A Natural Language Processing based Chatbot for Automating Information Retrieval in Construction Industry using BIM

Abstract

Construction projects are very intensive and involve a large number of complex activities. A large amount of information is required to be shared among different stakeholders regarding work progress on site. This takes a lot of time and affects efficiency. Even in this modern era construction industry (especially in Pakistan) is still lagging behind in developing a proper automated medium from where information can be retrieved easily. The purpose of our project is to develop such a medium. For this purpose, we developed a rule-based chat bot and integrate it with BIM from where necessary information will be acquired. A rule based chat bot is easy to train and can be integrated with any software easily. BIM can be used by only professionals but chat bot is user friendly and can be used by everyone. To develop this chat bot, we make use of Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP is a mechanization which helps computers in understanding and interpreting human language. In our project chat bot is able to communicate in English.