Producing Reusable Engineered Systems Through Ontology (PRESTO): An Information Sciences Approach to Architecture-driven, Model-based, Concurrent Engineering

摘要

Developing a concurrent, multi-dimensional engineering and manufacturing environment that will support rapid conceptual design, engineering, manufacturing, and fielding of complex, cyber-physical systems is of interest to both government and industry. In general, the approaches proposed have been centered on process models and how to integrate them (e.g. data sharing). Recent Raytheon-funded studies have indicated that a potentially more complete approach might be to address the problem from an information sciences perspective and the adoption of "product" models as the primary representation. In particular, the development of a workable rapid engineering environment will require an information architecture leveraging product ontology designed specifically for this type of approach. This paper will describe some initial aspects of our research to develop a core implementation of a model-based information system that would support concurrent design and trade-off analysis (e.g. cost, materials, time, manufacturability, delivery schedule, etc). We will discuss some of the major factors involved in maintaining information consistency across engineering domains while incorporating multiple views of the product's system hierarchy.