Agent based constraints network modeling and conflicts prediction

Parameter and tolerance design is two important phases in product design. The design process of a complex product should consider synthetically manufacturing and assembly process. In this paper, firstly, agent based on constraints network modeling approach for assembly and manufacturing process is presented to model concurrent product development. Secondly, interval consistency algorithm is adopted to predict the potential conflicts and specify the interval of design parameters. Finally, the ontology is used as a communication language between cooperating engineering design team, and these examples agents: kinematic agent, dynamics agent and conflict prediction agent are presented. The method is demonstrated by a gear pump design problem.