Knowledge engineering concepts for decision support system design and implementation

The design of computer-based systems that simulate expert human consulting by drawing on large amounts of task-specific knowledge has been a major research activity of applied artificial intelligence over the last ten years. Building decision support systems that incorporate aspects of this research is a promising new field. The purpose of this paper is to discuss concepts of “knowledge engineering” that are most relevant in designing and building knowledge-based decision support systems.     

Knowledge acquisition method for conceptual design based on value engineering and axiomatic design theory

A method for acquiring conceptual design knowledge in physical systems is proposed and implemented based on EBL (explanation-based learning), ‘value engineering methodologies’ and ‘axiomatic design approaches’. In this method, the structural features of designed objects are analysed to yield a systematic explanation of how they function and attain their design goals and why they are used for attaining the goals.The ‘how’ explanation results in a generalized version of the functional diagram used in value engineering from which various levels of general design knowledge can be extracted. The quality of the extracted knowledge is then discussed with reference to its mode of acquisition.The ‘why’ explanation yields a deeper understanding of the designed objects from which we can extract meta-planning or strategic knowledge for selecting rational plans from among other possible alternatives. This explanation is obtained by regarding the object in question as being the result of strategically rational decisions and actions which are subject to the ‘design axioms’.     

Knowledge types: a practical approach to guide knowledge engineering in domains of building design

Abstract: This paper presents experiences and findings achieved through several expert system projects in domains of technical buiding design. The main focus is on knowledge acquisition and knowledge decomposition. Different approaches are presented and discussed. Four types of knowledge are presented: object knowledge, performance knowledge, event knowledge and metaknowledge, and the applicability of this classification to building design is justified. The paper includes a listing of experiences gained by real world testing of an expert system, and finally we outline guidelines to knowledge engineering in the domain of technical building     

Accountable system design architecture for embodied AI: a focus on physical human support robots

Although the development of robot-based support systems for elderly people has become more popular, it is difficult for humans to understand the actions, plans, and behavior of autonomous robots and the reasons behind them, particularly when the robots include learning algorithms. Learning-based autonomous systems which are called AI are treated as an inherently untrustworthy ‘black box,’ because machine learning or deep learning algorithms are difficult for humans to understand. Robot systems such as assistive robots, which work closely with humans, however, should be trusted. Systems should therefore achieve accountability for all stakeholders. However, most research in this field has focused on particular systems and situations, and no general design architecture exists. In this study, we propose a new design method, focused on accountability and transparency, for learning-based robot systems. Describing the entire system is a necessary first step, and transcribing the described system for each stakeholder based on several principles is effective for achieving accountability. The method improves transparency for systems, including learning algorithms. A standing assistive robot is used as an example of the entire system to clarify which system parts require greater transparency. This study adopted the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to describe the system and the described system is used for the information representation. Information should be represented considering the relationships between stakeholders, information, and the system interface. Because of their complexity, it is difficult for humans to understand the complete set of information available in robot systems. Systems should therefore present only the information required, depending on the situation. The stakeholder–interface relationship is also important because it is more beneficial for professionals to view information relevant to their specialized field, which would be difficult for others to understand. By contrast, the interface should be intuitive for general users. Visualization and sound are very useful means of transmitting information, with advantages and disadvantages for different circumstances. These relationships are important for achieving accountability. Finally, we show an example of implementation with a developed support system. It is confirmed that accountable systems can be designed based on the proposed design architecture.     

化工CAD系统的开发与研究

基于AutoCAD2005系统开发研究的化工CAD系统,是化工专业进行工艺设计不可缺少的软件系统,其工作界面简单、易学,可用于化工专业的CAD教学。用其不但可以按照化工制图标准绘制化工机器图、化工设备图、工艺流程图、设备布置图、管道布置图等,而且还可以查询化工物性数据以及进行化工计算、化工仿真模拟与动画等。通过使用证明该系统性能可靠,教学科研效果良好。本软件交互使用C语言、Visual Lisp、Visual Basic、AutoCAD2005内嵌的VBA等语言进行开发。     

基于BIM技术的水利水电工程逆向设计

随着科学技术水平的快速发展,传统的二维设计在水利水电工程施工中的缺点逐渐突出,制约了水利水电工程管理水平的进一步提升,而BIM技术的发展可以实现对工程项目过程的可视化管理,使各专业之间达到整体协同,提高工程管理水平.基于此,从逆向设计的技术路线、平台配备软件及模式等3个方面,介绍基于BIM技术的水利水电各专业的逆向设计...     

Case-based reasoning techniques to support reusability in a requirement engineering and system design tool

CASA (computer aided systems architecting) is a methodology and tool to support the design of complex technical systems. It combines approaches from systems and requirement engineering and AI. System design in CASA is requirement-driven, and works by a hierarchical stepwise top-down refinement of designs and a hierarchical decision-making process. One important task in CASA deals with the reusability of existing design artifacts and is supported by case-based reasoning techniques. Based on given structural specifications and formal requirements, a search procedure finds the best inexact match in a design base and computes an estimated degree of fulfillment for requirements. The approach employs efficient graph-matching and indexing schemes for case retrieval and structural similarities, and has adapted usual similarity measures to compute degree of fulfillment of requirements. It has been shown by different sample projects that the developed methods can be of great practical assistance to a designer.     

Integration of the design and manufacture planning process based on a CAD system with a technology oriented volume model

The integration of computer aided production processes becomes more and more important. An integrated application includes a potential to pass the production process more economically. This contribution represents a concept for integration of design and manufacture planning based on computer internal models. Another aspect deals with the use of computer internal models for the simulation of manufacture operations to generate planning data.     

Knowledge management of product design: A requirements-oriented knowledge management framework based on Kansei engineering and knowledge map

For the knowledge management of product design, knowledge innovation is the foundation and motivation for the independent innovation and enhancing the core competitiveness. Most of the product knowledge exists in the brain of designers. How to obtain the required knowledge accurately in massive knowledge database becomes the key to knowledge innovation. However, the design knowledge based on consumer’s requirement has not been extensively studied. There is no consensus on the reasonable and effective implementation of the knowledge management framework to select the optimum design knowledge based on the consumer’s requirements. In this study, to efficiently realize the knowledge acquisition and knowledge selection, a requirements-oriented knowledge management model is established, with the advantage of Kansei engineering in knowledge acquisition and multi-objective decision-making in knowledge selection. Finally, the outdoor leisure chairs design is used as a case study to explain the implementation of the knowledge management framework. To reveal the advantages of the framework, it was compared with other frameworks. The results show that the proposed knowledge management framework is more efficient and provided a method of designers to acquire design knowledge based on the consumer’s requirements.     

基于小波和人工智能技术的车辆无缝定位技术研究

基于自适应神经模糊逻辑推理系统(ANHS),在全球定位系统(GPS)信号阻塞时,为惯性导航系统(INS)提供位置和速度修正量以提高系统的精度和鲁棒性.首先用小波对数据信号进行降噪处理;然后设定INS的位置或速度作为ANHS的输入参数,经训练后输出相应修正量,训练期望值为经小波多分辨率分析得到的位置误差和速度误差.实验表明,无GPS信号时定位精度比同条件下卡尔曼滤波精度提高约40%,因此该方法可为车辆提供可靠有效的导航定位服务.     

Constraint-based modelling and optimization to support the design of complex multi-domain engineering problems

We present a constraint-based methodology which is successfully applied to a variety of engineering problems from a wide range of disciplines. Initially conceived from investigations of the engineering design process, the methodology has helped design engineers to identify and understand the initial limitations placed upon a system. Written as a set of algebraic expressions, the design objectives and design constraints can be formulated and minima found using numerical optimization techniques. These solutions provide initial configurations for the system, corresponding to how “true” all of the constraints are. A bespoke constraint-based modelling environment has been created which embodies the methodology. This is able to resolve large systems, comprising over 100 degrees-of-freedom, using an assortment of optimization routines—direct, gradient and evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are appropriate for a number of problem types and their inclusion increase the scope of applicability of the methodology which is demonstrated using case studies from a number of engineering domains. Machines and mechanisms; human modelling; force and flow; structural geology and discrete disassembly processes are all studied using constraint-based formulations. The contribution of the paper lies in thus proving that complex (heterogeneous) systems-of-systems can be solved if the connectivity between the systems is expressed using constraint-rules.     

基于基因工程思想的产品族设计及其关键技术研究

通过分析型材断面的尺寸和形状特征的继承关系及型材模块的结构变异, 将基因工程的思想用于产品族的开发设计中,并将“型材特征”看作是产品结构信息的 “DNA”。借鉴生物学领域基因工程原理,揭示了“型材特征”这种信息流在产品树中的传播规 律,在此基础上提出了一种基于基因工程思想的产品基因编码与重组方法。通过对产品族和 产品基因DNA 的概念以及产品族设计DNA 的内涵和研究内容的探讨,指出了支持产品基 因工程的关键技术,并以门体型材为例,说明产品族基因工程思想的设计效果。     

基于VR和AR技术的工业产品包装工程设计研究

为了有效提高工业产品包装与产品的适应性,设计引入VR和AR技术,提出VRML工业产品包装工程设计方法。方法主要包括三个步骤,首先利用VR虚拟现实技术,在虚拟现实空间内,建立产品包装湍流模组,该模组主要用于求取与产品完全契合的包装内部数据,在VR技术的基础上应用AR增强现实,生成VRML虚拟交互空间,将虚拟空间节点进行覆盖连接,结合包装内部数据,生成工业产品包装虚拟外观,最后在虚拟空间内,对上述生成的产品包装细节层次和光照物化进行重新矫正,获取的最终结果即为包装工程最终设计结果'根据实验数据分析可以肯定,通过使用VRML工业产品包装工程设计方法,工业产品包装贴合度上升32%,抗压比提高了29%,证明该包装有效提高了产品抗震性能,具有重要使用价值。     

Empirical design of computer support and staffing in concurrent engineering

Manufacturing environments are characterized by underlying operational approaches and assumptions. One such assumption is that concurrent engineering (CE) is superior to traditional sequential processing. A laboratory experiment was conducted using 180 engineering and building construction students as subjects. The engineering methodology variable was sequential and concurrent engineering. There were large teams, consisting of six students, and small teams, consisting of three students. The computer support variable was using and not using groupware. Each team was given a set of requirements to design a transportation system that moved a payload from one point to another. Each team was asked to (a) develop a design concept, (b) develop a detail design in the form of engineering drawings, (c) manufacture the system based on their design products (e.g., drawings and specifications) using toy plastic LEGOS, and (d) test the system to determine if it met the design requirements. There was no significant difference in performance between concurrent engineering groups and sequential engineering processes. Small groups significantly outperformed large groups in all conditions. Computer support did not significantly improve the performance of large or small groups. Participants in the experiment were equally satisfied with all conditions. An external survey strongly endorsed the superiority of CE as compared to sequential engineering. Results are discussed in terms of why practitioners believe in the effectiveness of CE, yet an empirical test failed to demonstrate better performance. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 16: 177–193, 2006.     

Definition of a problem-sensitive conceptual modelling language: foundations and application to software engineering

A conceptual modelling language should provide constructors that can be used to represent the conceptualisation of a problem considering the problem domain. However, software engineering has traditionally focused on implementation concepts.This paper considers the appropriate generic conceptualisation theoretical aspects to identify the conceptual elements for which constructors have to be provided in a problem-sensitive conceptual modelling language. These elements match the formal definition of any conceptualisation and are derived from natural language. By looking at these elements, we have defined a conceptual modelling language that has been successfully applied in knowledge engineering and software engineering.     

A hybrid Kansei engineering design expert system based on grey system theory and support vector regression

Nowadays customers choose products strictly in terms of their specific demands. How to quickly and accurately catch customers’ feelings and transform them into design elements and vice versa becomes an important issue. This study explores the bi-directional relationship between customers’ demands or needs and product forms by using a novel integral approach. High-price machine tools are used as our demonstration target. This integral approach adopts the “grey system theory (GST)”, and the state-of-the-art machine learning based modeling formalism “support vector regression (SVR)” in the “Kansei engineering (KE)” process. The GST is used to effectively determine the influence weighting of form parameters on product images and the SVR is used to precisely establish the mapping relationship between product form elements and product images. Furthermore, for practical concerns, a user-friendly design hybrid design expert system was developed based on the proposed novel integral schemes.     

Managing the exchange of engineering product data to support through life ship design

An approach for managing the exchange of engineering product data between geographically distributed designers and analysts using a heterogeneous tool set for the through-life design of a ship is described. The approach was developed within a pan-European maritime project called VRShips-ROPAX 2000 that demonstrated how information technology could be integrated into the design process. This paper describes the development of a common model containing neutral ship product data through a bottom-up consideration of the requirements of the tools to be integrated, as well as a top-down consideration of the data requirements for through life design. This common model was supported within an Integrated Design Environment (IDE) that co-ordinated design activity distributed across Europe. The IDE ensured that the users were provided with the right data in the right form at the right time to do the right task, i.e., that the design activity was timely and appropriate. The strengths and weaknesses of the approach are highlighted.     

Knowledge engineering and psychology: Towards a closer relationship

Knowledge engineering projects deal with a wide range of domains within organizational and academic contexts. A number of elicitation techniques are used to acquire knowledge from experts. Most of these techniques originated within psychology but have been developed by knowledge engineers to become more structured, efficient and systematic. Until now, nobody has tried to re-apply these modified techniques back into psychology. This paper describes work that addresses this matter. It focuses on the psychological knowledge possessed by all people that enables them to deal with everyday problems and make life decisions. We refer to this as ‘personal knowledge’. To take a knowledge engineering approach to personal knowledge, we investigated the use of knowledge elicitation techniques to capture personal knowledge. We describe an empirical study involving ten participants and 80 knowledge acquisition sessions that assessed eight elicitation techniques in this context. The results revealed that each of the techniques showed promise at efficiently capturing and structuring aspects of an individual's personal knowledge. A content analysis of the acquired knowledge led to the construction of a meta-model (a primitive ontology) of personal knowledge and to the design for a new methodology for psychological research. From the perspective of psychology, the paper shows that knowledge engineering methods can be of value to psychologists. From the perspective of knowledge engineering and the wider computer science community, the paper shows that empirical methods used by psychologists can benefit the development and evaluation of ontologies and elicitation techniques.     

Structuration theory and new technology: analysing organizationally situated computer-aided design (CAD)

It is becoming generally established that modern research and writings need to acknowledge the organizational context that surrounds the use of a technology (see Rachel & Woolgar, 1995; Westrup, 1996). However, previous efforts have been criticized for their failure to accumulate consistent research findings or develop coherent theoretical frameworks (Markus & Robey, 1988). Part of the problem is that a wide diversity of perspectives is adopted by organizational researchers, and fundamental issues behind these perspectives have yet to be properly examined and resolved (see Burrell & Morgan, 1979); this paper adopts the perspective that some resolution of these issues is possible, or at least should be sought. One approach is to adopt the theoretical framework, built on Giddens' structuration theory (Giddens, 1990), as presented by Orlikowski and Robey (1991), and to use it to analyse a new technology case, that of computer-aided design/draughting.