INTELLIGENT KNOWLEDGE-BASED CAD FOR PRODUCIBILITY

INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IS NEEDED TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF DESIGNING FOR PRODUCIBILITY. KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEMS NOW OFFER CONSIDERABLE PROMISE IN THIS FIELD. IF THE GROUND DATA FOR THE INFERENCES OF SUCH A SYSTEM CAN BE CAPTURED DIRECTLY FROM A DESIGN DRAWING THEN ANALYSIS CAN BE CONDUCTED WITH THE AID OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM AND RESULTS MADE AVAILABLE AT A CAD WORKSTATION TO PROMPT IMMEDIATE REVISION IF NECESSARY. WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY, MAY INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS AND INEFFICIENCIES THAT ARE TRACEABLE BACK TO THE DESIGN PROCESS CAN BE SOLVED. CIM SYSTEMS, INC. WILL ESTABLISH A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTELLIGENT KNOWLEDGE BASED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM THAT WILL ENABLE DESIGN ENGINEERS TO OPTIMIZE A PART DESIGN FROM A MANUFACTURABILITY PERSPECTIVE DURING OR FOLLOWING THE DESIGN OF THE PART. THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN WILL UTILIZE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TECHNOLOGY TO FACILITATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WORKING PROTOTYPE FOR AN IBM-PC EXPERT/DATABASE INTERFACE MECHANISM FOR ASSISTING ENGINEERING PERSONNEL IN MANIPULATION, ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF A LARGE DATABASE CONSISTING OF COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD) DATA FILES, A KNOWLEDGE BASE CONTAINING MANUFACTURING RULES OF PRODUCIBILITY, AND A LEXICON FOR A NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE. THIS CAD DESIGN SUPPORT SYSTEM WILL INCLUDE AN EXPERT SYSTEM TO HELP THE USER BY PERFORMING THE TIME CONSUMING AND DIFFICULT TASK OF DATABASE MANIPULATION, UPDATE AND INTERFACE. A MULTIWINDOWING GRAPHICS PACKAGE WILL PROVIDE EASY USE AND DISPLAY OF THE DATABASE INFORMATION, BY PRESENTING INFORMATION ABOUT PART OR PRODUCT PRODUCIBILITY, COST AND OTHER PERTINENT DESIGN INFORMATION TO THE CAD ENGINEER IN AN INTERACTIVE MODE. THE PROTOTYPE WILL DEMONSTRATE THE INTEGRATION OF AI/EXPERT FUNCTIONS INTO EXISTING CAD DATABASE SYSTEMS MAINTAINED ON THE IBM-PC FAMILY OF MICROCOMPUTERS IS FEASIBLE AND BENEFICIAL.