Future - Analysis Techniques

During the first class, it was pointed out that the future of the civil engineering field could be previewed as a result of the current happenings in the aerospace and automotive fields.  A perfect example of this can be read in the opening two sentences of a paper found in the ASCE Journal of Aerospace Engineering (Henshaw).  It reads, “A successful autonomous spacecraft must be able to navigate intelligently.  Intelligent navigation entails finding and following collision-free paths through space which can be traversed in a ‘reasonable’ time and which can use a reasonable amount of fuel” (147).  Building off of many of our initial, in-class, week-1 posts, this definition of intelligent navigation can be applied to the definition of intelligent building.  Much like the autonomous spacecraft needs to be able follow a collision-free path and use minimal time and fuel; the intelligent building/intelligent integrated systems would need to be autonomous, utilize minimal energy (and, therefore, money), require minimal maintenance, and all the while being as efficient as possible.

The Henshaw/Sanner paper analyzes trajectory planning algorithms that are necessary for an autonomous spacecraft to navigate intelligently (155) and similar calculations will undoubtedly be required for intelligent building/building systems to optimize the “intelligent” nature of each system, the integration of the systems, and the building as a whole.  An example of such an algorithm can be found in my fellow Group A member, Gayaneh Gulbenkian’s post (see “Future Analysis Techniques”, machine-learning algorithm).  Although the algorithms currently being applied in the civil engineering field are (probably) not yet as complicated as those involved in the “obstacle-constrained trajectory planning” algorithms required by the Hershaw/Sanner article; this may become the case as we require buildings to become more and more intelligent.  This increasing complexity of algorithms will also require more sophisticated and dynamic modeling software.  Evidence of this already occurring in the field is discussed by Gabrielle Carpenter in her Future Analysis Techniques post (Group A).

But, is translating this idea from one field to another done as simply as with the definitions?  Maybe, maybe not.  It is and will most likely be different for each of the other topics of discussion (sensor capabilities, robotics capabilities, 3D manufacturing capabilities, and computer hardware technology) and have each be dependent upon the progress of the other with multiple iterations in between.

Henshaw, Carl Glen and Robert M. Sanner.  “Variational Technique for Spacecraft Trajectory Planning.” Journal of Aerospace Engineering. Volume 23, Issue 3 (July 2010): 147-156.