William H. Wood

Design information retrieval: a thesauri-based approach for reuse of informal design information

Information is integral to the engineering design process, and gaining access to design knowledge is critical to effective design decision-making. This paper considers the indexing and retrieval of informal, unstructured information captured from electronic design logbooks. One of the key observations of informal design information is its evolutionary nature over time. While this characteristic makes informal information a rich source for reuse, it also makes it difficult to employ traditional information retrieval (IR) approaches. The work described in this paper is based on a framework developed specifically for the information handling requirements of designers. This manual method for indexing information is adapted to meet the evolutionary nature of design through the development of thesauri for design context. Several approaches to building thesauri are examined, including manual and automated methods. It is found that manual methods provide a high level of IR performance, but also have high overhead requirements. Machine methods, however, may provide a viable, low overhead alternative.

New Directions in Design for Manufacturing

This paper gives an overview of research that is expanding the domain of design for manufacturing (DFM) into new and important areas. This paper covers DFM and concurrent engineering, DFM for conceptual design, DFM for embodiment design, DFM for detailed design, design for production, platform design for reducing time-to-market, design for system quality, design for life cycle costs, and design for environment. The paper concludes with some general guidelines that suggest how manufacturing firms can develop useful, effective DFM tools.

Decision-Based Conceptual Design: Modeling and Navigating Heterogeneous Design Spaces

Information gathering and refinement are critical activities in conceptual design. A decision-based framework is developed consisting of three main components: a flexible, extensible design space model based on a Gaussiankernel which synthesizes information from design instances; expected value decision-making which focuses the design process on the most promising subspaces within this model; and information value theory which identifies uncertainty in the design evaluation whose reduction could redirect the design process. Together, these components form a normative method for conceptual design around a key process-the co-evolution of a design and the evaluation model used to quantify its value. Formalizing conceptual design toward reducing arbitrary design decisions and focusing attention on the most critical design concerns holds the potential to substantially improve both the process and product of design. The proposed methodology is demonstrated through an example in the domain of electric motor selection.

Engineering courseware content and delivery: the NEEDS infrastructure for distance independent education

The Synthesis Engineering Education Coalition strives to integrate multidisciplinary, open‐ended problem solving into the varied engineering curricula of its members. To achieve this goal, Synthesis has developed a broad array of computer‐based multimedia courseware modules and elements. In addition to the courseware, Synthesis has developed NEEDS, the National Engineering Education Delivery System, as the infrastructure for disseminating these and other education materials over the Internet. Several interesting challenges have been identified through this effort: How can electronic courseware meet the diverse needs of curricula among a cross section of universities? How do educators adapt traditional teaching roles to fit new resources and delivery styles? What courseware access modes equally suit the needs of author, teacher, and student? Can an infrastructure designed for static course‐ware be adapted to dynamically changing information on the World Wide Web? The experience of Synthesis/NEEDS can begin to answer these questions while opening more issues in distance independent education.

Intelligent Engineering Component Catalogs

This paper describes ongoing work toward the development of computerized component catalogs using networked hypertext and multimedia technology combined with AI and mathematical programming methods to assist the designer in selecting appropriate components. The integration of a symbolic math tool, Design Sheet, in a hypertext component catalog to apply mathematical programming methods using analytical models for filtering catalog selections is described. Information value theory extends this filtering, suggesting to the designer when it worthwhile to gather more information and how to best formulate the analytical model used to search the catalog.

Functional Modeling, Reverse Engineering, and Design Reuse

Experience is a tremendous asset for any designer. To leverage the experience of many designers, a general methodology for case-based functional design is required. Function-based design is a natural foundation for this methodology because its goal is to structure the solution space and support concept generation. Gaining access to experience about how functions combine will help designers to explore more, better design concepts. This experience is gleaned by reverse engineering existing products and storing and indexing the information gained. This work studies the preliminary steps in matching functional information derived from reverse engineering to that generated in the design process. A language of function developed for reverse engineering is tested in the context of design.Copyright

Integrating functional synthesis

Design couples synthesis and analysis in iterative cycles, alternatively generating solutions, and evaluating their validity. The accuracy and depth of evaluation has increased markedly because of the availability of powerful simulation tools and the development of domain-specific knowledge bases. Efforts to extend the state of the art in evaluation have unfortunately been carried out in stovepipe fashion, depending on domain-specific views both of function and of what constitutes “good” design. Although synthesis as practiced by humans is an intentional process that centers on the notion of function, computational synthesis often eschews such intention for sheer permutation. Rather than combining synthesis and analysis to form an integrated design environment, current methods focus on comprehensive search for solutions within highly circumscribed subdomains of design. This paper presents an overview of the progress made in representing design function across abstraction levels proven useful to human designers. Through an example application in the domain of mechatronics, these representations are integrated across domains and throughout the design process.

A Machine Learning Approach to Automated Design Classification, Association and Retrieval

Acquisition and recall of associations between problem descriptions and solutions is a critical task of case based design systems. The organization of design knowledge impacts the quality of inference and support a designer may derive from a case based system. Machine learning over case data may be used to create an intelligent interface between designer requirements and available design knowledge. Such an interface assists the designer in navigating the case base for effective case based retrieval. This paper explores two neural architectures based upon the Adaptive Resonance Theory for automated generation of design representations useful during the preliminary stages of case based retrieval. A standard bridge design case base is used to demonstrate the approach.

Forging a Geometric Link Between Function-Based Design and DfM

Design for Manufacture (DfM) tends to explore only a small space of possible designs toward improving manufacturability. By focusing primarily on detailed geometry, DfM tends to recommend incremental changes. This paper presents a methodology that begins at the conceptual design stage, applying functional modeling to the generation of design configurations. These functional abstractions are merged with real part geometry toward generating potentially manufacturable design skeletons. The direct connection from function to manufacturable form afforded by this method allows the designer to make better-informed design decisions at the earliest stages of the design process.Copyright