Constraint-based Collaborative Design

Collaborative design can be characterized by different level constraints that describe basic elements of design process such as human, information and resource. In design, satisfied solutions to constraints must occur to arrive at a final design result. Few collaborative design systems exist for adequately representing constraints, and formally combining them from different disciplines. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a methodology for analyzing the constraints in collaborative design. A hierarchy of fuzzy constraint networks is presented along with a methodology for creating interlinks between different levels of the hierarchy. The solution methodology is illustrated with an example. The paper concludes with directing attention to current challenges and recommendations for research