Towards a multi-agent approach for knowledge-based virtual construction

In recent years, there has been a growing trend towards the use of virtual construction applications for design and functionality analysis in early stages of the project development cycle. It is the contention of this chapter that, although significant strides have been made in refining the capabilities of such applications, there is still no overall integration scheme for the sharing of information between the existing tools. This chapter proposes the use of an agent-enhanced knowledge framework within virtual construction applications. This will not only help address some of the information integration issues but will also make the modelling of virtual models more intuitive and powerful. The chapter gives an overview of the multi-agent paradigm, followed by a case study of a proof-of-concept agent-based construction e-business system (APRON) demonstrating the potential for using the multi-agent paradigm to address the challenges inherent in integrating information within distributed applications. This culminates in a discussion on the applicability of this approach in virtual construction applications.