A formal theory for knowledge-based product model representation

The field of design science attempts to place engineering design on a more formal, rigorous footing. This paper introduces recent work by the author in this area. Artifact-Centered Modeling (ACM) is a general framework intended to partition the design endeavor in manageable sections. A fundamental part of ACM is the representation of information about products being designed. The Axiomatic Information Model for Design (AIM-D) is a formal theory about product information based on axiomatic set theory. AIM-D provides formal bases for quantities, features, parts and assemblies, systems, and subassemblies; these are all notions essential to design. It is not a product modeling system per se, but rather a logic of product structure whose axioms define criteria for determining the logical validity of product models. A previous version of the theory has been found to contain logical inconsistencies; the version presented herein addresses those problems. A complete axiomatization of the new theory is given, including a discussion of its validity. One of the obvious applications of AIM-D is in the development of knowledge-based systems for design. The author is currently implementing such a system using AIM-D as its foundation. The system, called Designer, provides the logical rigor of AIM-D within a computerized environment. At the user's level, the system appears to be an object-oriented knowledge-base capable of representing information about all the kinds of entities represented in AIM-D. Although still under development, a discussion of the design and implementation plans for Designer is given.