An ontological approach for technical plan definition and verification in construction

a r t i c l e i n f o Construction planning is a fundamental and challenging process in the management and execution of construction projects. The task of developing technical plans is critical to ensuring the success of a construction project. This task of preparing a technical plan is usually undertaken manually using two separate processes: (1) plan definition and (2) verification/checking. This paper introduces an ontological approach to support the plan definition and verification process. Using this approach, the technical plans are modeled into plan ontology in a layered modeling structure. The verification knowledge is modeled into ontology axioms and semantic rules. A case example is used to demonstrate the proposed approach for pit excavation. In addition, the proposed approach enables the compliance verification process to be undertaken in parallel with the technical plan definition. As a result, the plans' compliance can be ensured during the project delivery process. The research provides a novel ontological and semantic mechanism for reusing plans and their automatic verification in construction, which is semantically reasoned. Planning is a fundamental and challenging process in the management and execution of construction projects. The task of developing construction technical plans is critical to ensuring project success. The process associated with the creation of the technical plan definition involves selecting methods and/or technologies for construction, defining tasks and precedence relationships among activities, estimating activity durations and resource requirements for work activities, making organizational decisions about the relationships between project participants and their subsequent selection [1]. In this paper, we focus on the creation of the definition and verification of a construction plan where defining tasks, methods, operations/ activities and their procedures as well as resources are determined. The development of a technical plan is a knowledge-intensive task. Such plans need to satisfy the constraints imposed by regulatory bodies and the requirements of client. To ensure the compliance of constraints, a process whereby the plan is verified should be undertaken by experts through a review meeting [2]. The process of developing a technical plan can be divided logically into two sub-processes, which are undertaken separately in engineering practice: (1) plan definition and (2) verification/checking. In engineering practice, the technical plan is developed by adapting one from a similar project that has been completed [3]. Upon completion of the plan definition, the verification process is then undertaken by independent professional experts. These two sub-processes are typically undertaken …