checking process in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, is gaining increasing attention. Throwing light on the ARC application hotspots and forecasting its trends are useful to the related research and drive innovations. Therefore, this study takes the patents from the database of the Derwent Innovations Index database (DII) and China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) as data sources and then carried out a three-step analysis including (1) quantitative characteristics (i.e., annual distribution analysis) of patents, (2) identification of ARC topics using a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and, (3) SNA-based co-occurrence analysis of ARC topics. The results show that the research hotspots and trends of Chinese and English patents are different. The contributions of this study have three aspects: (1) an approach to a comprehensive analysis of patents by integrating multiple text mining methods (i.e., SNA and LDA) is introduced ; (2) the application hotspots and development trends of ARC are reviewed based on patent analysis; and (3) a signpost for technological development and innovation of ARC is provided.

Exploiting the Power of Human-Robot Collaboration: Coupling and Scale Effects in Bricklaying

As an important contributor to GDP growth, the construction industry is suffering from labor shortage due to population ageing, COVID-19 pandemic, and harsh environments. Considering the complexity and dynamics of construction environment, it is still challenging to develop fully automated robots. For a long time in the future, workers and robots will coexist and collaborate with each other to build or maintain a facility efficiently. As an emerging field, human-robot collaboration (HRC) still faces various open problems. To this end, this pioneer research introduces an agent-based modeling approach to investigate the coupling effect and scale effect of HRC in the bricklaying process. With multiple experiments based on simulation, the dynamic and complex nature of HRC is illustrated in two folds: 1) agents in HRC are interdependent due to human factors of workers, features of robots, and their collaboration behaviors; 2) different parameters of HRC are correlated and have significant impacts on construction productivity (CP). Accidentally and interestingly, it is discovered that HRC has a scale effect on CP, which means increasing the number of collaborated human-robot teams will lead to higher CP even if the human-robot ratio keeps unchanged. Overall, it is argued that more investigations in HRC are needed for efficient construction, occupational safety, etc.; and this research can be taken as a stepstone for developing and evaluating new robots, optimizing HRC processes, and even training future industrial workers in the construction industry.

Pretrained Domain-Specific Language Model for General Information Retrieval Tasks in the AEC Domain

As an essential task for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, information retrieval (IR) from unstructured textual data based on natural language processing (NLP) is gaining increasing attention. Although various deep learning (DL) models for IR tasks have been investigated in the AEC domain, it is still unclear how domain corpora and domain-specific pretrained DL models can improve performance in various IR tasks. To this end, this work systematically explores the impacts of domain corpora and various transfer learning techniques on the performance of DL models for IR tasks and proposes a pretrained domain-specific language model for the AEC domain. First, both in-domain and close-domain corpora are developed. Then, two types of pretrained models, including traditional wording embedding models and BERT-based models, are pretrained based on various domain corpora and transfer learning strategies. Finally, several widely used DL models for IR tasks are further trained and tested based on various configurations and pretrained models. The result shows that domain corpora have opposite effects on traditional word embedding models for text classification and named entity recognition tasks but can further improve the performance of BERT-based models in all tasks. Meanwhile, BERT-based models dramatically outperform traditional methods in all IR tasks, with maximum improvements of 5.4% and 10.1% in the F1 score, respectively. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in two ways: 1) demonstrating the advantages of domain corpora and pretrained DL models and 2) opening the first domain-specific dataset and pretrained language model for the AEC domain, to the best of our knowledge. Thus, this work sheds light on the adoption and application of pretrained models in the AEC domain.

How human-robot collaboration impacts construction productivity: an agent-based multi-fidelity modeling approach

Though construction robots have drawn attention in research and practice for decades, human-robot collaboration (HRC) remains important to conduct complex construction tasks. Considering its complexity and uniqueness, it is still unclear how HRC process will impact construction productivity. To this end, an agent-based (AB) multi-fidelity modeling approach is introduced to simulate and evaluate how HRC influences construction productivity. A high-fidelity model is first proposed for a scenario with one robot. Then, a low-fidelity model is established to extract key parameters that capture the inner relationship among scenarios. The multi-fidelity models work together to simulate complex scenarios. Simulation and experiements show that: 1) the proposed approach is feasible and flexible for simulation of complex HRC processes, and can cover multiple collaboration and interaction modes; 2) the influence of the supplement strategy is simple when there is only one robot, where lower Check Interval (CI) and higher Supplement Limit (SL) will improve productivity. But the influence becomes much more complicated when there are more robots due to the internal competition among robots for the limited time of workers; 3) the productivity per robot improves when there are more robots and workers, even if the human-robot ratio remains the same; 4) introducing proactive interaction between robots and workers could improve productivity significantly, up to 22% in our experiments, which further depends on the supplement strategy and the human-robot ratio. Overall, this research contributes an integrated approach to simulate and evaluate HRC's impacts on productivity as well as valuable insights on how to optimize HRC for better performance.