Evaluating SPARQL-based model checking: Potentials and limitations

Abstract

Model checking is an important task in the BIM collaboration process to prevent expensive planning errors. The submodels of the individual disciplines are transferred into a coordination model. Part of the transfer is a conversion into an exchange format. The exchange format allows the import into the model checking application. In the model checking application routines are performed to check the model against collisions and building regulation violations. During the transfer into the exchange format, information may get lost, especially with parameters that are not yet part of the exchange format supported by the authoring software. In recent years, ontologies have been investigated as a feasible approach to combine the submodels, since they model data in a flexible manner. Hence in the conversion process to an application-specific ontology, the data structure of the submodels can widely persist, which could lead to smaller information loss in comparison to converting the data into a standardized exchange format. The evaluation of the geometric properties of the building is indispensable for detecting and analyzing collisions. The basis for the connection of the different sub models could be the BOT (Building Topology Ontology), which defines the topological structure of a building and can be used to represent further building information by linking it with other ontologies. The relevant geometric relationships for the collision model checks have to be derived with a geometry kernel. For the research in this paper pythonOCC, a wrapper for the geometry kernel Open CASCADE is used with the Semantic Web's own query language SPARQL, queries can be formulated to analyze the collision relationships in combination with other semantic information. These queries can be used to verify model correctness. By connecting the information from different domains, more sophisticated tests are possible than in an exchange format dependent model checking application. The goal is to integrate the developed functionalities into a project platform. This platform is based on an extensive project description in an ontology-based data model and is connected to different authoring tools for the exchange of information.