Bauhaus University Weimar - Chair of Computing in Civil Engineering
Weimar, Germany
The main focus of the project is to develop a formal description for intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Upon analysing knowledge sources on ITS for roads, a semantic model is proposed, which can be used as a basis for designing ITS simulation platforms. Builidng upon the semantic model, an IFC schema extension is proposed, defining entities, enumeration data types, and property sets relevant to ITS for roads. The IFC schema extension is then verified and validated using the certified software "Apstex IFC Framework".
In this project, OpenBIM is used for standardizing and formalizing the description of ITS for roads. IFC data models are used to describe ITS infrastructure and communication networks. Using IfcDoc and the baseline IFC schema (IFC4), missing entities for representing intelligent infrastructure, as well as property sets and enumerations characterizing different aspects of ITS for roads are defined in the IFC schema extension proposed. Newly published bSI entities, such as IfcRoad, are also taken into consideration when developing the IFC schema extension. Project members tried to reuse and repurpose already-existing entities and property sets.
Coudraystr. 7
99423 Weimar, Germany
Digitalization of road traffic is a worldwide mega trend driven by new technological developments and business models. Highly automated and networked driving has become the focus of research and development in industry and science. In the near future, a major impulse, facilitating "digital roads", can be generated if economic and cost-effective sensor technologies are connected to intelligent sensor networks, recording traffic parameters and environmental data of streets and engineering structures.
Objectives and project participants
The research group "Digital roads" connects three affinity areas, (i) traffic (intelligent transport systems), (ii) computing in civil engineering (digitization) and (iii) construction (maintenance management). Specifically, the question is to be answered about how sensor networks in the field of streets and bridges can be configured. Hence, requirements of traffic, environment, and construction management will be identified, and for different scenarios the optimal sensor configurations will be determined and assessed. Optimization criteria, among others, are energy efficiency and data quality (accuracy, integrity). New modeling and simulation methods, transferred to the heterogeneous and multi-disciplinary problem "digital roads" will be developed and validated. Furthermore, the contribution of data for traffic applications, including the impact on environment and economy, will be quantified and calibrated with real-world data. The research group is composed of three chairs, the Chair of Transport System Planning (Professor Dr. Uwe Plank-Wiedenbeck, coordinator), the Chair of Computing in Civil Engineering (Professor Dr. Kay Smarsly) and the Chair of Steel Construction (Professor Dr. Matthias Kraus). The transfer process in the Thuringian industry is supported by an industry advisory board.
Modeling and simulation
In this research project, the Chair of Computing in Civil Engineering is responsible for modeling and simulation of intelligent sensor-based transport infrastructure. The methodological foundation and tools are developed to design optimal sensor configurations for digital roads, taking into account requirements and restrictions provided by the project partners. As a result, data volume, sampling rates, data transmission characteristics, and data integrity are reliably determined. Finally, grouping the competencies of the project partners enables developing of modeling and simulation approaches for digital roads in a way that multidisciplinary demands as well as future mobility and road infrastructure issues are solved.
Combining three afinity areas, researchers at the Bauhaus University Weimar have developed a platfrom-independent description for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) for road transport. Taking into account traffic management needs and traffic-related simulations, as well as deployment of ITS with respect to infrastructure, communication networks, and ITS applications, the formal description has been defined as a basis for ITS simulation platforms. Neutral, non-prorietary nature of OpenBIM offers excellent basis for formalizarion and standardization efforts towards describing all aspects needed for defining intelligent transportation systems. Therefore, IFC data models has been used in this project to further formalize the basis for simulation platforms. Also, the transparency offered by OpenBIM is of high value to the objectives of this project, for it enables seamless integration of project requirements from different affinity areas.
The project is composed of the following phases:
- Requirements analysis and assessment
- Metamodeling of ITS for roads
- BIM integration
- IFC schema extension
and
- Validation and assessment of the ITS formal description
In the beginning, requirements with respect to different aspects of road ITS have been studied. At this stage, knwoledge sources for ITS were identified as ITS network architecture, applications, intelligent infrastructure, and communication networks. Each category of knowledge sources were thoroughly studied and information required for defining an ITS were extracted.
Next, a semantic model was developed to link the information extracted from knowledge sources, and to illustrate the technology-independent, platform-independent layout of ITS for roads. The semantic model has been successfully validated using random use cases, such as an incident at a section of a highway and how the using object diagrams (based on the semantic model) the incident can be described.
The semantic model was then mapped into a BIM-based description, i.e. using IFC data models. Here, a comparative study has been conducted to evaluate the potential of already-existing IFC entities to define ITS-related components. IfcFacility, IfcDistributionSystemEnum, and IfcRelAssignsToGroup are among official IFC entities that have been used or repurposed to fit ITS descriptions. Also, some non-officialized entities developed by other researchers active in the field of BIM, have been included.
Upon BIM integration phase, the missing elements that are needed for fully describing ITS for roads, have been defined in form of an IFC schema extension. The new entities IfcITSStation and IfcRoadITS, new enumeration type IfcITSStationTypeEnum, and new property sets Pset_Resources and Pset_DistributionSystemTypeITSC have been developed. Later, the IFC schema extension is defined in EXPRESS format to be used for developing a Java Toolbox. The Java Toolbox has been defined by the software "Apstex IFC Framework" and is used for defining IFC models and instances of ITS for roads. Then, IFC models are tested and validated using the same software platform (Apstex IFC Framework) with respect to syntactic and semantic checks, to be able to evaluate the compliance of the newly-introduced entities against the baseline IFC schema (IFC4). Last, but not least, a formal description of ITS for roads to be used for developing simulation platforms is obtained.
In this research project, OpenBIM data models, i.e. the Industry Foundation Classes, play a huge role for obtaining a formal description of ITS for roads. For developing the IFC schema extension, IfcDoc, the official BuildingSMART tool, has been used. New entities, property sets, and enumeration data types were added on top of the IFC schema in IfcDoc. Later, the proposed IFC schema extension was exported from IfcDoc as a .ifcdoc or .exp express schema, to be imported into the Apsetx IFC Framework software for verification and validation checks. There in Apstex, the proposed IFC schema extension was semantically verified first with respect to the IFC schema, and a java toolbox was developed based on the IFC schema extension. Using the java toolbox and by the help of any java IDE software (here Eclipse), one can generate various IFC models. Then the IFC models were exported as STEP files and have been sent back to Apstex for final validation checks.
Standardized data models
Transparency
Object-oriented paradigm offering wide flexibility
