Abstract
Capturing human knowledge underlying the design and engineering of products has been among the main goals of computational engineering since its very beginning. Over the last decades, various approaches have been proposed to tackle this objective. Among the most promising approaches is the application of graph theory for representing product structures by defining nodes representing entities and edges representing relations among them. The concrete meaning of these structures ranges from geometry representations over hierarchical product breakdowns to functional descriptions and flows of information or resources. On top of these graph structures, graph rewriting techniques provide another powerful layer of technology. By enabling the formal definition of rules for transforming graph structures, they allow on the one hand side to formally capture the engineering development process. On the other hand, the assembly of rewriting rules into graph grammars allows for an exhaustive search of the solution space of the engineering problem at hand. In combination with search strategies, an automated optimization of the design under given constraints and objectives can be realized. The paper provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in graph rewriting and its applications in engineering design, with a focus on the built environment. It concludes with a discussion of the progress achieved and the missing research gaps.
Highlights
The manipulation of graphs was investigated for decades and proven to be powerful for complex problems in various domains
Among this rich body of available alternatives, an engineer can deliberate the choice of a framework for specialized applications in design. This deliberation is a problem-specific evaluation of necessary and desirable characteristics in modeling, development, and execution. Building upon this fundamental understanding of both graph theory and the implications of rewriting, we address approaches to represent engineering products in the chapter
The use of graph rewriting methods can enable the automation of complex design sequences
Summary
With the advance of modern information technology, computers take over work that was considered to be reserved for humans. Repetitive and error-prone tasks in data processing were significantly accelerated, while computation today complements human intelligence in domains requiring creativity To this end, graphs have proven their capabilities and flexibility to provide the necessary representations for numerous real-world problems. In order to generate an illustrative variety of a prior unknown design, the engineer may vary the rules selected, the matches chosen, and variable parameters along that flow The exploration of such a solution space may suggest creative, new ideas and may be further restricted. The four key steps are the representation of the problem, the generation of solutions, their evaluation, and the guidance of the subsequent cycle of search This framework is agreed to cover wide ranges of automation efforts under the collective term computational design synthesis (CDS).
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