Graphical and natural language interface with a knowledge-based concurrent engineering environment

Abstract

Effective on-line communication between cooperating users with the mediation of machines (“virtual team” concept) is a necessity in new-generation concurrent engineering design and manufacture systems. The communication means for solving this problem are natural language and graphics. Managing the graphical and natural language user interfaces is a task full of ill-structured problems for which the knowledge-based approach offers a general solution methodology. Our knowledge-based expert system shell, implemented in Smalltalk, provides support mechanisms for flexible construction of such user interfaces. The natural language knowledge definition and editing is based on the novel percept-calculus knowledge representation scheme used in the system. The graphical module of the interface is capable of presenting diverse kinds of qualitative and quantitative data in various graphical forms which can be made interactive, serving as data input, data navigation, or design variation tools. An appropriate graphical knowledge base contains knowledge about general methods of graphical data presentation.