2004/12/13 National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

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USING KNOWLEDGE-BASED INTELLIGENT REASONING TO SUPPORT DYNAMIC COLLABORATIVE DESIGN

Allen T.A. Chiang*, Amy J.C. Trappey*, and C.C. Ku**

* Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management,National Tsing Hua University

101, Sec. 2 Kuang Fu Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, R.O.C.; trappey@ie.nthu.edu.tw

**Industrial Technology Research Institute, Center for Aerospace andSystems Technology

Rm.212, Bldg.52, 195 Sec.4, Chung Hsing Rd. Chutung, Hsinchu, Taiwan310, R.O.C.; ccku@itri.org.tw

2004/12/13 National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

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Outline Introduction

Conceptual Architecture of IRCDP

Case Study

Conclusion

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IntroductionPresent a framework of an intelligent reasoning collaborative design platform (IRCDP) to facilitate collaboration.

Design engineers can implement product development and design verification through the web-based IRCDP.

Design problems can be discovered via design verification mechanism.

Product designers can obtain valuable and consistent suggestions.

Designers can eliminate design errors and avoid design conflicts.

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Conceptual Architecture of IRCDP

Inference engine

(3) Rule parser

Blackboard

(5) Design reasoning

Antecedent˙ Fact conditions˙ Variable and formula conditions

Conclusion˙ Define facts˙ Define variable values or execute formula arithmetic ˙ Action (Conversation function or sending e-mails)

(4) Rule management interface

(2) Knowledge base

Designparameters

Knowledge rule modules

Knowledgetemplates

Knowledge formula

Design verification˙ Output inference results˙ Input design parameters

(6) Collaborative designproject

Create design project˙ Choose rule knowledge modules˙ Decide input and output design parameters

ProductData

(1)Administration

and authorizationmanagement

SystemAdministration

KnowledgeBuilding

KnowledgeReasoning

Knowledgeengineers

Projectmanagers

Design teams

Internet

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Knowledge base (1)The knowledge base includes five knowledge elements: Template knowledge Formula knowledge Knowledge rule modules Design parameters Product data

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Knowledge base (2)Knowledge template is a frame-based knowledge representation.

Each frame is a data structure that includes all slots describing a particular design knowledge object.

A formula describes the relationship between a dependent variable and a set of input variables.

Each variable represents a slot of the knowledge frame.

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Knowledge base (3)Product design parameters are defined and stored in knowledge objects according to knowledge templates.

Designers execute design inference by reviewing design drawings and parameter tables.

Each knowledge rule module is made up of several knowledge rules to form a complete inference chaining.

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Rule management interface Develop an Internet-based rule management interface.

Knowledge engineers can use the natural language and GUI to manage design rules and respond design requirements.

The paper applies the concept of knowledge rule modularization.

Each module forms an entire inference tree and provides a schematic view by using the tree structure to manage and maintain rules.

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The framework of rule management functions

Rule managementfunctions

Construct rules

Select knowledge templates

Define theantecedent

Define conclusions

Define conditions

Define mathematicalconditions

Define variableconditions

Combineconditions

Defineactions

Declare the valuesof design variables

Define theinteractive functions

Define thee-mail function

Modify rules Delete rules

Display the structure of a rule

Modify conditions Modify thestructure of conditions

Execute formulaoperations

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Collaborative design project IDCDP provides project managers to create a collaborative design project.

According to requirements of each project, project managers select knowledge modules and set the necessary parameters of product design.

The designers can execute design validations to detect the potential conflicts of design parameters and find ideal design parameters.

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Functions of managing collaborative design projects

Project management ofthe collaborative designs

Validate product designReason the optimal parameters

of product design

Create design projects Reason product designs

Select knowledge rule modules

Select the necessary parameters ofproduct design before reasoning

Display the results of inference

Send e-mailsDisplay the

design parametersDisplay related

documents

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Design reasoning The inference engine matches design parameters with knowledge rules.

The inference mechanism of IRCDP uses a Java Expert System Shell

JESS is well suited to develop an integrated knowledge representation and to support dynamic collaborative design inference via Internet.

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Administration and authorization management

System administrators has the most authority and is in charge of the system administration.

The project manager can create a new product development project, select knowledge rule modules, decide the members of collaborative team and monitor the given project.

Knowledge engineers are responsible for managing and maintaining the knowledge content of IRCDP.

Design engineers use the design inferences to find feasible design parameters and detect design conflicts.

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Case Study

A V type belt design applying to the air compressor development is introduced.

The V type belt design is decomposed into two parts: (1) Design the dimensions of V type belt, (2) Design the power driven system of V type belt.

There are four parties, participating collaboratively in product design.

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The collaborative team structure

Internet

The air compressor manufacturer(A focus company)

Experts of power design Experts of dimension design

The dimension design company

The power design company

Internet

Customer requirements

Internet

IRCDP

Design chainThe project manager

The power design team

Internet

The dimension design team

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The design inference procedure

1. Calculate the design power of the V type belt

2. Select the type of the V type belt

3. Decide the diameter of the pulley

5. Calculate the length of a V type belt

4. Calculate the capacity of transmitting power 6. Calculate the center distance

7. The contact angle compensation

8. Calculate the compensative power of the V type belt

9. Decide the number of the V type belt

Understand customer needs

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The 3-D illustration of a V type belt design for air compressor

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ConclusionThe platform provides an integrated collaborative design environment.

Design engineers can efficiently conduct and evaluate their designs.

Designers can avoid design errors and design conflicts.

Design expertise and experiences can be accumulated.

Knowledge rules are reusable by different projects.