Model for Communication in Automated Interactive Engineering Design

The last few years have witnessed rapid development of knowledge-based systems to address a broad range of tasks in the engineering design domain. Recent attention has turned to the integration of modular systems to provide a unified approach to complex engineering problems, characterized by the need for interactive contributions by multiple design specialists. Issues in developing truly integrated systems center upon the establishment of effective communication among design participants. This paper presents a conceptual model for automated interactive engineering design, considering both the process architecture and semantic modeling aspects of the problem. A prototype system based on the conceptual model is also presented, operating in the domain of floor and equipment layout and design for industrial facilities.