Constraint-Based Support for Collaboration in Design and Construction

Abstract

Solution spaces are proposed, instead of single solutions only, to support collaborative tasks during design and construction. Currently, partners involved in construction projects typically assign single values for subsets of variables and then proceed, often after tedious negotiations with other partners, to integrate these partial solutions into more complete project descriptions. The writers suggest the use of constraint solving to express possibly large families of acceptable solutions in order to facilitate and abbreviate the negotiation process. New algorithms have been developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, for solving multidimensional nonlinear inequality constraints on continuous variables. Constraint-based support leads to better change management and easier implementation of least commitment decision strategies. It is expected that the results of this research will improve the performance of negotiation systems currently in use.