Conversation-based school building inspection support system

Abstract

A conversation-based system is proposed for supporting assessors in performing existing school building inspections. School building safety is a pressing issue; however, some difficulties in the overall process require solutions or improvements, including the complexity of building inspection tasks, the restrictions posed by the paperwork process, and the ineffectiveness of the management of existing school building inspections. In this study, we developed a conversation-based building inspection support system to reduce such problems, with the proposed system notifying and guiding assessors to complete building inspections, combined with a dashboard for managers to consume reports to determine whether further assessments or retrofits are required. The process of school building inspections was digitalized, with a chatbot implemented that features notifications either according to a routine inspection schedule or postseismic events, a conversation-based interface for guiding nonprofessional assessors, the integration of intuitive activation of inspections after receiving notifications, the use of multimedia to show damage directly without the possibility of mistakes, and data visualization for supporting managerial decision-making to enhance the quality and accuracy of budget allocation.