Chapter 7: Knowledge engineering

Title: An artificial intelligence based design environment for complex products

Author(s): Ahmet Gayretli

Address: Afyon Kocatepe University, Technical Education Faculty, Afyon, Turkey

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2007 pp. 467 - 476

Abstract/Summary: Electromechanical products such as electrical toothbrushes and robots carry multi-technological characteristics. Owing to limitations on available expertise, and reach-ability of experts, and engineers and academics, designing these products is a very complicated and time-consuming process. Also, not much research has been carried out developing tools, methods and computer supported systems for dealing with significant issues in electromechanical product design. As a result, a multi-disciplinary design approach is needed to effectively address the above problems. In this research paper, a new object oriented product development approach has been proposed for integrating mechanical design with electronic design to improve design and manufacture of electromechanical products within given requirements. The proposed approach has been implemented in a Delphi based environment integrated with a CAD system. To firmly understand relationships between each component in a complex system some existing products have been examined and modeled in terms of constraints, rules and frames. The system assists designers from different disciplines in evaluating complex systems as far as parts relation, potential effects on each other, costs, weight and physical constraints are concerned in the early stages of the design process. This helps the designers to avoid design iterations leading to longer lead-time, hence increased cost. The system enables to rapidly develop new complex products and add new functions to the existing products within given constraints.

Order a copy of this article