Functional building management.
This article continues a series of publications presenting the foundations of the promising applied science of designing “intelligent” buildings, directly focused on eliminating the existing methodological gap between practice and theory of creating automation systems for buildings and structures at all levels (see Bulletin AZ, No. 5, 2006).
The necessary terms and definitions are introduced.
The prospects for functional management systems for buildings and structures — the main idea declared below — are associated with the construction of a control theory that allows the use of the principles of the functioning of living organisms for solving problems of managing technical systems at all levels.
The methodology of such research is the theory of functional systems (P.K. Anokhin) and systems engineering of construction (A.A. Gusakov), the sublimation of which allows us to reasonably draw a similar conclusion. Even P.K. Anokhin noted that “…with the development of the cybernetic direction in science, questions that were of a general nature for a wide variety of scientific disciplines were bound to arise. This inevitability stems, first of all, from the fundamental position of cybernetics, according to which phenomena of various classes develop according to a single dynamic architecture, leading to a final adaptive or useful effect. Such an architecture is always dynamic and changeable in its technical modes of functioning, i.e. by means of achieving the goal.
However, it always has the constancy of its final goal and the apparatus that evaluates the sufficiency or insufficiency of achieving this goal.
It is quite obvious that any system with automatic regulation satisfies precisely these requirements.
Such a system can be a system of social relationships, regulation of any factor in the life of an organism, and any self-regulating device, i.e. a machine made by human hands. They are united by the commonality of the architectural plan, built on the basis of the golden rule of self-regulation, which could be formulated as follows: the very deviation from the final adaptive effect serves as an incentive for the system to return to this effect…” (P.K. Anokhin, “Selected Works: Cybernetics of Functional Systems” ).
These considerations provide sufficient grounds for using the rich experience of cybernetics, systems engineering and physiology to solve the problems of designing functional control systems for buildings and structures, i.e. – generalize the definition of a functional system as a system formed to achieve a given useful result (target function) in the process of its operation (A.A. Gusakov), and build further reasoning based on the assumption of the possibility of expanding the scientific-fundamental concept of functional management systems to the field of construction and operation of buildings and structures.
The formulation of such a scientific and technical hypothesis should be preceded by a systematic analysis of the theory and practice of construction site management. Obviously, the analysis of the concept of control of buildings and structures is closely related to the analysis of disturbances in the steady state of a construction object that initiate control processes.
By stable we mean a state in which the actual functional and technical characteristics of a building (structure) and its elements correspond to the range of acceptable values, and the nature of the dynamics of their change does not imply the possibility of a discrepancy occurring during the calculated period of time. The situational nature of the disturbances that initiate control processes suggests a multi-level hierarchical classification, the basis of which is design and emergency situations.
The design situation in a construction site is a predicted change in the actual functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements caused by a disturbance of any nature and intensity, which does not result in the loss of the stable state of the construction site.
An emergency situation is characterized by unpredictable changes in characteristics and loss of the stable state of a construction project.
In turn, the actual concept of “construction site management” can be viewed from different points of view.
The term “management” is applicable today, rather, to construction, as to the process of creation (planning, design, construction, reconstruction, etc.) of buildings and structures. The construction industry also knows project, process and production management, quality management and a number of other concepts, the meaning of which is obvious today, and theory and practice are constantly being improved.
Managing a construction project as such has long been an abstract and difficult to formalize task. This is due to the almost complete absence of works that comprehensively operate with this term in the context described below.
So, by management of a construction project we will understand the management of the processes of changing the actual functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements.
It should be noted that, despite existing works reflecting various aspects of the creation and application of engineering and information and analytical technologies in areas close to the subject of our discussion, none of them contains a comprehensive assessment of the essence, theoretical and practical proposals for solving problems of construction management object, as well as an adequate formulation of such tasks in terms of a coherent methodological concept.
Within the subject area under consideration, management of a construction project can be adaptive and/or operational in nature.
Adaptive management of a construction site is management initiated by the objective need for an identified discrepancy between the observed functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements within the range of permissible values, and/or the sustainable dynamics of their change, which can lead to such a discrepancy.
Operational management of a construction project — real-time management in conditions where its lack can significantly limit the processes of changing the actual functional and/or technical characteristics of a building (structure) and/or its elements, and/or make management impossible.
Obviously, adaptive control can be of an operational nature in cases where the specifics of the situation require a quick control response and/or the control process is initiated with an inadequate delay.
The paradigm of functional management of a construction site in the above context involves the implementation of management functions as response to emerging design/emergency situations.
An adequate control response to most design situations is adaptive control.
Adaptive control as an adequate response to a design situation is the basis for intelligent automation of buildings and structures.
Intelligent automation (in the context of construction and operation) of construction projects is a complex of original engineering solutions, tools and information and analytical support, focused on the implementation of an acceptable set of functions for targeted management of processes of change in the observed functional and technical characteristics of a building (structure) and its elements.
In turn, an adequate control response to most emergency situations is adaptive control, which, as a rule, is operational in nature and forms the basis for the active safety of buildings and structures.
Active safety of construction sites is a complex of properties of a building (structure) and its elements based on original engineering and technical solutions, aimed at reducing the possibility of emergency situations occurring and/or suppressing their dynamics.
The dynamics of changes in the characteristics of an object can transform the design situation in an emergency and give adaptive management an operational character. Obviously, the situation and the nature of management can change in just the opposite way.
The outlined view of the management process is reflected in Fig. 1.
Analysis of methods for analytical and information support of construction site management processes allowed us to identify the main problems arising in the design and use of intelligent automation systems and active safety of buildings and structures:
• currently there is no holistic methodological concept that allows creating systems for integrated management of a construction project within the framework of a unified strategy for designing information, analytical and technical support for the processes of construction design, production and management;
• the existing complex of information, analytical and technical support for construction processes design, production and management is not focused on supporting the design and operation of construction site management systems as such;
• there are no uniform principles for the formal description of buildings and structures as objects of target management;
• subjectively, the processes of integrated, including operational, adaptive management of a construction site do not seem to be sufficiently effective due to technical, technological, information, economic and other limitations.
A comprehensive solution to the identified problems presupposes the possibility of designing functional construction management systems object within the framework of a coherent methodological concept, allowing to significantly increase the “viability” of buildings and structures in the conditions of possible emergency situations, to qualitatively change the approach to solving problems of safety and efficient operation of construction projects throughout the entire life cycle. An analysis of the practice of managing a construction site has shown that the basis for such a solution can be the use of homeostatic principles in the concept of functional management systems for buildings and structures.
Read more in the next issue.
AZ Bulletin No. 7 2007
AZ Bulletin No. 9 2007