Intelligent rebar layout in RC building frames using artificial potential field

Reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column joints are the critical components of RC building frames. Congestion and even collision of reinforcing bars (rebars) encounter frequently in the core region of a joint. The building information modeling (BIM) technology is helpful to detect the rebar collision, which has to be revised manually. In this paper, inspired by collision-free capability of intelligent agent, an automatic rebar layout framework based on artificial potential field (APF) is proposed to solve the issues of rebar collision and congestion during the design stage. The rebars in a beam-column joint are regarded as agents, and a novel APF method is proposed to guide the moving trajectory of each agent. The APF method ensures that each rebar-agent can reach its goal point and escape from the trapping of local-minimum point. An Autodesk Revit add-in is developed to save modeling time and improve accuracy. Experiments on a two-story RC frame validate the applicability and efficiency of the intelligent rebar layout framework. It can be shown that the developed framework can avoid the rebar collision and congestion at beam-column joints quickly and effectively.