Study On Multi-agent Cooperation Mechanism During Construction Process Of SI-system Housing

Building industry plays an important role in the national economic development. Developing sustainable housing can significantly improve the sustainable development of several industries by reducing resource and energy consumption and environmental pollution. SI-system housing is considered as a kind of sustainable housing for its sustainably prolonging building life by improving structural durability and infill variability. In 2006, the SI-system housing was introduced to China's building industry to help improve housing sustainability. Although the SI-system housing has been scientifically proven to be beneficial' and applied effectively in some countries, its usage in China remains sluggish. The stakeholders that directly participate in the construction process of SI-system housing (hereinafter referred to as the direct participants), including investment and development group, research and design group, construction and assembly group, supplier of material, components and equipment, lack willingness and motivation to consistently cooperate in implement SI-system housing, which considerably inhibit the promotion of SI-system housing in China. Therefore, it is important and crucial to identify and assess the barriers that inhibit different stakeholders to cooperate in the application of SI-system housing in China. This thesis explored the multi-agent cooperation mechanism during construction process of SI-system housing to coordinate the collaborative ways and interest relationship among the direct participants to commit to SI-system housing. The main research work is set out as follows:(1) This thesis defined the composition and characteristics of the multi-agent cooperation system during construction process of SI-system housing based on the systematic theory and synergetic theory. By conducting an investigation and applying Factor Analysis method, this thesis explored the factors that inhibit the direct participants'cooperation in promoting SI-system housing. Three research angles of multi-agent cooperation mechanism during construction process of SI-system housing were determined:organization cooperation, innovation cooperation and benefit cooperation. The implication and coupling relations of the three angles were further studied. This research approach could exactly meet the actual demand of the direct participants.(2) The characteristic of multi-agent organization cooperation during construction process of SI-system housing was summarized according to the development status of the SI-system housing in China. Based on the characteristic and the integration management theory, organization mode, cooperation partner selection as well as cooperation platform design were selected to structure the organization cooperation mechanism. Firstly, organization modes for direct participants cooperating in implementing SI-system housing that suitable to the development of Chinese building industry were proposed. Next, the factors, principle and selection method of cooperation partner selection for SI-system housing were defined by referencing the methods of cooperation partner selection in other fields. Furthermore, a framework of cooperation platform for the direct participants was designed based on the characteristic of multi-agent cooperation during construction process of SI-system housing.(3) In order to meet the innovation demand of the direct participants during construction process of SI-system housing, this thesis built the innovation cooperation mechanism from two aspects:technological innovation and management innovation. The multi-agent innovation cooperation model was proposed based on the DSM (design structure matrix) theory. Firstly, main work of different participants in innovation cooperation procedure was identified according to the construction process of SI-system housing, and the interaction and coupling effect of different work was further analyzed. Moreover, the graph theory was applied to optimize the multi-agent innovation cooperation procedure during construction process of SI-system housing.(4) The benefit embodiment of the direct participants was sorted out to identify the main factors that restrict the benefit cooperation. Simultaneously, the problems of multi-agent benefit cooperation that easy to occur in practice were presented, and then the principle of benefit distribution was determined. A multi-agent benefit cooperation model was established based on the work value coefficient and work performance coefficient. The computing method was provided in the end of this section.(5) This study considered a typical residential project using SI-system in China to conduct an in-depth expression of the multi-agent cooperation mechanism proposed in the preceding parts of the thesis. Considering that the development of SI-system housing is still in the trial stage in China's building industry and many technical and management obstacles exist, a list of assumptions were introduced to modify this SI-system housing project by learning the technological system and participants cooperating mode from the countries where SI housing system has already been widely used for years. A case study was conducted to illustrate how to apply the organization cooperation mechanism, innovation cooperation mechanism and benefit cooperation mechanism in an actual SI-system housing project.In this study, a multi-agent cooperation model was proposed to solve the complex problems during the construction process of SI-system housing based on the systematic theory, the synergetic theory, the industrial organizational theory, the technical innovation theory and the stakeholder theory. The results of this study provide a valuable reference for direct participants to make appropriate strategies to cooperate in promoting SI-system housing in China.