An Intelligent Knowledge Based Approach to Support Engineering Design Practice

Abstract

Abstract Today, engineering designs are tackling projects of increasing complexity and cost. The constraints are getting more complex, there are new materials and processes to exploit and stricter regulations and legal requirements to satisfy. Making products more quickly and efficiently is even more important in these times of increasing economic competition. Over recent years, use of computer tools in the design-analysis-manufacture stages has led to decreased lead times and reduced product costs. In particular, in the engineering design process, it has become clear that more extensive computer based support tools would result in greater gains. These include tools that help the designer maintain consistency in the design representation, help in documentation of information such as design intent, perform knowledge based manufacturing analysis and help in the generation of intelligent manufacturing plans. Progress has been made in the representation of design entities, as can be seen, for example, in geometric modeling. However, as this article point out, the techniques and methodologies underlying current Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems are an insufficient basis for realizing automation of the engineering design process. This article proposes that an integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques with geometric modeling systems can better meet the requirements of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) design practice.