Engineering Decision Support Tool for Complex Electro-Mechanical Products

DARPA has identified a need for Engineering Decision Support computer tools for multi-disciplinary design teams involved in the specification, design and development of complex electro-mechanical products. During the product specification process, key decisions are made which define the product evolution and ultimately determine the product's acceptance by the customer. Current design systems have limited capabilities for supporting multi-disciplinary teams, Quality Function Deployment methods and Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology. AET has embodied DOE methods in a software technology called STADIUM, which is currently being incorporated in several product development efforts. STADIUM was developed by Florida Institute of Technology under funding from SEMATECH. This proposal by AET, Inc., directly addresses this DARPA challenge with a vision for creating a dynamic, multi-user Engineering Decision Support information system. This system could be used to facilitate the capture and communication of product requirements, specifications and design and rationale as well as provide database two-way interfaces to engineering tools used to establish design rationale. AET intends to encapsulate its STADIUM software and TD Technologies SLATE software with new methodology and software to produce a new web-based Engineering Decision Support tool.