Setting the pace with Paces: A new concept of using an expert system for project analysis and control

Abstract

Currently, there is a crucial problem confronting the majority of existing expert systems used in the construction area. This is the inability of these systems to cope with the constantly changing project conditions and vast volume of real-world knowledge and data. This inability restricts the existing applications to areas which are highly constrained and which are associated with very small elements of the whole construction process, i.e. areas which require only a limited amount of data and follow a strictly defined procedure. PACES is a Project Analysis and Control Expert System. It is an expert system designed to produce a practical project-orientated system that can be adapted to suit the particular and specific needs of any construction organization. The development is aimed at increasing the flexibility and data-handling capacity of the central core of the system to enable the incorporation of large-scale problems such as an overall project management procedure into an expert system. Therefore, it encapsulates the ‘whole process’ of such a procedure into an expert system. Its unique design of knowledge and data representation accommodates major project analysis and control procedures as well as user-defined project situations. The concept of using standard database management software presents a new approach in building expert systems for construction tasks. This paper describes the development procedures of PACES as well as the generation of a new format for composing expert systems.