Knowledge-intensive collaborative design modeling and support. Part I: Review, distributed models and framework

摘要

Contemporary design problems embody significant levels of complexity, which make it unlikely that a single designer can work alone on a complex design problem. Knowledge-intensive collaboration has emerged as a promising discipline for dealing with the modeling and decision-making processes in distributed design systems. In this paper, we first review previous work and current research status of knowledge-intensive collaborative design. Then, we develop knowledge-intensive distributed design models and a framework for collaborative design modeling and decision support. Based on the component-based modeling/design approach, a unified design-with-modules scheme is proposed to model the distributed network-centric design processes, and a web-based knowledge-intensive distributed module modeling and evaluation framework (KS-DMME) is developed. The KS-DMME framework intends to link distributed, heterogeneous knowledge-based design models and tools and assist designers in evaluating design alternatives, visualizing trade-offs, finding optimal solutions, and making decisions on the web. It also enables designers to build integrated design models using both the local and distributed resources and cooperate by exchanging services. Built on it, the client (browser)/knowledge server architecture allows product design models to be published and connected over the WWW to form an integrated intelligent models/modules network. Finally, as an illustration, a simple design problem model for modular micro-robotic systems design is built upon the KS-DMME framework.