A knowledge-based architecture for intelligent design support

The development of a knowledge-based design support system is a lengthy and costly process because various computational techniques necessary for intelligent design support are not readily available in a knowledge-based environment. The systematisation of design knowledge needs combined efforts from designers and knowledge engineers. Existing knowledge-based system development tools offer limited support to intelligent design support which require sophisticated knowledge engineering techniques in terms of knowledge representation, inference, control, truth maintenance and learning. In this paper, a knowledge-based architecture for intelligent design support is described. The existing knowledge-based design system architectures are reviewed first. Five key issues in intelligent design support using knowledge engineering techniques, i.e. design knowledge representation, structure of design knowledge base, intelligent control of design process, consistency and context management of design knowledge, and modelling of design collaboration are then discussed. These discussions provide a basis for a description of a knowledge-based design support system architecture which has been implemented in a Lisp-based environment and tested in two different domains. Current application of this architecture in the development of a design support system in the domain of mechanical engineering design at the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre is presented and evaluated.