TR032: A Construction Planner

The thesis of this research is that there are opportunities to extend network diagramming techniques which can be attained using a knowledge-based approach. These opportunities include: a) a one-stage treatment of resource and non-resource constraints; b) non-activity precedence: and c) recording and communicating construction scheduling knowledge. Previous research has been conducted on the use of knowledge-based approaches in construction planning. However, the areas emphasized in this research have not been addressed by previous knowledge-based construction planners.

The system developed in this research, called A Construction Planner (ACP), uses a knowledge-based approach to represent a construction project and its resources. It has a generic algorithm which can be applied to any construction project, thus incorporating an important procedural component. Finally, it uses rules which can easily be shared by similar projects and adapted or extended as desired.

ACP offers a more integrated approach to scheduling by considering all constraints concurrently. It offers a richer representation of the scheduling problem and, based on this representation, it allows the user to query the model about its reasoning.