Intelligent Computer Aided Design System Research Articles

Integrated Intelligent CAD System for Interactive Design, Analysis and Prototyping of Compression and Torsion Springs

This paper presents the development and implementation of integrated intelligent CAD (computer aided design) system for design, analysis and prototyping of the compression and torsion springs. The article shows a structure of the developed system named Springs IICAD (integrated intelligent computer aided design). The system bounds synthesis and analysis design phases by means of the utilization of parametric 3D (three-dimensional) modeling, FEM (finite element method) analysis and prototyping. The development of the module for spring calculation and system integration was performed in the C# (C Sharp) programming language. Three-dimensional geometric modeling and structural analysis were performed in the CATIA (computer aided three-dimensional interactive application) software, while prototyping is performed with the Ultimaker 3.0 3D printer with support of Cura software. The developed Springs IICAD system interlinks computation module with the basic parametric models in such a way that spring calculation, shaping, FEM analysis and prototype preparation are performed instantly.

Methods and algorithms of development of a CAD system to design automated process control systems in the transport sector

The article considers questions of creation of an intelligent CAD (Computer-Aided Design) system to design APCS (Automated Process Control System) in the transport sector. The CAD system should represent a graphic 2D engine adapted for the solution of problems of design of APCS, surrounded with an information support cloud in the form of a set of relational databases of the engineering information necessary for effective and error-free work of the APCS designers. Programs of processing information that appears on drawings, schemes and tables of the APCS projects on the basis of the algorithms adopted in this subject domain should become an essential part of information support. A CAD system should be equipped with artificial intelligence programs for processing and sorting of external information and search of mistakes in the project.

Development of integrated intelligent computer-aided design system for mechanical power-transmitting mechanism design

This article presents architecture of integrated intelligent computer-aided design system for designing mechanical power-transmitting mechanisms (IICADkmps). The system has been developed in C# program environment with the aim of automatising the design process. This article presents a modern, automated approach to design. Developed kmps modules for calculation of geometrical and design characteristics of mechanical power-transmitting mechanisms are described. Three-dimensional geometrical parameter modelling of mechanical power-transmitting mechanisms was performed in the computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing/computer-aided engineering system CATIA V5. The connection between kmps calculation modules and CATIA V5 modelling system was established through initial three-dimensional models – templates. The outputs from the developed IICADkmps system generated final three-dimensional virtual models of mechanical power-transmitting mechanisms. Testing of the developed IICADkmps system was performed on friction, belt, cogged (spur and bevel gears) and chain transmitting mechanisms. Also, connection of the developed IICADkmps system with a device for rapid prototyping and computer numerical control machines was made for the purpose of additional testing and verification of practical use. Physical prototypes of designed characteristic elements of mechanical power-transmitting mechanisms were manufactured. The selected test three-dimensional virtual prototypes, obtained as an output from the developed IICADkmps system, were manufactured on the device for rapid prototyping (three-dimensional colour printer Spectrum Z510) and computer numerical control machines. Finally, at the end of the article, conclusions and suggested possible directions of further research, based on theoretical and practical research results, are presented.

ANALYSIS OF SYSTEMS FOR TECHNOLOGICAL CHAINS AND PROCESSES DESIGNING

The current state of the problem of synthesis of technological chains and processes of the computer-aided systems for technological processes designing was reviewed. Some publications on the results of modern research were analyzed; features of modern system’s program design were described. A classification of CAD for the technological processes of industrial and specific purpose was presented, taking into account new trends in medicine, as well as the classification methods, utilized in CAD. It is shown that the achieved level of modern theory does not allow us to create a universal synthesis technology that may be common to all subject areas. Prospects to solve the problem are associated with the construction of intelligent computer-aided design systems that implement the most common approach to synthesis, based on simulation and development activities, designed to support scientific, technical and technological solutions in the priority areas of science and technology. A general circuit of multilevel iterative synthesis process built on knowledge bases intended for storing precedents, select, configure, and options evaluating is presented. In case of absence of a suitable sample in the base, a direct synthesis of a new process is performed, using one of the possible formal approaches.

Cognitive Tools for Design Engineers: A Framework for the Development of Intelligent CAD Systems

Abstract Great design engineers are highly creative and unorthodox individuals who invent novel solutions that satisfy a set of constraints that are often ill-defined and customer driven. Designers use many tools to develop their designs, such as computer aided design (CAD) systems, that do not support the cognition that drives the design process. This paper develops the cognitive psychological background, a state of the practice based rationale for CAD enhancement and the research framework for cognitive CAD tools that support the design engineer during the creative problem solving process through reasoning and meaningful design alternatives. The research framework presented here was initially created for the development of cognitive tools for mechanical design but is transferable to other design disciplines. At the core of the research plan are the development and implementation of an artificial memory that is interpreted with real-time data analyses supported by machine learning, and made accessible to the design engineer through interaction design for intelligent CAD (iCAD).

Model of Intelligent Design and Optimisation of Structures of Vision Systems for Surface Inspection

The article presents a selected area of on-going research on the possibility of using intelligent computer-aided design systems for surface inspection of products manufactured in large batch processes. Systems based on machine vision are used wherever it is essential to obtain high efficiency, reproducibility, and where there is the need to use non-contact measurement methods. The IT solution significantly improves the design processes by automatically generating optimal configuration of machine vision systems intended for the detection of surface defects in manufactured products. General structure of the model and its individual modules, performing functions such as automatic component selection of machine vision systems, setting the angle of the light emission towards the surface of the analysed objects, and the selection of the range of light radiation are discussed. The individual configuration steps of vision systems for surface inspection, in which processes are implemented using expert systems making inferences based on both classical bivalent logic, as well as multi-valued fuzzy logic, are shown. The author presents the original methodology for the optimisation of structures forming vision systems intended for the reduction of components and costs associated with their implementation in physical structures, designed for use in production lines. The results of empirical studies of the calculation model are shown.

Applications of CAD in the Modern Garment Industry

In recent years, the Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology is being utilized in the textile and clothing industry, thus simplifying the overall process and shortening the cycle from design to manufacturing. This greatly improves the manufacturing efficiency and also the garment quality. This paper presents the trend of 3D Garment CAD technology, analyzes the intelligent apparel CAD systems, including parametric design, Combination of artificial intelligence and CAD and the closely relationship between CAD and the Internet.

Collaborative intelligent CAD framework incorporating design history tracking algorithm

This paper shows a new and efficient collaborative intelligent Computer Aided Design (CAD) framework in a theoretical study. While other collaborative CAD frameworks or protocols focus on decreasing the waiting time for updating design or communication methods for design review among collaborative designers, the suggested collaborative design protocol determines the next design ownership criterion with the objective of minimizing redundant design stages and design bottlenecks using the design history. In addition, the suggested framework generates an efficient reverse-engineered process for achieving the final design target with identification of redundant designs and how these can be prevented while resolving other existing collaborative design issues. As a design history mechanism, a feature-based design history tracking algorithm is suggested. In each design stage, the modeling activities are mapped to the related geometry and topology information. This information is reasoned into features using the feature design history graph (FDHG) and modified attribute adjacency graph (MAAG). The identified features are utilized for determining the redundant design stage and how it can be changed efficiently using the tracking algorithm. As the size of the design history increases with the number of collaborative designers and their design stages, this design history mechanism contributes to a decrease in size and captures the characteristics of design using features. As possible directions for future research this suggested framework can provide an insight into the design tendencies of designers and also be used as a reference model for intelligent CAD systems with an extracted design history-based knowledge database.

Process-condition-driven Automatic Location of Components

In order to reduce the development cycle of mechanical products and corresponding toolings, a large number of components are utilized in these structures. Accordingly, automatic location method for components is a key issue in the research on intelligent computer aided design (CAD) techniques. Integrated with the investigation into intelligent design techniques for aircraft manufacturing toolings, in-depth researches on this issue are conducted. Formalized automatic location principles, representative methods and implementation algorithms are proposed and established. First, several terms and their formalized representative methods including process condition, location base and location operator are defined. Second, computation modeling of components automatic location and methods of location transformation are proposed. Then, definition of base structure and some key algorithms for automatic location are introduced. These principles and algorithms are developed, applied and verified in research project “Jig Intelligent CAD (JigICAD) System”.

Study on Knowledge Expression Methods and Reasoning Strategies in Intelligent CAD System

As the core of intelligent computer aided design (ICAD), the expert system with the purpose of product design automation and intelligence has been developed rapidly. Knowledge expression, management, utilization, and access method has always been the core of artificial intelligence and expert system technology , Substantial literature both at home and abroad involved in the content and achieved certain results in the area of design. In the aspect of knowledge expression and management, including: the knowledge expression based on gene model[3], the knowledge expression based on design pattern[4], the knowledge expression based on Petri net, mixed knowledge expression, and so on. In the aspect of system reasoning, including: fuzzy reasoning[5,6], ccase-based reasoning[7], integration reasoning, and so on. This paper mainly introduces some technologies and methods about electrical products at ICAD system with the above-mentioned two aspects. As a sub-system of ICAD system, the expert system for electrical apparatus designing was studied in the artificial intelligent technologies, including the way to build a large knowledge database managed by multi level frames and expressed by various knowledge expression methods, and the reasoning strategy suitable for the structure of knowledge database and integrated rule-based reasoning (RBR) with case-based reasoning (CBR) together. Based on these technologies, two-level expert system controlled by meta reasoning machine was built so that the reasoning efficiency was boosted very strongly.

Intelligent computer-aided design systems: Past 20 years and future 20 years

Triggered by expert systems technology, artificial intelligence (AI) was a silver bullet in the early 1980s. AI seemed to be able to perfectly solve various problems that involved any intellectual activities. For instance, MYCIN (Shortliffe, 1976), developed at Stanford, gave a strong impression that medical doctors could have been soon supported by a clever consultation system, resulting in more accurate diagnoses. Inspired by these, also in engineering fields, a variety of experimental systems for fault diagnosis, planning, selection, and design were developed, which demonstrated promising possibilities of their applications.

Turbine blade fir-tree root design optimisation using intelligent CAD and finite element analysis

This paper is concerned with automation and optimisation of the design of a turbine blade fir-tree root by incorporating a knowledge based intelligent computer-aided design system (ICAD ®) and finite element analysis. Various optimisation algorithms have been applied in an effort to optimise the shape against a large number of geometric and mechanical constraints drawn from industrial experience in the development of such a structure. Attention is devoted to examining the effects of critical geometric features on the stress distribution at the interface between the blade and disk using a feature-based geometry modelling tool and the optimisation techniques. Various aspects of this problem are presented: (1) geometry representation using ICAD ® and transfer of the geometry to a finite element analysis code, (2) application of boundary conditions/loads and retrieval of analysis results, (3) exploration of various optimisation methods and strategies including gradient-based and modern stochastic methods. A product model from Rolls-Royce is used as a base design in the optimisation.

An intelligent CAD system for development of controllers of active magnetic bearings

The purpose of this study is to establish a CAD (Computer Aided Design) system for research and development (R&D) of a new product. In the R&D process of a new product, the design objects are frequently redesigned based on the experimental results obtained with prototypes. The CAD/CAE systems (which is based on computer simulation of physical phenomena) are effective in reducing the number of useless prototypes of a new product. These kinds of conventional CAD/CAE systems do not provide a function to reflect the experimental results to the redesign process, however. This paper proposes a methodology to establish the CAD system, which possesses the engineering model of a designed object in the model database, and refines the model on the basis of experimental results of prototype. The blackboard inference model has been applied to infer model refinement and redesign counterplan by using insufficient knowledge of R&D process of new products.

An object-oriented intelligent CAD system for ceramic kiln

Abstract This paper describes an integrated intelligent computer-aided design (CAD) system for the ceramic kiln, with an object-oriented database as its core, utilizing object-oriented approach. In addition to the structure and methods of the object-oriented database, the knowledge-based system and the drafting system are discussed. The idea of an integrated intelligent CAD environment is introduced, which can greatly improve design efficiency and quality.

Deriving engineering software from requirements

With the advent of intelligent computer aided design systems, companies such as Boeing are embarking on an era in which core competitive engineering knowledge and design rationale is being encoded in software systems. The promise of this technology is that this knowledge can be leveraged across many different designs, product families, and even different uses (e.g., generative process planning for manufacturing). The current state of the practice attempts to achieve this goal through the reuse of software components. A fundamental problem with this approach to knowledge sharing and reuse is that what we are trying to reuse is software—the end artifact in a long and complicated process that goes from requirement specifications, through a process of design, to implementations. Knowledge sharing and reuse can not easily and uniformly occur at the software level. So what can be done as an alternative? This paper describes a theory, methodology, language, and tool for the semi-automatic development and maintenance of engineering software from requirement specifications. In essence, this paradigm for software development and maintenance is one that explicitly captures requirement specifications, designs, implementations, and the refinement processes that lead from requirements all the way down to software. By recording this entire refinement history, we stand a better chance of leveraging knowledge for different uses.

Intelligent Geometric Modeling of Standard Bridges

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that deals with the development of approaches and techniques for enabling the machine to mimic human intelligence. The marriage of AI and computer‐aided design (CAD) results in a new breed of systems called intelligent CAD systems. These systems are superior to conventional CAD systems in that they exhibit certain capabilities, such as deductive reasoning, that have been attributes to intelligent beings.Deductive reasoning is a central activity in CAD in general and in geometric modeling in particular. This paper presents a framework for developing intelligent CAD systems that support deductive reasoning. More specifically, the paper (1) discusses the integration of predicate logic as a mechanism for deductive reasoning with conventional CAD systems and (2) illustrates the use of the framework for geometric modeling of standard bridges. This illustration involves (1) representing the geometry of standard bridges using the language of predicate logic and (2) generating, modifying, and verifying the geometry of standard bridges via logical inference.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTELLIGENT PRODUCT DESIGN SYSTEM: INTEGRATION STRATEGIES

Conventional computer-aided design (CAD) packages have drastically reduced the workload of the human designer and shortened the product design cycle. However, the degree of effort and volume of information required to use these tools limit their use to the later stages of design. Intelligent computer-aided design (ICAD) systems have sought to provide a more complete design tool to assist the designer in all phases of design. ICAD systems incorporate conventional CAD elements as well as knowledge engineering constructs. The level of integration between different components of an ICAD system determines its usefulness. Most commercial intelligent CAD packages are tied to a specific set of CAD tools, restricting their application domains. This dependence on specific software tools can be reduced by using general purpose modules to interface with available CAD packages. This paper discusses a method of introducing knowledge engineering technology to help develop an advanced intelligent product design system by...

Database usage in a knowledgebase environment for building design

The Computer Aided Design (CAD) Research Unit of the Design Institute at Cal Poly is engaged in a long term development of an Intelligent Computer Aided Design System (ICADS). The system is intended to become a valuable assistant to the designer throughout the entire design activity. Currently a working prototype, called DEMO2, provides a subset of the necessary assistance. DEMO2 is a distrubutive system that can run with a variety of hardware processors in a Unix environment. It includes an Expert Design Advisor that has six knowledgebase systems working as domain experts, a blackboard coordination expert, a CAD drawing system, a custom graphics interface for user interactions and several databases. The system concurrently monitors an evolving floorplan as it is being drawn by a designer. Currently this review is limited to the viewpoints of experts in the domains of Access, Climate(thermal), Cost, Lighting, Sound(acoustics), and Structure. It functions primarily to help realize a design that is free from conflicts in the six areas listed. This paper describes the development and use of databases in the ICADS working model. Specifically, it shows how the building design prototype information is organized and referenced to derive a design program for a particular project. In addition it discusses how another database of reference information is integrated into the design activity.

ICADS expert design advisor: an aid to reflective thinking

An Intelligent Computer Aided Design System ( ICADS ) is under long-term development. Central to this work is the philosophy that the system should be a valuable assistant to the designer throughout the entire design activity. The current working ICADS prototype is a distributive system that can run with a variety of hardware processors in a Unix environment. It includes an expert design advisor that has six knowledge-based systems working as domain experts, a blackboard-coordination expert, two knowledge bases, and several sources of reference data. The expert design advisor in the prototype interprets a drawing as it is being made by a designer working in a CAD environment. It reacts in real time to monitor the evolving floorplan from the viewpoints of experts in the domains of access, climate, cost, lighting, sound and structure. The system also provides for additional interaction with the designer outside the CAD system to help in the realization of a resultant design that is free from conflicts in the six areas listed above.

Modeling Design Process

This article discusses building a computable design process model, which is a prerequisite for realizing intelligent computer-aided design systems. First, we introduce general design theory, from which a descriptive model of design processes is derived. In this model, the concept of metamodels plays a crucial role in describing the evolutionary nature of design. Second, we show a cognitive design process model obtained by observing design processes using a protocol analysis method. We then discuss a computable model that can explain most parts of the cognitive model and also interpret the descriptive model. In the computable model, a design process is regarded as an iterative logical process realized by abduction, deduction, and circumscription. We implemented a design simulator that can trace design processes in which design specifications and design solutions are gradually revised as the design proceeds.