Enhancing Engineering Product Design Using a Knowledge-based Game Engine Platform

Abstract

Traditional CAD tools and systems cannot explain real-world concepts by themselves and require the users to have knowledge and design experience of the product in order to understand design rules and judge the correctness of the changes. Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) has been introduced to address these issues; however, existing KBE methodologies offer limited instantiation steps and enabling tools for implementation. In this paper, a knowledge-based product modelling prototype system is proposed to overcome the above problems. This system is developed based on the Virtual Product Modelling framework using a game engine platform to aid in capturing, reusing, and exchanging the existing product information and provide knowledge reasoning in the product modelling process. The findings of this research have shown the potential of using the developed prototype system to help save time and prevent engineers from making mistakes in the product design process.