The Application of Dai in the Construction Industry

This paper reviews the application of distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) techniques in the construction industry. DAI is concerned with understanding and modelling action and knowledge in collaborative and geographically distributed enterprises. The metaphor of a functionally distributed organisation immediately makes DAI techniques suitable for solving some of the complex problems often encountered in the construction industry. It has been suggested that the industry can learn useful lessons from the application of DAI in other industry sectors such as manufacturing and adapt these techniques to improve collaborative working especially in distributed design environments. This paper reviews the current state-of-the-art and potential applications of DAI in improving collaborative working and distributed decision-making in the construction industry. The study shows that there is limited application of DAI techniques in construction although a number of research projects are now beginning to address it. In contrast, DAI is used for a range of applications in other sectors notably manufacturing, and ideas from DAI are being applied to distributed decision-making in different fields such as: computer-supported cooperative working (CSCW), computer-aided design (CAD) and concurrent engineering. The paper concludes that DAI has many potential applications in such areas as collaborative/concurrent design and management, electronic commerce, and knowledge management in the construction sector. Recommendations for further research in DAI within the construction sector are also included.