Intelligent process-control system design

The use of expert systems has vast potential in an intelligent process-control system. In this paper, the issue of process-control system design using a knowledge-based approach is discussed. Expert-system techniques have been used for the design of controllers for process-control systems. The expert system is developed in conjunction with the successful application of a systematic design approach. Design knowledge has been represented using rules, facts and frames. The design process consists of a sequence of operations obtained by heuristics and experience in the design techniques.     

Development of an integrated expert system for fluvial hydrodynamics

During recent decades, rapid developments in computer science and industry have been influencing every aspect of our social life. Computer Aided Design (CAD) techniques have a significant impact in engineering fields. For fluvial engineering fields, a large number of microcomputer-based programs are applied for hydrodynamics analyses during the project design stage. Recently, achievements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been applied in many fields. The application of expert system techniques is an attractive trend in modern design practice. It is believed that the synthetic utilization of CAD and AI techniques would become more attractive for engineers. Yet the studies on this topic are scarce. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of an integrated expert system that assists hydraulic engineers to solve the unsteady open channel flow in river networks. A methodology of combining numerical analysis software into an expert system is presented. The verification, validation, application, and future development of this system are also presented.     

Product design logic for an intelligent product modelling system

Recent research in CAD systems has been conducted to realize intelligent processing. Several CAD systems and product modelling systems have been developed using AI techniques. However, in order to develop more intelligent CAD systems, the design logic which connects the functional requirement to the geometric and the technological information of the designed product must be evaluated.

A product model used in such intelligent CAD systems has to include not only the geometric and the technological information of the product but also the designer's thought process which explains the design logic.

Design logic is generally divided into two parts. One is the generalized design logic which is commonly used in the conceptual design of mechanical products. The other is the product specified design logic which is used in the fundamental and detailed design phase. Different logic is applied to each product. This type of design logic is often used in modification design and compilation design, where the dimensions of parts have to be modified according to different functional requirements. When the dimensions and accuracies of the products are defined in connection with the functional requirements through design logic, the CAD system can automatically make decisions according to the given requirements. In this paper, suitable presentation formats and processing functions for these two types of design logic are discussed.

The importance of design logic in product modelling is proven through several case studies in this paper. As a conclusion, the intelligent product modelling system is developed, which should expedite the progress of design automation in the near future. In conceptual design, the design logic is processed in the modelling system and the product structure, with the technological information decided automatically from the functional requirement. Automation in the detailed design phase is also facilitated by the modelling system using the product specified design logic in the product model.     

Intelligennt systems approach to conceptual design

In mechanical system design, the Integrated Computer Aided Design (ICAD) technology has evolved into a new generation of design techniques. It also paves the way for implementing Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems. However, the key issue to accomplish the objective in ICAD is the conceptual design automation. Conceptual design is a creative activity and an important decision making during overall product design to reduce energy consumption, to increase raw materials utilization, to obtain more profits, to reduce environmental effects of effluents, and to ensure flexibility, operability, controllability, and safety of manufacturing processes. Therefore, the quality of conceptual design determines the final quality of products and profit of plants. In this article, we first introduce the fundamentals and characteristics of conceptual design. Then, a general problem-solving strategy and methodology to implement conceptual design automation are proposed. an Integrated Distributed Intelligent Design Environment (IDIDE) for developing conceptual design expert systems is presented. Fundamental principles, system organization, and implementation techniques are discussed. Finally, an application case for wheel loader design is studied. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

智能CAD系统CADTSB的研制

本文介绍了一个智能CAD系统——计算机辅助中小型汽轮机滑动轴承设计系统CADTSB(Computer Aided Designing Turbine’s Sliding Bearing)的设计和实现技术,探讨了智能CAD在专家系统、数值计算、数据库系统和图形系统集成程序设计环境下的系统开发技术。     

整合概念设计与详细设计过程的笔式CAD系统研究

目前存在的CAD系统由于交互方式不自然,交互效率低,缺乏对概念设计中模糊信息的支持,中断了设计信息流,导致概念设计与后续设计过程断裂,增加了设计周期和工作量。针对当前CAD系统的不足,提出对于支持概念设计的笔式CAD系统的研究,并探讨实现这样一个系统的问题及解决。其目的在于通过高效地使用当前的手势识别和草图识别技术,支持用户从开始的模糊意图所产生的随手笔画,到最后进行精确定位和绘制,使概念设计与详细设计过程整合,减少工作量和缩短设计周期。     

CATC — A Computer Aided Tolerance Control system

Computer utilization in manufacturing systems is increasing at a rapid rate. Developments thus far have been disjointed. Much work needs to be done in the area of integrating computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM). Tolerance control is an important component in the integration of CAD and CAM. Selection of design tolerances affects the build-ability of a product. The selection of manufacturing processes and sequence of processes affects process tolerance stacking. Unexamined process tolerance stacking leads to scrap and rework. A computer aided tolerance control (CATC) system is presented in this paper. This system is based on the tolerance chart technique. The CATC system is interactive and uses computer graphics for information display. The system can be used for computer aided process planning (CAPP) and for CAD/CAM integration.     

ArchiDNA: An interactive system for creating 2D and 3D conceptual drawings in architectural design

We present an interactive system called ArchiDNA for creating 2D and 3D conceptual drawings in architectural design. We developed a novel principle of shape generation called match-and-attach by analyzing drawing styles of a contemporary architect, Peter Eisenman. The process consists of user interaction techniques and a set of rules that decide how one or more shapes attach to another shape. One key ingredient of our process is a unique concept for the interactive semi-automatic shape generation that uses the combination of algorithmic rules of a computer and designers’ manual inputs. These techniques enable designers to use CAD software in the early stages of architectural designs to explore conceptual building forms. ArchiDNA dynamically responds to drawing inputs, configures 2D shapes, and converts them to 3D shapes in a similar style. We intend to complement existing CAD software and computational drawing pipelines for intuitive 2D and 3D conceptual drawing creation.     

整合概念设计与详细设计过程的笔式CAD系统研究

目前存在的CAD系统由于交互方式不自然,交互效率低,缺乏对概念设计中模糊信息的支持,中断了设计信息流,导致概念设计与后续设计过程断裂,增加了设计周期和工作量。针对当前CAD系统的不足,提出对于支持概念设计的笔式CAD系统的研究,并探讨实现这样一个系统的问题及解决。其目的在于通过高效地使用当前的手势识别和草图识别技术,支持用户从开始的模糊意图所产生的随手笔画,到最后进行精确定位和绘制,使概念设计与详细设计过程整合,减少工作量和缩短设计周期。     

为支持协同设计对EDBMS的扩充及其实现

计算机支持下的协同设计是ＣＡＤ／ＣＡＭ技术的进一步发展。设计过程中有效的数据共享是协同设计的前提条件；而协同设计过程中用于交流、协调、决策等数据和知识的管理是协同设计系统的成功的基本保证。本文在工程数据库管理系统ＥＤＢＭＳ的基础上，根据协同设计的要求，对ＥＤＢＭＳ进行了扩充，使其在数据共享的基础上，能对用于协同的数据和知识等进行有效管理。为此对ＥＤＢＭＳ增加了支持开放分布式计算，以及多用户、多库处     

一种支持群体设计的工程数据库管理系统的结构及实现

计算机支持下的群体合作设计是一种新的ＣＡＤ工作环境，而工程数据库管理系统则是ＣＡＤ／ＤＡＭ／ＣＩＭＳ等统计数据管理的基础。为了支持群体协同设计，工程数据库管理必须研究适应于群体工作的系统结构和工作模式。     

Development of a CAD-based intelligent manufacturing system

This research proposes a CAD-based manufacturing system that embraces computer-aided design, design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA), computer-aided process planning (CAPP), computer-aided assembly planning (CAAP), and vision-robot integration. The proposed system starts with the design of products using a commercial CAD software, Autocad. The design data is then extracted from the CAD database and organized into a standardized product model. Interface programs are used to translate the geometrical and topological information in the model into DFMA, CAPP, CAAP and vision image representations. Based on the results generated by the interface programs the applications using artificial intelligence techniques can automatically generate redesign advises, CNC part programs, assembly sequence and instructions for robots.     

Symbolic manipulation CAD of control engineering by using REDUCE

Computer aided design (CAD) is an indispensable tool for control engineering. Recently various CAD systems have been developed by using numerical computation languages, but these are not capable of treating symbolic computation. However, control theories provide many symbolic computation algorithms. This study develops a new CAD system which can perform symbolic manipulation, based on REDUCE 3.2. It is shown that this CAD system can be applied to wider problems than the conventional ones, by means of two examples.     

Expert systems for manufacturing cell simulation and design

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) is approached by means of the application of Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and other CA techniques, methods and programs/program systems. These programs are often implemented as knowledge-based, or expert systems and in this way they became typical examples of engineering application of artificial intelligence. The production task of CIM systems is solved by using flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). FMSs built up from smaller, complex units, i.e. from flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs) have several advantages. The design and the operation of manufacturing systems need new, sophisticated methods to utilize all the embedded benefits of the sophisticated and expensive elements installed for production purposes. New methods like knowledge processing technology, cooperative problem-solving techniques, etc., offer wide possibilities to design more reasonable systems. This paper describes prototype expert systems that make use of different knowledge-based tools and techniques to design (configure, reconfigure) and simulate manufacturing cells, taking into consideration technological plans and other relevant information.     

A new paradigm based on agents applied to free-hand sketch recognition

Important advances in natural calligraphic interfaces for CAD (Computer Aided Design) applications are being achieved, enabling the development of CAS (Computer Aided Sketching) devices that allow facing up to the conceptual design phase of a product. Recognizers play an important role in this field, allowing the interpretation of the user’s intention, but they still present some important lacks. This paper proposes a new recognition paradigm using an agent-based architecture that does not depend on the drawing sequence and takes context information into account to help decisions. Another improvement is the absence of operation modes, that is, no button is needed to distinguish geometry from symbols or gestures, and also “interspersing” and “overtracing” are accomplished.     

Cognitive,collaborative, conceptual and creative — Four characteristics of the next generation of knowledge-based CAD systems: A study in biologically inspired design

We envision that the next generation of knowledge-based CAD systems will be characterized by four features: they will be based on cognitive accounts of design, and they will support collaborative design, conceptual design, and creative design. In this paper, we first analyze these four dimensions of CAD. We then report on a study in the design, development and deployment of a knowledge-based CAD system for supporting biologically inspired design that illustrates these four characteristics. This system, called DANE for Design by Analogy to Nature Engine, provides access to functional models of biological systems. Initial results from in situ deployment of DANE in a senior-level interdisciplinary class on biologically inspired design indicates its usefulness in helping designers conceptualize design of complex systems, thus promising enough to motivate continued work on knowledge-based CAD for biologically inspired design. More importantly from our perspective, DANE illustrates how cognitive studies of design can inform the development of CAD systems for collaborative, conceptual, and creative design, help assess their use in practice, and provide new insights into human interaction with knowledge-based CAD systems.     

刺绣画稿创作辅助设计系统DraftDraw的设计与实现

本文描述了刺绣画稿创作辅助设计系统ＤｒａｆｔＤｒａｗ的设计原理和实现技术，系统将计算机图形学，计算机辅助设计和人工智能技术相结合，建立了一套有效的图稿输入，图形生成、编辑、修改等功能，系统还建立了典型图案素材库及其管理系统，在分析刺绣画稿特征的基础上建立了规则库，为刺绣画稿创作设计提供了有效的辅助工具，文中重点介绍了系统的总体结构，图案素材库及管理系统和图形创作设计等实现技术。     

An ontology-based universal design knowledge support system

An effective and efficient knowledge support system is crucial for universal design process, as it has become a major design issue in the last decade with the growth of the elderly population and disabled people. There are a limited number of CAD investigations on the nature of knowledge processing that supports the cognitive activities of universal design process. Therefore, this paper proposes an ontology-based computer-assisted universal design (CAUD) plug-in tool that supports designers in developing satisfactory universal design solutions in the conceptual design phase. The required knowledge processing and representation of the developed tool is motivated by the ontological language. It is based on the multiple divergence–convergence cognitive strategies and cognitive needs of designers in the analysis/synthesis/evaluation operations. The CAUD plug-in tool is the first attempt to interface the universal design knowledge ontologically and respond to the requirements of conceptual design phase. According to the user acceptance study, the tool is assessed as useful, understandable, efficient, supportive and satisfactory.     

Validation of an automated system model generator

Modeling and simulation have always been highly useful techniques to use when designing, analyzing, or diagnosing an engineered system. Development of an appropriate model, in terms of accuracy, granularity, and complexity, has typically been the burden of the designer, analyst, or troubleshooter. It would naturally be advantageous if a model could be developed automatically, with the user supplying only some final minor refinements. The fact that most modern systems are designed in a computer-aided design (CAD) environment makes this a realistic prospect, because much of the data necessary for the model is already in electronic form. This article outlines a system called the automated knowledge generator (AKG), which embodies techniques that automatically create a model of an engineered system directly from its CAD representation, and describes the extensive testing process followed in order to validate its performance