Telichenko V.I., Rector of MGSU, Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Academician of RAASN
The modern approach to substantiating the further development of science and technology is based on the information approach, which consists of discovering and studying new information internal relationships between elements of the system and their external relationships with the environment.
In the modern world, information is becoming the main potential for scientific, technical and socio-economic development of society. Information is the basis of everyday and professional communication of people, and the basic concepts of information are the universal language of scientists, specialists, politicians and public figures. From the information standpoint, today a range of solved and unsolved problems of physics, medicine, chemistry, sociology, culture, construction and other spheres and branches of science and technology are considered. Having received the information codes of human life, his environment, the Earth, the Universe, it is possible to influence and control social, natural and cosmic processes.
The life of a person, biological or other material object is finite, information about its life cycle is infinite in the conditions of a modern developing information society. Many scientific approaches to the study of life processes in technology, nature and society are based on this principle today.
What is information?
There are many definitions on this subject. In general, information is an expression of the relationships of interaction, mutual transformation and mutual conservation in space and time of energy, movement and mass in the micro- and macrostructures of the Universe. In everyday life, the word information often evokes associations with advertising, mass media, communications, publishing. But the concept of information is much broader, since information processes in nature and society form the basis of life and the development of civilization.
Information relationships make themselves felt in physical, biological, chemical processes.
The information base is also an important component in the construction industry. Each construction project has its own life cycle, which in the generally accepted sense includes the stages of design, preparation of construction production, construction of the project, its subsequent operation, one or more upgrades and possible liquidation of the project that has exhausted its potential. At the same time, each of the stages can be divided into separate stages, phases, processes and other modules that have quantitative and qualitative parameters and characteristics.
In recent years, it has become clear that the life cycle processes of an object's existence must also include business processes based on information processing activities. This approach allows us to adequately model the creation of an object as a construction production process with a branched hierarchical structure.
The organization of the information space of an object, which is gradually formed during its life cycle, requires significant costs today, sometimes comparable to the cost of material resources for the construction of the object itself. However, as the analysis of the development processes of construction practice shows, there is no alternative to this approach, the informatization of the construction complex is already underway and is becoming one of the main elements of the scientific and technological development of the construction industry.
Informatization is associated with the development and widespread use of information technology (IT). Information technology is a set of hardware and software designed to collect, process, store and transmit information in accordance with the goals of the substantive formulation of the task or problem being solved.
With the advent of computers, it became clear that many classical scientific methods, such as analytical methods for solving equations, methods of graphical display, etc., were ineffective in creating computer programs. The computer made it possible to replace analytical solutions obtained for various particular cases of calculation with a general theory that allows solving problems in a universal way. In this case, methods of successive approximations, numerical solution of equations, partitioning of systems into many simple elements, etc. are actively used. As a result, instead of complex analytical algorithms, comparatively simple and universal algebraic (numerical) methods began to be used, the use of which is more than compensated for by the enormous speed of calculations and the large number of elements considered.
This approach is called the finite element method (FEM) and is widely used in engineering and, in particular, in construction to solve problems related to modeling the properties of solids.
The new potential of computer technology challenges the existing construction and design technology. It has become possible to abandon the storage and transmission of numerous paper drawings and documents, reduce the number of errors in them, and speed up the design and construction management time.
New forms of interaction between technical and commercial structures, cooperation between construction participants from different countries may arise. However, optimal forms of organizing production using computer networks have not yet been found. This requires mathematical methods for recognizing and classifying objects, as well as ensuring the consistency of many objects when they are constantly changing.
The system of higher construction education plays a huge role in the implementation of the information approach. The complexity of modern engineering activities necessarily leads to the fact that specialists need to master the means and methods of information processing for their application in making engineering decisions. The duty of technical and, in particular, construction universities is to train young specialists in the field of informatization, teaching them the skills of using information technologies and communication networks in the intellectual development of construction production.
Construction activities, especially its educational and scientific spheres, should develop on the basis of mastering and applying intelligent information systems. On this basis, new knowledge can be created, which should be the main content of the university's activities.
In technical universities, in accordance with the stages of development of information methods and technologies, academic disciplines and programs in applied mathematics, computer science, computer engineering, and CAD were formed. At the end of the 90s, a direction was formed that was called «construction informatics». All these disciplines turned out to be important for training project management specialists, managers, system engineers, designers, and high-level designers.
A new stage is coming in this area. If today we are talking about informatization, then the time is coming for the intellectualization of construction activities, which, by the way, is already being discussed in the works of specialists in the relevant field.
In the early 90s, a new complex discipline began to form, which today acts as an independent direction and is currently known as computational intelligence (CI). At present, CI is based not only on new mathematics, compared to artificial intelligence (AI), but mainly on its hardware support, which allows creating cheap competitive autonomous intelligent systems based on CI methods — from miniature mobile robots to household appliances. Similar AI systems are much more expensive and require relatively more powerful computers for their effective implementation. Over 40 years, AI based on symbolic computations and Boolean logic has achieved significant success in the field of knowledge engineering, natural language processing, systems engineering, scheduling, and diagnostics. But within the framework of traditional AI, a number of problems are solved rather poorly in such areas as computer vision, robotics, planning, speech and handwriting recognition, learning and decision-making in fuzzy conditions, and management of complex production processes. Here, numerical rather than symbolic calculations are more appropriate, providing acceptable, approximate solutions, but not necessarily optimal results.
When in the 1970s a new method of computational mathematics was created based on the ideas of L. Zadeh (computing based on a fuzzy linguistic variable — computing with words), it was quickly supported by hardware (fuzzy processors), which in a number of problem areas turned out to be more effective than classical von Neumann computers. Initially, these areas were included in the problems of artificial intelligence. But gradually the range of these areas expanded significantly and the direction of VI was formed. This direction currently includes:
— fuzzy logic and set theory;
— fuzzy expert systems;
— knowledge-based approximate reasoning systems;
— data-driven systems (neural networks, genetic algorithms);
— hybrid systems (neural fuzzy or neurological, genetic-neural, fuzzy-genetic or logicogenetic systems);
— nonlinear dynamic systems;
— chaos theory;
— fractal analysis.
According to the founder of the theory of fuzzy sets L. Zadeh, although computational intelligence works with a class of problems that are still classified as artificial intelligence, VI works with soft computing, and AI — with hard computing. The terms computational intelligence and soft computing were introduced by L. Zadeh in 1994. At the same time, he formulated the main principle of soft computing — tolerance for inaccuracy and partial truth to achieve interpretability, flexibility and low cost of the solution.
Hard computing is based on exact models, which include reasoning based on symbolic logic and classical computational and information retrieval methods. Soft computing is based on approximate models, which include approximate reasoning methods and computational methods based on functional approximation, random search, and optimization.
Soft computing is currently the basis of new information technologies and computing equipment of the 6th generation and owes its commercial success to the results of the «reverse wave» in the scheme «fuzzy set theory — fuzzy models — fuzzy systems — fuzzy software tools — fuzzy hardware». The direction of soft measurements is a branch of the direction of soft computing, in which the information technologies of soft computing components are implemented on the principles of unity of measurements with full coverage of their chain of metrological support of decisions.
Thus, the new direction of MI, on the one hand, allows using all the advantages of soft computing (simplicity and speed of processing, flexibility of output logic, variety of forms of presentation of the obtained results and complexes of their metrological characteristics, which can include uncertainty indicators traditionally used in soft computing systems) in the implementation of measurement processes, thereby increasing the quality of measurement results. On the other hand, the scope of applications for soft computing systems is significantly expanded, their computing power is increased due to the effective use of numerical information processing methods, and for the first time, the possibility of targeted regulation and evaluation on a formal basis of the quality of the solutions obtained arises.
When developing and making construction decisions, such a concept as flexibility potential is of great importance. Construction technologies must have the properties of flexibility, which means the ability to adapt to frequently changing conditions of work at the facility, respond to changes in organizational, technological and resource parameters in a wide range and at the same time achieve the final result while maintaining the specified or predicted technical and economic indicators.
The concept of flexibility is widely used in many industries. Flexible automated production (FAP), flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), flexible manufacturing modules (FMM) are used in mechanical engineering, automotive engineering, electronics, and manufacturing industries. Flexibility ideas are used in the design of architectural, construction, and structural solutions. The use of the concept of flexibility, its implementation in the relevant technologies allows for a significant increase in efficiency, organizational and technological level, and engineering support for production.
In relation to construction production, flexibility is proposed to be considered as the ability of various elements of the production construction process to promptly and adequately respond to various types of planned and random, deterministic and probabilistic impacts arising at its various stages and levels in order to achieve the final result while maintaining the best or predicted performance indicators. The task is to develop a system for designing and forming construction technologies, preparing and performing work at a construction site, taking into account the impact of a large number of factors accompanying the actual functioning of the entire structure of the construction process, down to each technological operation. And the more flexible this structure is, the more quickly it responds to the dynamics of changing working conditions at the site, the higher the efficiency and effectiveness of the production process will be, the more fully the resources and capabilities of the construction organization will be realized at a specific construction site.
It would be incorrect to automatically transfer the ideas of flexible production from other industries to construction, but it is certainly necessary to use the developed approaches, principles and methods. In turn, this is associated with the development and creation of methods, algorithms and procedures that allow for the formalization and modeling of construction production processes, and the subsequent formation and design of solutions for their implementation in the real conditions of a construction site.
The solution to this problem, as has already been substantiated above, is proposed to be implemented through the following basic principles that correspond to the ideas of intellectualization: modularity, systematicity, variability, multi-criteria and automation.
The principle of modularity consists in constructing the structure of construction and information processes from modules, among which we can distinguish process modules, task modules and solution modules.
The principle of variability is determined by the need to develop and analyze a large number of options for combining modules, solving various types of private and general problems that arise during the implementation of the production process at all its stages.
The principle of multi-criteria allows in each case to choose a rational option according to such criteria that best evaluate the quality of the solution in each specific situation and allow us to judge the level of their flexibility.
The principle of automation is the need for the maximum possible use of automation tools, modern computing equipment and computers at all stages and levels of the structure of both construction and information processes.
The principle of systematicity ensures the independence of each element of the production process within the framework of its functioning as a single construction system with a hierarchical structure.
Flexibility is an integral characteristic that covers the main components of the production process: organization, design solutions, technological process, technical means of construction technologies and information base. Based on the provisions of flexible production systems, it is proposed to consider the flexibility of construction production in the following forms: -flexibility of organizational solutions; -flexibility of design solutions; -flexibility of technological solutions; -flexibility of information support.
Integration of material and information spheres of construction production, structure and clarity of direct and feedback links between them is one of the main principles of using intelligent information systems in real production processes. This principle finds its practical embodiment in the creation and use of CALS/IPI — technologies that combine in a single complex the solution of design automation problems (CAD/CAD), process control (CAM/APCS), material flows (logistics systems), organizational and administrative activities, quality management (ISO) based on a single information database created and accumulated at all stages of the life cycle of an investment and construction project.
The PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) approach is becoming increasingly widespread in project management practice. It is a strategic business approach that involves the consistent application of a set of business decisions that ensure the joint creation, management, dissemination, and use of information that determines product performance at all stages of the product life cycle.
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