Intelligent cad system in concurrent engineering environment: a knowledge-based approach

The objective of this paper is to investigate specific methodologies for conceptual design and to establish a computational framework for an intelligent CAD system in a concurrent engineering environment. The main idea in developing such a system is to help designers in conceiving better design ideas within given sets of design, manufacturing, and assembly constraints. It is, therefore, essential to integrate intelligently diverse knowledge sources from different fields of manufacturing (e.g., design, process planning, assembly, inspection). When an object creation process is complete, the system analyzes the structure in consultation with its intelligent computational modules (“local experts”) to make sure that no functional, geometric design or manufacturing constraints are invalidated and to suggest an alternative better design, whenever possible. The paper also discusses the implementation of a prototype system for automated fixture design in the proposed concurrent engineering environment.