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A database approach to engineering design by selection

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Abstract

Design processes can be classified based on the nature and frequency of a design problem. Designers possess the knowledge of the structure of design objects, and the techniques needed to perform design. Engineering design objects in general consist of assemblies of components and involve the design of the components through satisfaction of constraints between them. In this paper we propose a formal object-oriented approach to the description of engineering designs, and the management of design objects. The concepts of design objects, primitive design, design constraints and dependencies have been formalized. Factors outside the domain of the target design object determine what technique is used by the designer to solve the design problem. We discuss the representation of design techniques themselves using a graph-based approach and illustrate a methodology for design and its use by a designer. Design objects and design techniques are mapped into the relational model because of its wide acceptance and the current availability of relational database management systems. We point out how this environment may be used for conducting the design process by selection of components.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing, 30332, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Shamkant B. Navathe

  2. Intergraph Corporation, M/S IW17D1, 35894, Huntsville, AL, USA

    Sunil K. Murthy

  3. Bell Communications Research, Mail stop PY4-4L211, 08854, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Aloysius Cornelio

Authors
  1. Shamkant B. Navathe
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  2. Sunil K. Murthy
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  3. Aloysius Cornelio
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Additional information

Work was done while the authors were at University of Florida

Published with kind permission of Academic Press inControl of Dynamic Systems as ‘Organizing Engineering Designs and Design Techniques’ 1992.

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Navathe, S.B., Murthy, S.K. & Cornelio, A. A database approach to engineering design by selection. J Intell Manuf 3, 149–162 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01477598

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01477598

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