Abstract: | To express the design process effectively by establishing the process model and
framework is the foundation of collaborative design. According to the features of design process
for complex product, a multi-level process model of collaborative design for complex product
based on the dimensions of time, particle size and parallelism is established, combining with
meta-synthesis. This process model emphasizes on the combinations of multi-stage in time
dimension, combinations of multi-specialty in parallelism dimension and iteration of
decomposition and integration in particle dimension. Then, on the base of the process model, a
process framework of collaborative design for complex product based on meta-synthesis is
proposed, combining with expert system, knowledge system and machinery system. Machinery
system helps the expert group with knowledge from knowledge system. Expert system fulfills the
collaborative design process of combinations of human-computer, multi-specialty and multi-stage,
with the services provided by machinery system, e.g. project management, group argumentation,
collaborative decision and 3D visualization. Finally the prototype system which has been
developed based on the idea of this paper is introduced. |