PROPOSE - Intelligent advisory system for supporting redesign

Optimal design reached in the first attempt is rare in engineering. Design is an iterative process. How many iterations/cycles are needed directly depends on the initial design and appropriateness of the later redesign actions. The results of engineering analysis are often basic parameters for the redesign actions in design process. If the structure does not satisfy given criteria, certain optimisation steps, such as redesign, have to be taken. Yet, the existing CAD software still fails to provide any advice about these redesign steps. Thus, the selection of the appropriate redesign actions still depends mostly on the designer's knowledge and experience. The idea for our research work was to collect this kind of knowledge and experiences, organise them, and write them into a knowledge base of the intelligent system. The aim of this paper is to present PROPOSE, the intelligent consultative system for supporting modification of the design parameters during the embodiment design phase considering the results of the engineering analysis. The results of the evaluation of the system show that the prototype of the presented intelligent system can be applied either to design new products in practice or as an educational tool.