Carlo Argiolas

Enabling Secure and Collaborative Document Sharing in BIM Processes

During the lifecycle of construction projects , documents and resources should be shared by partners in a collaborative and secure way. Starting from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) paradigm, we propose the Smart BIM Folder (SBF), a cloud-oriented framework enabling project teams to share construction documents on collaborative nodes, respecting security requirements of documents sharing. The core idea is to consider the SBF as a single, collectively-operated virtual resource accessed via a cloud-based catalogue. The paper proposes mechanisms for document sharing respecting both the typicality of BIM projects and security requirements of stakeholders in such sharing. We discuss cloud architecture issues related to the implementation of the SBF as a cloud service.

Modeling Trust Relationships in Collaborative Engineering Projects

Engineering projects may involve the efforts of specific partners experts in various disciplines. Grid and Web service technologies enable engineering project teams to perform resource discovery, selection, negotiation, and composition in a networked environment. However, the need arises for trust relationships, allowing team entities to participate in the project under security guarantees of privacy, of authorized disclosure of project data, and of correct users’ credential management. This paper proposes a Web service based framework to support this process. Giving prominence to the needs of a secure and dynamic collaboration in the style of a Virtual Organization (VO), the paper identifies and models the trust aspects featuring actors and objects involved in engineering team collaborations. An architecture is illustrated, centered around a Security Manager component supporting security in the composition and execution of distributed engineering services. A prototype implementation is presented.

The effectiveness of an Intelligent System For Real-time Hygrothermal Management In Low Energy Buildings

This paper proposes an intelligent model for realtime control of the hygrothermal behaviour in low energy buildings. Through the management of information related to internal and external conditions combined with the design and context data, the built network lead to assess the correct strategy for an adequate hygrothermal behaviour (choosing between active and passive systems for control of indoor air-quality). The expected benefits are a healthy environment, the stable performances of materials, the containment of maintenance costs, the reduction of the use of passive systems in order to cut CO2 emissions.

Knowledge in Construction Processes

The growing complexity of the construction sector – due to the proliferation of products, techniques, and needs related to side, not secondary, aspects of objects (environmental impact, energy efficiency, durability, safety, etc.) – means that the current management styles in construction processes are no longer appropriate to their context. Therefore, the construction sector faces an inevitable process of growth in which knowledge is an indispensable resource. The purpose of this paper is to show how knowledge associated with construction processes can be represented using Knowledge Management techniques. The analysis of such knowledge uses a mixed top-down and bottom-up approach, which can formalize it and make it ready for easy access and search. The underlying goal is the rational organization of large amounts of data using the knowledge that characterizes the various stages of a construction process. Elementary Products could be the core concepts that can group the objects associated with such process, guiding the management of relevant information and knowledge involved in construction processes. The formalization was used to define a prototype implementation of the Knowledge Management System using DSpace.

An Object Oriented Database for Architectural Project Management

Database support for architectural applications requires appropriate tools for managing graphical and textual informations. In this paper we propose the use of an object oriented database providing uniform access to diverse and autonomous information related to an architectural project. The presented approach supports the integration of heterogeneous data, some of which are under the control of a CAD system.