Automobile transmission design as a constraint satisfaction problem: first results

The authors describe preliminary results in applying constraint satisfaction techniques in automating the process of designing automatic power transmissions. The focus is on the design of the mechanical subsystem. Here the authors concentrate on the particular problem of designing a 4-speed transmission involving two planetary gearsets, cross-connected by two permanent links. Results indicate that design of the mechanical subsystem is an application very naturally formulated as a constraint satisfaction problem. So far, two of the classic 4-speed transmissions, Axod and HydraMatic, have been rediscovered by this program. Future extensions to more general versions of the search space are expected to lead to the discovery of totally new transmissions