Knowledge Representation in Civil and Structural Engineering

In this paper we survey the literature of both Knowledge Representation and Civil Engineering regarding the Applications of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Techniques to Civil and Structural Engineering. The reviewed works are analysed in terms of the scope, objectives and approach employed in the investigation, and compared to each other based on a preliminary analysis of the problems posed by the application fields. Recent patents considered here to complete the survey can be efficiently used in engineering applications, e.g. land development problems, engineering calculations or structural engineering projects (through the generation of a fuzzy implication operator). The conclusions of the review are fundamentally three: (1) the need for deeper investigations of the applicability of Artificial Intelligence approaches to Civil and Structural Engineering, especially in view of the new techniques and methods lately developed; (2) the need for new systematic analysis of the domain of Civil and Structural Engineering, in particular from an ontological point of view; (3) the expectation of the birth of a new discipline, as the junction of civil and structural engineering with artificial intelligence, whose specific AI point of view will be centred on Formal Ontology. For this new discipline we propose the name of Structurotics, that is intended to refer both to the novel applications based upon the above mentioned trends, and to the consequent theoretical investigations.