A grammar-based framework for integrating design and manufacturing

In this paper we present an engineering framework called Manufacturing Integration and Design Automation System (MIDAS). The core of MIDAS is a process grammar which provides the theoretical foundation to represent, manipulate and execute design and manufacturing processes. The important properties offered by MIDAS, which are especially useful for integrating design and manufacturing, are generativity and abstraction. Given a set of rules and objects, it generates feasible alternative processes that can be represented at varying levels of abstraction. Generativity and abstraction allow users of MIDAS to explore alternative processes while coordinating and integrating iterative engineering activities concurrently in a distributed environment. When design and manufacturing processes are integrated within the framework of MIDAS, it helps engineers to navigate through the process alternatives and to foresee the effects of particular design choices in subsequent stages of design and manufacturing, even with an incomplete set of design data. Using a shared representation of design and manufacturing processes, MIDAS facilitates communication among engineers through a collaborative browser and various visualization tools.