El-Batal, R S (1995) Reasoning by abstraction for public works contracts using a blackboard architecture. PhD thesis, Polytechnic University, USA.
Abstract
A Site Operations Protocol Interface System (SOPIS) has been developed to provide support information to the construction site in the form of situation-specific agency interface requirements on urban roadwork and utilities projects. A framework for contract abstraction is developed to represent interface protocols of the urban agencies. Each protocol is modeled as a set of interface procedures, each with a trigger, scope, and body. According to the abstraction model, each procedure belongs to the level of abstraction that corresponds to its scope. A framework for interpretation is developed to support the retrieval of interface requirements according to the rules of contract interpretation. Reasoning by inheritance in the abstraction hierarchies follows the rules of contract interpretation. A framework for assessing utility service conditions is developed to trace the impact of a field situation on the service provided to other urban systems. A framework for systems implementation, using a blackboard architecture, is developed to implement the contract abstraction, contract interpretation and service assessment models in a computer system. The blackboard model is implemented in an object-oriented environment. "Focus of Attention", "Metaknowledge" and "Adequacy of Information" are the techniques used to control the activation of the knowledge sources by focusing the attention of the system on a task at a time, using knowledge about the domain knowledge in the system to control the search, and giving priority to knowledge sources that provide useful information to the other triggered knowledge sources. A prototype of SOPIS is built to validate the developed models.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Pagdadis, S A |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction site; reasoning; site operations; utilities |
| Index terms: | implementation, public work, utilities, computer system, agency, reasoning, prototype, construction site, site operation |
| Subjects: | computing systems, work location, modelling and simulation, cognitive psychology, contractual arrangements, sociology, operations management, infrastructure engineering, construction type |
| Topics: | Procurement, Engineering Principles, Construction Technology, Digital Applications, Site Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here