Concepedia

Agent-Based Synthesis of Electromechanical Design Configurations

Matthew I. Campbell, Jonathan Cagan, Kenneth Kotovsky

Journal of Mechanical Design · 2000 · 93 citations · 20 references

TL;DR

The paper introduces A‑design, an automated engineering design approach that uses interacting software agents to represent electromechanical configurations and reason about their construction. A‑design employs a multiagent system combining unique problem‑solving strategies, multiobjective design selection, and stochastic optimization to generate solutions for open‑ended electromechanical design problems. The methodology’s theoretical claims are supported by implementation results, and a test problem demonstrates the generality of its functional representation. Reference code: S1050-0472(00)00701-7.

Abstract

A new automated approach to engineering design known as A-design is presented that creates design configurations through the interaction of software agents. By combining unique problem solving strategies, these agents are able to generate solutions to open-ended design problems. The A-design methodology makes several theoretical claims through its combination of multiagent systems, multiobjective design selection, and stochastic optimization, and is currently implemented to solve general electromechanical design problems. While this paper presents an overview of the theoretical basis for A-design, it primarily focuses on the method for representing electromechanical design configurations and the reasoning of the agents that construct these configurations. Results from an electromechanical test problem show the generality of the functional representation. [S1050-0472(00)00701-7]]