A quantitative intelligent system for concurrent design

This paper presents the methods for developing an automated concurrent engineering design (or concurrent design) system using the quantitative intelligent system approach. The task of concurrent engineering design is examined first and the basic requirements for conducting automated concurrent design are outlined. These analyses concluded that automated concurrent design can only be accomplished by combining qualitative reasoning based upon design and manufacturing knowledge, and quantitative analysis using design and manufacturing data. A new method, called quantitative intelligent system approach, which supports both symbolic reasoning and numerical calculation, is proposed. A prototype automated concurrent design system is developed based upon this new method, and implemented using Smalltalk-80