This research introduces a new distributed database and knowledge base modeling approach for concurrent design. The data of product life-cycle aspects are modeled by primitives called features. The knowledge for developing products is described by collections of rules called rule-bases. Databases and knowledge bases at different locations for modeling different life-cycle aspects of the same product are associated by Internet. In addition, mechanisms for maintaining dependency relations of the product data at different locations and reasoning using the knowledge at different locations are also developed.
This research introduces an optimal concurrent design approach based upon a previously developed distributed database and knowledge base modeling method. In this approach, the product realization process alternatives and relevant activities are modeled at different locations that are connected through the Internet. The optimal product realization process alternative and its parameter values are identified using a multi-level optimization method. Genetic Programming (GP) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) are employed for identifying the optimal product realization process alternative and the optimal parameter values of the feasible alternatives, respectively.
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