The quasi-repetitive nature of construction work and the resulting lack of generalizability in programming construction robots presents persistent challenges to the broad adoption of robots in the construction industry. Robots cannot achieve generalist capabilities as skills learnt from one domain cannot readily transfer to another work domain or be directly used to perform a different set of tasks. Human workers have to arduously reprogram their scene-understanding, path-planning, and manipulation components to enable the robots to perform alternate work tasks. The methods presented in this paper resolve a significant proportion of such reprogramming workload by proposing a generalizable learning architecture that directly teaches robots versatile task-performance skills through crowdsourced online natural language instructions. A Large Language Model (LLM), a standardized and modularized hierarchical modeling approach, and Building Information Modeling-Robot sematic data pipeline are developed to address the multi-task skill transfer problem. The proposed skill standardization scheme and LLM-based hierarchical skill learning framework were tested with a long-horizon drywall installation experiment using a full-scale industrial robotic manipulator. The resulting robot task learning scheme achieves multi-task reprogramming with minimal effort and high quality.

Large Language Model (LLM) agents have shown great potential for solving real-world problems and promise to be a solution for tasks automation in industry. However, more benchmarks are needed to systematically evaluate automation agents from an industrial perspective, for example, in Civil Engineering. Therefore, we propose DrafterBench for the comprehensive evaluation of LLM agents in the context of technical drawing revision, a representation task in civil engineering. DrafterBench contains twelve types of tasks summarized from real-world drawing files, with 46 customized functions/tools and 1920 tasks in total. DrafterBench is an open-source benchmark to rigorously test AI agents' proficiency in interpreting intricate and long-context instructions, leveraging prior knowledge, and adapting to dynamic instruction quality via implicit policy awareness. The toolkit comprehensively assesses distinct capabilities in structured data comprehension, function execution, instruction following, and critical reasoning. DrafterBench offers detailed analysis of task accuracy and error statistics, aiming to provide deeper insight into agent capabilities and identify improvement targets for integrating LLMs in engineering applications. Our benchmark is available at https://github.com/Eason-Li-AIS/DrafterBench, with the test set hosted at https://huggingface.co/datasets/Eason666/DrafterBench.

Hard computing generally deals with precise data, which provides ideal solutions to problems. However, in the civil engineering field, amongst other disciplines, that is not always the case as real-world systems are continuously changing. Here lies the need to explore soft computing methods and artificial intelligence to solve civil engineering shortcomings. The integration of advanced computational models, including Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Fuzzy Logic, Genetic Algorithms (GAs), and Probabilistic Reasoning, has revolutionized the domain of civil engineering. These models have significantly advanced diverse sub-fields by offering innovative solutions and improved analysis capabilities. Sub-fields such as: slope stability analysis, bearing capacity, water quality and treatment, transportation systems, air quality, structural materials, etc. ANNs predict non-linearities and provide accurate estimates. Fuzzy logic uses an efficient decision-making process to provide a more precise assessment of systems. Lastly, while GAs optimizes models (based on evolutionary processes) for better outcomes, probabilistic reasoning lowers their statistical uncertainties.

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in civil engineering presents a transformative approach to enhancing design quality and safety. This paper investigates the potential of the advanced LLM GPT4 Turbo vision model in detecting architectural flaws during the design phase, with a specific focus on identifying missing doors and windows. The study evaluates the model's performance through metrics such as precision, recall, and F1 score, demonstrating AI's effectiveness in accurately detecting flaws compared to human-verified data. Additionally, the research explores AI's broader capabilities, including identifying load-bearing issues, material weaknesses, and ensuring compliance with building codes. The findings highlight how AI can significantly improve design accuracy, reduce costly revisions, and support sustainable practices, ultimately revolutionizing the civil engineering field by ensuring safer, more efficient, and aesthetically optimized structures.

This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication in the IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (T-PAMI) on 7 January 2022. Abstract--The artificial intelligence (AI) system designer for thermal comfort faces insufficient data recorded from the current user or overfitting due to unreliable training data. This work introduces the reliable data set for training the AI subsystem for thermal comfort. This paper presents the control algorithm based on shallow supervised learning, which is simple enough to be implemented in the Internet of Things (IoT) system for residential usage using ASHRAE RP-884 and ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II. No training data for thermal comfort is available as reliable as this dataset, but the direct use of this data can lead to overfitting. This work offers the algorithm for data filtering and semantic data augmentation for the ASHRAE database for the supervised learning process. Overfitting always becomes a problem due to the psychological aspect involved in the thermal comfort decision. The method to check the AI system based on the psychrometric chart against overfitting is presented. This paper also assesses the most important parameters needed to achieve human thermal comfort. This method can support the development of reinforced learning for thermal comfort. HE decarbonising heat and buildings has become one heat pump is not a drop-in replacement for gas-boilers [5]. The UK is committed to If the heat pump is installed in poorly performed or leaky reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 [1]. The support includes buildings, the efficiency will decrease.

Note: 3.0/5 (16 notes) 4,891 students We all know that Artificial intelligence (AI) has made an impact in almost every industrial sector, and civil engineering is now joining the stage as well. According to a report by McKinsey, the civil construction sector has a net worth of more than $15 trillion a year, and while it has one of the largest consumer bases, the industry had been relatively under digitised. This is because civil engineering is one of the few fields in which basic practices of bricklaying and pouring concrete have remained the same over the century leveraging traditional methods. However, the construction sector is set to undergo yet another industrial revolution, one powered by technology, particularly artificial intelligence for that matter. Artificial Intelligence technologies are now being used by practising engineers to solve a whole range of problems. Future advancements in Artificial Neural Network (ANN), fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms will mean that the civil engineering and construction industry will benefit in terms of optimisation which is the foremost factor, speed of processes and cost reduction, while young inexperienced engineers will be replaced by AI robots & technologies.

To reduce subjectivity and uncertainty when maintaining suitable earth pressure in earth pressure shields that can prevent heave or collapse, many prediction models using machine learning algorithms were proposed, but little research into the effects of other parameters on earth pressure has been undertaken, and soil conditioning parameters are always ignored. To establish a model with thorough parameters and probe into influences of other parameters, multiple machine learning algorithms were attempted. Given the accuracy, diversity and functions, random forest (RF), LightGBM and Attention-back-propagation neural network (Attention-BPNN) were further analyzed. Then, two RF models were compared in this research, one with soil conditioning parameters and the other without. Meanwhile, a case study was utilized to verify the reliability of the model. Finally, the feature importance of three models was compared and the variation rules of the most four important features were discussed by controlling variates.

Tag-based visual-inertial localization is a lightweight method for enabling autonomous data collection missions of low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in indoor construction environments. However, finding the optimal tag configuration (i.e., number, size, and location) on dynamic construction sites remains challenging. This paper proposes a perception-aware genetic algorithm-based tag placement planner (PGA-TaPP) to determine the optimal tag configuration using 4D-BIM, considering the project progress, safety requirements, and UAV's localizability. The proposed method provides a 4D plan for tag placement by maximizing the localizability in user-specified regions of interest (ROIs) while limiting the installation costs. Localizability is quantified using the Fisher information matrix (FIM) and encapsulated in navigable grids. The experimental results show the effectiveness of our method in finding an optimal 4D tag placement plan for the robust localization of UAVs on under-construction indoor sites.

The growing use of probe vehicles generates a huge number of GNSS data. Limited by the satellite positioning technology, further improving the accuracy of map-matching is challenging work, especially for low-frequency trajectories. When matching a trajectory, the ego vehicle's spatial-temporal information of the present trip is the most useful with the least amount of data. In addition, there are a large amount of other data, e.g., other vehicles' state and past prediction results, but it is hard to extract useful information for matching maps and inferring paths. Most map-matching studies only used the ego vehicle's data and ignored other vehicles' data. Based on it, this paper designs a new map-matching method to make full use of "Big data". We first sort all data into four groups according to their spatial and temporal distance from the present matching probe which allows us to sort for their usefulness. Then we design three different methods to extract valuable information (scores) from them: a score for speed and bearing, a score for historical usage, and a score for traffic state using the spectral graph Markov neutral network. Finally, we use a modified top-K shortest-path method to search the candidate paths within an ellipse region and then use the fused score to infer the path (projected location). We test the proposed method against baseline algorithms using a real-world dataset in China. The results show that all scoring methods can enhance map-matching accuracy. Furthermore, our method outperforms the others, especially when GNSS probing frequency is less than 0.01 Hz.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the opportunities and barriers of Integrated Human-Machine Intelligence (IHMI) in civil engineering. Integrating artificial intelligence's high efficiency and repeatability with humans' adaptability in various contexts can advance timely and reliable decision-making during civil engineering projects and emergencies. Successful cases in other domains, such as biomedical science, healthcare, and transportation, showed the potential of IHMI in data-driven, knowledge-based decision-making in numerous civil engineering applications. However, whether the industry and academia are ready to embrace the era of IHMI and maximize its benefit to the industry is still questionable due to several knowledge gaps. This paper thus calls for future studies in exploring the value, method, and challenges of applying IHMI in civil engineering. Our systematic review of the literature and motivating cases has identified four knowledge gaps in achieving effective IHMI in civil engineering. First, it is unknown what types of tasks in the civil engineering domain can be assisted by AI and to what extent. Second, the interface between human and AI in civil engineering-related tasks need more precise and formal definition. Third, the barriers that impede collecting detailed behavioral data from humans and contextual environments deserve systematic classification and prototyping. Lastly, it is unknown what expected and unexpected impacts will IHMI have on the AEC industry and entrepreneurship. Analyzing these knowledge gaps led to a list of identified research questions. This paper will lay the foundation for identifying relevant studies to form a research roadmap to address the four knowledge gaps identified.