Agent-based features for CAD browsers to foster engineering collaboration over the Internet

Abstract

For distributed engineers, CAD browsers are very good tools to collaborate asynchronously over the Internet. Support for synchronous collaboration is well researched and developed. However, for asynchronous collaboration systems, the research is very limited. The purpose of this study is to identify the major factors that affect the efficiency of engineering collaboration over the Internet using CAD browsers and design-agent-based features to support engineering collaboration. Activity coordination, collaboration awareness, and communication support were identified as the major factors for efficient engineering collaboration using CAD browsers. The agent-based features of Comment Status, Communication Agent, Team Member Information Enhancement, and Task Information Enhancement were designed to support communication, activity coordination, and collaboration awareness issues for engineering collaboration. A prototype of the CAD browser was designed. Three experiments were conducted to test the efficiency of the new proposed features in the agent system. The experimental results indicate that (a) the Comment Status feature reduced the missing rates of comments and comment processing time, (b) the Communication Agent reduced delay time in processing comments, and (c) the features of Team Member Information and Task Information Enhancement improved collaboration efficiency and subject satisfaction.