Digitalization of culturally significant buildings: ensuring high-quality data exchanges in the heritage domain using OpenBIM

Cultural heritage building information models (HBIMs) incorporate specific geometric and semantic data that are mandatory for supporting the workflows and decision making during a heritage study. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) open data exchange standard can be used to migrate these data between different software solutions as an openBIM approach, and has the potential to mitigate data loss. Specific data-exchange scenarios can be supported by firstly developing an Information Delivery Manual (IDM) and subsequently filtering portions of the IFC schema and producing a specialized Model View Definition (MVD). This paper showcases the creation of a specialized IDM for the heritage domain in consultation with experts in the restoration and preservation of built heritage. The IDM was then translated into a pilot MVD for heritage. We tested our developments on an HBIM case study, where a historic building was semantically enriched with information about the case study’s conservation plan and then checked against the specified IDM requirements using the developed MVD. We concluded that the creation of an IDM and then the MVD for the heritage domain are achievable and will bring us one step closer to BIM standardisation in the field of digitised cultural buildings.

Indoor-Guided Navigation for People Who Are Blind: Crowdsourcing for Route Mapping and Assistance

This paper presents an approach to enhance electronic traveling aids (ETAs) for people who are blind and severely visually impaired (BSVI) using indoor orientation and guided navigation by employing social outsourcing of indoor route mapping and assistance processes. This type of approach is necessary because GPS does not work well, and infrastructural investments are absent or too costly to install for indoor navigation. Our approach proposes the prior outsourcing of vision-based recordings of indoor routes from an online network of seeing volunteers, who gather and constantly update a web cloud database of indoor routes using specialized sensory equipment and web services. Computational intelligence-based algorithms process sensory data and prepare them for BSVI usage. In this way, people who are BSVI can obtain ready-to-use access to the indoor routes database. This type of service has not previously been offered in such a setting. Specialized wearable sensory ETA equipment, depth cameras, smartphones, computer vision algorithms, tactile and audio interfaces, and computational intelligence algorithms are employed for that matter. The integration of semantic data of points of interest (such as stairs, doors, WC, entrances/exits) and evacuation schemes could make the proposed approach even more attractive to BVSI users. Presented approach crowdsources volunteers’ real-time online help for complex navigational situations using a mobile app, a live video stream from BSVI wearable cameras, and digitalized maps of buildings’ evacuation schemes.

People, Projects, Organizations, and Products: Designing a Knowledge Graph to Support Multi-Stakeholder Environmental Planning and Design

As the need for more broad-scale solutions to environmental problems is increasingly recognized, traditional hierarchical, government-led models of coordination are being supplemented by or transformed into more collaborative inter-organizational networks (i.e., collaboratives, coalitions, partnerships). As diffuse networks, such regional environmental planning and design (REPD) efforts often face challenges in sharing and using spatial and other types of information. Recent advances in semantic knowledge management technologies, such as knowledge graphs, have the potential to address these challenges. In this paper, we first describe the information needs of three multi-stakeholder REPD initiatives in the western USA using a list of 80 need-to-know questions and concerns. The top needs expressed were for help in tracking the participants, institutions, and information products relevant to the REDP’s focus. To address these needs, we developed a prototype knowledge graph based on RDF and GeoSPARQL standards. This semantic approach provided a more flexible data structure than traditional relational databases and also functionality to query information across different providers; however, the lack of semantic data expertise, the complexity of existing software solutions, and limited online hosting options are significant barriers to adoption. These same barriers are more acute for geospatial data, which also faces the added challenge of maintaining and synchronizing both semantic and traditional geospatial datastores.

Semantic function module pipeline generation

With modular automation, modular industrial plants use a functional engineering approach, and modules enable plug & produce plant engineering. However, plant configuration is still a largely manual process and often not optimized with respect to the available information. In this contribution, we propose a system and algorithm to support the automation engineer in the process of joining together modules into process pipelines and in their optimization. Our solution is built upon an abstract semantic data model that facilitates the automated matching of pre- and post-condition of modules and of the things that are processed by these modules. The pipeline generation engine is further extended by means of an optimization and ranking algorithm, and thus enables automated inter-module pipeline generation and plant optimization. We evaluate our system by means of a simple fictional use case scenario and prove feasibility, applicability as well as the huge potential for time and cost savings.

Professional pedagogical formation of the competence of the teacher-manager

Recent studies have considered the practical aspect of professional and pedagogical competence formation of students of pedagogical specialties as future managers of the educational environment. Aim of the research is to develop theoretical foundation, methodology and psychological experimentation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for formation professional competence of managers in educational system. The research methods include description and classification, semantic data interpretation, methods of graphical representation of data, ranking as well as content analysis. The received results can be used in the development of competence of psychological and pedagogical field of knowledge, ability to have an active influence on the development process and self-development of social and valuable characteristics of the personality of future expert of the educational environment. Key words: Competence; Communicative competence; Pedagogical education; Multilevel training; Teacher-manager.

Semantic IFC Data Model for Automatic Safety Risk Identification in Deep Excavation Projects

Safety risk identification throughout deep excavation construction is an information-intensive task, involving construction information scattered in project planning documentation and dynamic information obtained from different field sensors. However, inefficient information integration and exchange have been an important obstacle to the development of automatic safety risk identification in actual applications. This research aims to achieve the requirements for information integration and exchange by developing a semantic industry foundation classes (IFC) data model based on a central database of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in dynamic deep excavation process. Construction information required for risk identification in dynamic deep excavation is analyzed. The relationships among construction information are identified based on the semantic IFC data model, involved relationships (i.e., logical relationships and constraints among risk events, risk factors, construction parameters, and construction phases), and BIM elements. Furthermore, an automatic safety risk identification approach is presented based on the semantic data model, and it is tested through a construction risk identification prototype established under the BIM environment. Results illustrate the effectiveness of the BIM-based central database in accelerating automatic safety risk identification by linking BIM elements and required construction information corresponding to the dynamic construction process.