Introduction

Nowadays there are different CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) systems available which facilitate to

solve different complex engineering problems or situations by static or dynamic simulations. Usually the

learning time of those software varies from engineer to engineer although having same previous

experience or qualification. In order to solve these types of problem there are lots of ongoing research and

one of the tried and proven method is cognitive mapping. A cognitive map (also known as mental map or

mental model) is a type of intellectual representation which provides an individual to acquire, store, code

and decode as well as recall information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in their

everyday or metaphorical spatial environment. The concept was introduced by Edward Tolman in 1948

[1].

A special types of cognitive mapping is Fuzzy cognitive mapping, A Fuzzy cognitive map can clearly

show the relations between the elements (e.g. concepts, events, project resources) of a "mental landscape"

can be used to compute the "strength of impact" of these elements. The theory behind that computation is

fuzzy logic [2]. Spreadsheets or tables are used to map FCMs into Matrices for further computations [3]

In this research our main aim was to develop a mental model of RecurDyn software. RecurDyn is a multi-

body dynamics software. Main purpose of this software is to solve the real world problems where there is

dynamic behavior of interconnected rigid or flexible bodies and each of them can undergo many

translational and rotational displacements. RecurDyn is a widely used professional CAE system but the

learning time of this software is widely varied from one user to the others. Main of this research is to

mitigate this learning time gap of RecurDyn software.

To minimize this learning time gap FCMs (Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping) are being constructed for different

functionalities of RecurDyn. There are different features of RecurDyn like Model construction, Contact

generation, Mesh generation and so on. So for each of these functionalities different FCM is required. By

using these FCMs a new user of RecurDyn software can easily grasp the interrelationships between these

functionalities with different physical properties (for example: mass, tangential force rotational force,

gravity, dimensions etc.). The interrelationship between different features are shown in the FCMs not

only Hasse Diagram but also by using matrix to illustrate the relation-weight between them and by this

way a conspicuous mental map can be modeled . As this is the first phase of the research in the second

phase of the research ontology based approach will be tried for the knowledge representation purpose.

References:

[1] Tolman, Edward C “Cognitive maps in rats and men”. Psychological Review, Vol 55(4), Jul 1948,

189-208.

[2] Bart K., “Fuzzy Cognitive Maps”, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 24(1986) 65-75

(first introduction of FCMs)

[3] FCMapper - Excel based FCM analysis and visualization tool:

http://www.FCMappers.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=53