Agent-Based Distributed Concurrent Design System Architecture Synchronized with System Structure

摘要

This paper proposes an agent-based distributed concurrent design system architecture for complicated, large engineering systems and develops its experimental implementation for basic ship design. First, dependency and concurrency in design activities of engineering systems are discussed from the viewpoints of hierarchical system structure and entity--and--attribute relationship, and it reveals the possibilities of concurrent execution of design operations under systematic viewpoint. Second, the design operations are classified into assigning system attributes, selecting system compo- nents, adjusting system structures and configuring spatial arrangement. In the architecture, design operations for attributes that are major parts are modeled with object orientation, and they are distributed to agents by extending an object-oriented programming technique to an agent approach. The others are encapsulated as independent task agents. After describing key concepts for its computer implementation, this paper shows an application to basic ship design.