A COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK FOR COMPUTER SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE MECHANICAL DESIGN

AN ENGINEERING FRAMEWORK NEEDED TO REDRESS CRITICAL INFORMATION SHARING, COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION ISSUES THAT ARE ALL BUT IGNORED BY TODAY'S CAD SYSTEMS. THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL COMBINE SOPHISTICATED DARPA-SPONSORED TECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS SHARED KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATIONS AND INTELLIGENT AGENTS, WITH EMERGING MAINSTREAM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES LIKE HYPERMEDIA, EXPERT SYSTEMS, AND ELECTRONIC MAIL, TO CREATE A UNIQUE COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE MECHANICAL DESIGN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS BOTH PRACTICAL AND TRULY USEFUL TO ENGINEERS. EACH PARTICIPANT WILL HAVE HIS/HER OWN PARTICULAR PRODUCT PERSPECTIVE AND AUTOMATED ANALYSIS TOOLS, BUT EVERYONE ON THE PROJECT WOULD BE TIED TOGETHER THROUGH SHARED ON-LINE HANDBOOKS, CATALOGS, AND NOTEBOOKS. THESE RESOURCES WOULD BE ACCESSED IN A UNIFORM FASHION VIA A HIGHLY INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE RUNNING ON EVERYONE'S WORKSTATION OR PC. PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP A PLAN FOR INTEGRATING THE KEY TECHNOLOGIES AND EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY GAIN FROM APPLYINGTHEM IN INDUSTRIAL SETTINGS. THROUGH INTERACTIONS WITH WORKING ENGINEERS AT LOCKHEED, WE WILL FOCUS ON SYSTEM FEATURES THAT PROVIDE THE HIGHEST PRODUCTIVITY GAINS FOR THE LEAST PROGRAMMING EFFORT, AND THEN BUILD A SMALL PROTOTYPE OF THE PROPOSED ENVIRONMENT, LEVERAGING ON TOOLSALREADY AVAILABLE IN OUR DARPA-SPONSORED RESEARCH SYSTESM. WE WILL EVALUATE THE PROTOTYPE IN COLLABORATION WITH LOCKHEED AND OTHER AEROSPACE COMPANIES. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONSEI TECH'S CHARTER IS TO PRODUCTIZE THE RESULTS OF ITS COLLABORATIVERESEARCH WITH STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN CONCURRENT ENGINEERING AND INTELLIGENT CIM. THIS PROJECT WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY SHORTEN THE TIME TO TRANSFER OUR RESEARCH ON SUPPORTING DISTRIBUTED DESIGN TEAMS INTO INDUSTRIAL TOOLS. WE HAVE ESTABLISHED WORKING RELATIONSHIPS WITH LOCKHEED, NASA