An expert system for estimation in the demolition industry

Discusses the application of expert system techniques to assist in the estimation of quantities for demolition work; in particular, the estimation of the quantity of structural steelwork in multi-bay, multi-span roof truss systems. Estimation tasks in the demolition industry differ from those in the construction industry in that they deal with structures and quantities that already exist. The accurate estimation of quantities is important to the demolition contractor as the materials involved often form part of the payment for the work done, for example the sale of scrap steelwork. A prototype system has been constructed to assist in the estimation of some of these quantities. The system runs on a PC and has been developed using a commercially available shell