A graph-based expert system approach to geometric feature recognition

Geometric feature recognition is a crucial task in the development of concurrent engineering software. This paper presents a new methodology for geometric feature recognition which combines the advantages of face-edge adjacency graphs and expert systems. The methodology uses several new concepts such as enhanced winged edge data structure (EWEDS) and multi-attributed adjacency graphs (MAAG). The object model is presented as a set of facts. The rules for the recognition of each feature are derived from the corresponding feature-MAAG. This simplifies the process of writing the rules while enabling the inclusion of new features into the rule base as they are encountered.