Rule-based autocorrection of Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) on graphs

A piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) is a central reference document in chemical process engineering. Currently, chemical engineers manually review P&IDs through visual inspection to find and rectify errors. However, engineering projects can involve hundreds to thousands of P&ID pages, creating a significant revision workload. This study proposes a rule-based method to support engineers with error detection and correction in P&IDs. The method is based on a graph representation of P&IDs, enabling automated error detection and correction, i.e., autocorrection, through rule graphs. We use our pyDEXPI Python package to generate P&ID graphs from DEXPI-standard P&IDs. In this study, we developed 33 rules based on chemical engineering knowledge and heuristics, with five selected rules demonstrated as examples. A case study on an illustrative P&ID validates the reliability and effectiveness of the rule-based autocorrection method in revising P&IDs.

@article{balhorn2025_2502.18493,
  title={ Rule-based autocorrection of Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) on graphs },
  author={ Lukas Schulze Balhorn and Niels Seijsener and Kevin Dao and Minji Kim and Dominik P. Goldstein and Ge H. M. Driessen and Artur M. Schweidtmann },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.18493},
  year={ 2025 }
}