Semantic: Smart earthmoving analysis and estimation of cost

Earthmoving is an important activity in almost all civil engineering projects; consequently there is always the need to improve existing earthmoving operational and managerial techniques. This paper presents an integrated computer aided system for the analysis and cost estimation of various earthmoving tasks. The fully operational SEMANTIC consists of four modules. The smart module, exploiting artificial intelligence techniques, advises the user on the selection of the appropriate type of machinery for the task in question. The data management module takes advantage of extended databases containing information on types of soil and technical and cost parameters for a large number of equipment models. Based on descriptive information provided by the user, it suggests values for the many parameters required and facilitates enormously the preparation of input for analytical computations. The output and cost estimation module comprises algorithms for various earthmoving tasks and related machine types or combinations. Finally, the sensitivity analysis module provides the user with information on the magnitude of possible errors due to bad estimating of the input parameters; this module was also used to provide a comparison of the SEMANTIC output to the Caterpillar Manual output.