Artificial Intelligence in Design

Computers have been employed for some time in engineering design mainly as numerical or graphical tools to assist analysis and design drafting. The advent of the technology of artificial intelligence and expert systems has enabled computers to be applied to more sophisticated design tasks which require symbolic manipulation and reasoning, instead of routine number processing. This book presents recent examples of such applications, focusing on mechanical and manufacturing design. The term "design" is interpreted here in its wider sense to include creative activities such as planning. The book covers a spectrum of design operations ranging from component and product design through to process, tooling and systems design. Its aim is to expose researchers, engineers and engineering designers to developments in the emerging field of intelligent CAD. This monograph on engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence is intended for researchers, design and production engineers.