1. REGNET projects: Formalizing Laws and Regulations for Automatic Situational Analysis
Kincho H. Law (CEE), Gio Wiederhold(CS), Jim Leckie(CEE), Barton Thompson(Law), Mike Genesereth (CS), et al,
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Acknowledgement: The slides are based on the research work by various students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Computer Science Departments, Stanford University

2. The Public and Scientific Problem
Regulations are established to protect the public
Many organizations set regulations
Regulations greatly constrain businesses actions
Interpretation of regulations is costly and inconsistent
Regulations are written in natural language
They are often incomplete, sometimes conflicting
The objects being regulated are often encoded
Many levels of translation are needed
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3. Applications investigated
Objectives: check compliance
Disabled access:
participants:
architects, building owners, the disabled &
the federal and local governments
Waste disposal:
generators, haulers, sites &
the governments – protecting us
There are 100’s of other areas
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4. General REGNET Process
Capture texts from legal and agency sources
Establish ontologies to formalize meaning
Translate texts into processable forms
provides intermediate access
Extract rules in terms of applications
validate and compare rules
Apply rules to design or processes
Display results, typically graphically, to participants
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5. Scope and Emphasis
To develop a formal but practical infrastructure to enhance the access and retrieval of government regulations
Pilot research application focuses on regulations for assuring, for the handicapped, accessibility to buildings and safe egress in emergencies
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6. Relating Analysis Results to Code Document
On-Line Code Checker :
Relating Analysis Results to Code Document
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7. Code Document
Entity and violation
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8. Wheelchair (Robot) Model Performance-Based Evaluation: Motion Planning
13”
46”
33”
26”
Wheelchair
(Robot) Model
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9. Example Path Width Definition
ADAAG Definition:
4.3.3 Width. The minimum clear width of an accessible route shall be 36 in (915 mm) except at doors (see and ). If a person in a wheelchair
must make a turn around an obstruction, the minimum clear width of the accessible route shall be as shown in Fig. 7(a) and (b).
Alternate Definition:
Variances will be allowed for
accessible route configurations
that adhere to the ergonomic
and anthropometric parameters
set forth in this document that can
be demonstrated visually, either
manually or computationally.
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10. Recommendations to the Owner and Agencies
Remove men’s bathroom stall partitions
Make all rooms “Usable”
Widen door openings
Rearrange room furniture
Alternative definition of the Accessible Route
Alternative definitions of route components
Performance-based allowances
Explicit Statement relating:
Accessibility to Functionality of Spaces
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11. Information Flow in Hazardous Waste Regulation Compliance Checking
Collaboration among generators, services, and regulators.
Regulator
TSDF
Explanation and
interpretation
for Codes
Regulation
codes
Records of
waste streams
Instructions for
how to conduct
compliance checking
Compliance records
for hazardous waste
Generator
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12. Users Regulator Regulator TSDF TSDF Generator Generator
Proposed Distributed Information Management System for Hazardous Waste Compliance Checking
Users
(Critics, Public)
Regulator
(Federal EPA)
Regulator
(State EPA)
Information Brokerage
Reporting
and
compliance
checking info
management
Information
security
management
Regulation
code
information
management
TSDF
TSDF
Generator
Generator
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13. Hierarchical Structure with Embedded Links in Regulation Provisions
Section Hazardous waste determination. ……
(a) He should first determine if the waste is excluded from regulation under 40 CFR
(b) He must then determine if the waste is listed as a hazardous waste in subpart D of 4 0 CFR part 261.
…...
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14. A System Architecture for Hazardous Waste Compliance Checking
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15. RegNet Research Motivations and Goals
What is an appropriate model for a information management system for compliance checking?
How to build such a system
How to deal with the conflicting objectives?
Research goal
Developing information management frameworks that can improve the efficiency of regulation compliance and facilitate the compliance process.
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