Automatic generation of inspection knowledge for highway construction via the integration of computer vision and ontology reasoning

Abstract

Purpose

Current practices for inspecting highway construction predominantly rely on manual processes, which result in subjective assessments, errors and time inefficiencies. The purpose of this study is to address the inefficiencies and potential inaccuracies inherent in manual highway construction inspections. By leveraging computer vision and ontology reasoning, the study seeks an automated and efficient approach to generate structured construction inspection knowledge in the format of checklists for construction activities on highway construction job sites.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposes a four-module framework based on computer vision and ontology reasoning to enable the automatic generation of checklists for quality inspection. The framework includes: (1) the interpretation of construction scenes based on computer vision, (2) the representation of inspection knowledge into structured checklists through specification processing, (3) the connection of construction scenes and inspection knowledge via ontology reasoning and (4) the development of a prototype for the automatic generation of checklists for highway construction.

Findings

The proposed framework is implemented across four distinct highway construction scenarios. The case demonstrations show that the framework can interpret construction scenes and link them with relevant inspection knowledge automatically, resulting in the efficient generation of structured checklists. Therefore, the proposed framework indicates considerable potential for application in the automatic generation of inspection knowledge for the quality inspection of highway construction.

Originality/value

The scientific and practical values of this study are: (1) the establishment of a new method that promotes the automated generation of structured inspection knowledge for highway construction by integrating computer vision and ontology reasoning and (2) the development of a novel framework that provides efficient and immediate access to inspection knowledge related to what needs to be inspected at highway construction job sites.

Citation

Li, F., Xu, X., Zhou, J., Chen, J. and Zhou, S. (2024), "Automatic generation of inspection knowledge for highway construction via the integration of computer vision and ontology reasoning", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-06-2024-0821