Development of a knowledge-based design support system

Abstract

A notion of design has been developed that is fundamentally different from others in the field. Creative design across a number of domains has been focused on, and a model of design as an exploratory activity rather than as a form of search has been developed. The exploration of a design problem's characteristics is an activity that creates and bounds the space within which possible design solutions can be located. The seeing of design as an exploration and mapping of parameter space highlights the inherent complexity of the creative design process, and it has implications for the specification of knowledge-based design systems. The resulting design philosophy places the human designer at the heart of the exploration process with the computer system, using integrated AI techniques, acting to support him/her throughout the design process. The Castlemaine project has adopted the philosophy of design support, and it evaluates the model of design exploration within the domain of pharmaceutical small-molecule design through the specification of a knowledge-based design-support system. The paper describes the back-ground to the Castlemaine project, the research programme, and the status of the project in 1991.