Structuring and Retrieving Design Information

There is great interest in systems for preserving a practical corporate memory of the design of complex devices for use in re- design and diagnosis throughout the device lifecycle. Dedal is a proven, model-based approach to the structuring and retrieval of large amounts design information. The goal of this research is to bring Dedal technology developed at the NASA Ames Research Center to bear on design information that is represented as World Wide Web hyperdocuments. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a networkwide effort that provides documents to an increasing number of sophisticated client programs for reading and navigation. Dedal technology would provide a significant improvement in retrieval where its model-based structuring was appropriate. In Phase I we plan to establish that the Dedal technology can be translated from its current environment into the more standard C/C++ programming environment while still maintaining the necessary functionality. In addition, we will determine modifications and enhancements that will be necessary to take advantage of the different way that data is encoded in WWW format versus the current representation for design data that is currently used by Dedal.