Distributed database and knowledge base modeling for concurrent design.

摘要

This research focuses on the development of a distributed database and knowledge base modeling approach and an Internet-based concurrent design system. Geographically distributed databases and knowledge bases, representing product development life-cycle activities, are integrated through the Internet. The consistency of the distributed databases is maintained using the distributed data dependency relation maintenance mechanism developed in this research. A distributed knowledge-based inference mechanism is introduced to create product life-cycle databases automatically. Based upon the distributed database and knowledge base modeling approach, a concurrent design system has been developed for modeling concurrent design alternatives. The optimal alternative is identified using either the exhaustive method or the Genetic Programming method. The optimal values of the design parameters are identified using the Particle Swarm Optimization method. The system has been implemented using VisualWorks. Example applications have been developed to illustrate the effectiveness of the concurrent design system.