Product modeling framework based on interaction feature pair

Designing products effectively and efficiently is of great significance. However, currently part models are usually created without knowing how they will interact with other parts, leading to gaps between part modeling and assembly modeling and between other applications, and to tedious and redundant labor. This paper proposes a novel product modeling framework to address the problems. The framework is different from current product modeling systems from two aspects. On the architecture level, a new module based on a concept of interaction feature pair (IFP) is developed. An IFP incorporates information of interaction type, related feature pairs and behavioral information that fulfill the interactions. The new module can model the structure of IFPs mathematically through operators and functions defined in a space spanned from six basic IFPs. It can also utilize the constituent elements of an IFP as state variables to form behavior models for the IFP. On the process level, the IFP-based framework can support both bottom-up and top-down approaches, and integrate part modeling and assembly modeling together by changing the workflows. Concretely, IFPs will be embedded into part models at part modeling stage to make them pre-interact with each other, and at assembly modeling stage, parts will be assembled by instantiating the embedded IFPs instead of specifying mating constraints, thus reducing the tedious and redundant labor. Incorporating knowledge of different domains, IFPs can also be developed to integrate more applications together. The implementation of the framework is demonstrated through a prototype system. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.