IFC-Based Construction Industry Ontology and Semantic Web Services Framework

A construction project is a multi-disciplinary team effort combining inputs from various domains, for which interoperability is of great importance. Currently existing data exchange problems between different software applications is adversely impacting the overall productivity of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The use of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) has been proposed to help address the lack of interoperability throughout construction industry. But the IFC specification itself is too complicated for normal users without special training. This paper proposes a semantic Web Services framework utilizing IFC-based industry ontology to address the interoperability problem. First, the possibility of building an IFC-based construction industry ontology is reviewed. Then, a framework to build semantic Web Services on this ontology is suggested. Both a core service and an assistant service is included. The framework could be easily expanded as long as the same Web Services model and the common ontology is observed. Once implemented, the framework could be utilized by any IFC-supported BIM applications, as well as personnel without extensive knowledge of IFC specifications, for more precise, consistent and up-to-date project information retrieval. This approach is expected to further the effort of IFC and enhance and improve interoperability in the AEC industry without requiring extremely technologically savvy users.