An industrial application to neural networks to reusable design

Summary form only given, as follows. The feasibility of training an adaptive resonance theory (ART-1) network to first cluster aircraft parts into families, and then to recall the most similar family when presented a new part has been demonstrated, ART-1 networks were used to adaptively group similar input vectors. The inputs to the network were generated directly from computer-aided designs of the parts and consist of binary vectors which represent bit maps of the features of the parts. This application, referred to as group technology, is of large practical value to industry, making it possible to avoid duplication of design efforts