Functional management of buildings.
This article continues a series of publications presenting the fundamentals of promising applied science for designing “intelligent” buildings, directly aimed at eliminating the existing methodological gap between practice and theory in creating automation systems for buildings and structures at all levels (see AZ Bulletin, No. 5, 2006).
The necessary terms and definitions are introduced.
The prospects for functional management systems for buildings and structures – the main idea declared below – are associated with the construction of a control theory that allows using the principles of functioning of living organisms to solve problems of managing technical systems at all levels.
The methodology of such research is the theory of functional systems (P.K. Anokhin) and systems engineering of construction (A.A. Gusakov), the sublimation of which allows us to reasonably make such a conclusion. P.K. Anokhin also noted that “… with the development of the cybernetic direction in science, questions of a general nature for a wide variety of scientific disciplines inevitably had to arise. Such inevitability stems, first of all, from the fundamental position of cybernetics, according to which phenomena of various classes develop according to a single dynamic architecture, leading to the receipt of a final adaptive or useful effect. Such architecture is always dynamic and changeable in technical methods of functioning, i.e. in the means of achieving the goal.
However, it always has the constancy of its final goal and devices that evaluate the sufficiency or insufficiency of fulfilling this goal.
It is quite obvious that any system with automatic regulation satisfies exactly these requirements.
Such a system can be a system of social relationships, regulation of any factor in the life of an organism, and any self-regulating device, i.e. a machine made by human hands. They are united by a common architectural plan, built on the basis of the golden rule of self-regulation, which could be formulated as follows: the very deviation from the final adaptive effect serves as an incentive for the system to return to this effect…” (P.K. Anokhin, “Selected Works: Cybernetics of Functional Systems”).
These considerations provide sufficient grounds for using the rich experience of cybernetics, systems engineering and physiology to solve problems of designing functional control systems for buildings and structures, i.e. – to generalize the definition of a functional system as a system formed to achieve a given useful result (target function) in the process of its functioning (A.A. Gusakov), and to build further considerations based on the assumption of the possibility of expanding the scientific and fundamental concept of functional control systems to the field of construction and operation of buildings and structures.
The formulation of such a scientific and technical hypothesis should be preceded by a systems analysis of the theory and practice of managing a construction project. Obviously, the analysis of the concept of managing buildings and structures is closely related to the analysis of disturbances of the stable state of a construction project, initiating control processes.
By stable we mean a state in which the actual functional and technical characteristics of the building (structure) and its elements correspond to the range of acceptable values, and the nature of the dynamics of their change does not imply the possibility of non-compliance during the estimated period of time. The situational nature of disturbances initiating control processes presupposes a multi-level hierarchical classification, the basis of which are estimated and abnormal situations.
The estimated situation in a construction site is a predictable change in the actual functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements caused by a disturbance of any nature and intensity, which does not result in the loss of the stable state of the construction site.
An abnormal situation is characterized by an unpredictable change in the characteristics and loss of the stable state of the construction site.
In turn, the actual concept of “construction site management” can be considered from different points of view.
The term “management” is applicable today, rather, to construction, as a process of creation (planning, designing, erecting, reconstructing, etc.) of buildings and structures. In the construction industry, project, process and production management, quality management and a number of other concepts are also known, the meaning of which is obvious today, and the theory and practice are constantly being improved.
For a long time, the management of a construction project as such seemed to be an abstract and difficult to formalize task. This is due to the almost complete absence of works that comprehensively operate this term in the context set out below.
So, by the management of a construction project we will understand the management of the processes of changing the actual functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements.
It should be noted that, despite the existing works reflecting various aspects of the creation and application of engineering and information-analytical technologies in areas close to the subject of our discussion, none of them contains a comprehensive assessment of the essence, theoretical and practical proposals for solving the problems of managing a construction site, as well as an adequate formulation of such problems in terms of a coherent methodological concept.
Within the framework of the subject area under consideration, management of a construction site can be adaptive and/or operational in nature.
Adaptive management of a construction project is management initiated by the objective need for an identified discrepancy between the observed functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements in the range of acceptable values, and/or the stable dynamics of their change, which could lead to such a discrepancy.
Operational management of a construction site is management in real time in conditions where its deficiency can significantly limit the processes of changing the actual functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements, and/or make management of them impossible.
Obviously, adaptive management can be operational in nature, in cases where the specifics of the situation require an operational control response and/or the control process is initiated with an inadequate delay.
The paradigm of functional management of a construction site in the stated context assumes the implementation of control functions as a response to emerging calculated/emergency situations.
An adequate control response to most calculation situations is adaptive control.
Adaptive control as an adequate response to a calculation situation is the basis of intelligent automation of buildings and structures.
Intelligent automation (in the context of construction and operation) of construction projects is a complex of original engineering and technical solutions, tools and information and analytical support, aimed at implementing an acceptable set of functions for target management of processes of change of observed functional and technical characteristics of a building (structure) and its elements.
In turn, an adequate control response to most emergency situations is adaptive control, which is usually operational in nature and forms the basis of active safety of buildings and structures.
Active safety of construction sites is a set of properties of a building (structure) and its elements based on original engineering and technical solutions, aimed at reducing the possibility of emergency situations and/or suppressing their dynamics.
The dynamics of changes in the characteristics of an object can transform the calculated situation into an emergency one and give adaptive management an operational character. Obviously, the situation and the nature of management can also change in the opposite direction.
The presented view of the management process is reflected in Fig. 1.
Analysis of methods of analytical and information support of construction site management processes allowed us to identify the main problems that arise in the design and use of intelligent automation and active safety systems for buildings and structures:
• currently there is no comprehensive methodological concept that would allow the creation of integrated construction project management systems within the framework of a unified strategy for designing information, analytical and technical support for construction design, production and management processes;
• the existing set of information, analytical and technical support for construction design, production and management processes is not focused on supporting the design and operation of construction project management systems as such;
• there are no uniform principles for the formal description of buildings and structures as objects of target management;
• subjectively, the processes of integrated, including operational, adaptive management of a construction site seem insufficiently effective due to technical, technological, informational, economic and other limitations.
An integrated solution to the above problems presupposes the possibility of designing functional systems for managing a construction site within the framework of a coherent methodological concept that allows for a significant increase in the “viability” of buildings and structures in the event of possible emergencies, and a qualitative change in the approach to solving safety problems and the efficient operation of construction sites throughout their entire life cycle. An analysis of the practice of managing a construction site has shown that the basis for such a solution can be the use of homeostatic principles in the concept of functional systems for managing buildings and structures.
Read the continuation in the next issue.
AZ Bulletin No. 7 2007
AZ Bulletin No. 9 2007