A FRAMEWORK FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCURRENT ENGINEERING INFORMATION SYSTEM PRESENTS SIGNIFICANT INTEGRATION AND CONCURRENCY CONTROL PROBLEMS. DIFFICULT INTEGRATION PROBLEMS ARE CAUSED BY THE WIDE RANGE OFAPPLICATIONS REQUIRED BY A CE ENVIRONMENT. CE SYSTEMS INCLUDE: CAD/CAE SOFTWARE, DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (DBMS), PROJECT MANAGEMENT, AND EXOTIC SOFTWARE, SUCH AS EXPERT SYSTEMS. THIS PROPOSAL SPECIFIES A FRAMEWORK THAT PROVIDES BOTH A HIGH-LEVEL PRESENTATION AND DISTRIBUTED CONTROL MODELS FOR INTEGRATING HETEROGENEOUS MECHANICAL ENGINEERINGAPPLICATIONS AND TOOLS. THE DESIGN IS FOCUSED ON VERY LARGE DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS WHERE DIFFERENT SUBSYSTEMS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED BY DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS HAVING DIFFERENT CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS AND ADDRESSING DIFFERENT APPLICATION DOMAINS. THE BASIS OF THE FRAMEWORK INTERFACE WILL BE AN EXPLICIT OBJECT-ORIENTED REPRESENTATION OF BOTH THE DATA SPECIFICATIONS AND OPERATIONS OF THE DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM MODELS, SERVICES AND RESOURCES. THIS KEY INNOVATION IS A RECONFIGURABLE CONCURRENT ENGINEERING INFORMATION SYSTEM THAT IS SPECIFIED IN TERMS OF EXPLICIT, CHANGEABLE DESCRIPTIONS. ADDITIONAL KEY INNOVATIONS OF THIS PROPOSAL ARE: 1) ACCOMMODATION OF EXISTING CAD/CAE TOOLS; 2) DISTRIBUTED CONTROL MODELS: REDUCTION OF RESOURCE CONTENTION THROUGH GROUP BASED REPLICATED SERVICES; DISTRIBUTED, RELIABLE, GROUP BASED RECONFIGURATION AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION CONTROL MODELS; AND 3) UNIFORM SERVICE AND PROGRAMMING INTERFACES ACROSS HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - THE PHASE I RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EFFORT WILL RESULT IN A SOFTWARE ENGINEERING FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FROM HETEROGENEOUS,