Towards an Ontological Framework for Knowledge-Based Design Systems

This paper presents a design ontology that describes three types of knowledge involved in design: requirements, artifacts and process. Our main objective is to provide an ontological framework for design knowledge acquisition, representation and sharing. The most important features of the ontology are the use of satisfaction and optimization constraints for describing the requirements, the use of structural, behavioral and performance elements for describing artifacts, and the use of design states, tasks and operators for describing the process. We believe that the broad view provided by the ontology reveals important aspects to be considered for those interested in developing knowledge-based design systems.

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