Communicating Concepts for Shared Understanding: A Multi-Agent Approach

Capturing and sharing design concepts is necessary if we want to support the design process by means of Information & Communication Technology (ICT). Standardized concepts are important for support at the end of the design process when designs need to conform to set standards and norms, and in order to enable communication, but are less useful in the early design stages. We propose an approach that takes into account a more developmental attitude that will be better suited for design support and the sharing of design concepts. In this approach, design concepts are formalised by means of a technology called concept modelling. Capturing and exchange of concepts are based on a multi-agent approach. The whole of concepts that are used in a domain or for a design task can be considered a design ontology. In this paper we outline the motivations for the research, outline the basic approach in the research work, and identify the major challenges and research problems that need to be tackled.

[1]  Ramanathan V. Guha,et al.  Cyc: toward programs with common sense , 1990, CACM.

[2]  Greg Lynn.  Folds, Bodies and Blobs - Collected Essays , 1998 .

[3]  Arthur B. Markman,et al.  Knowledge Representation , 1998 .

[4]  Alan Colquhoun,et al.  Essays in Architectural Criticism: Modern Architecture and Historical Change , 1981 .

[5]  Jos P. van Leeuwen,et al.  Supporting Collaborative Design by Type Recognition and Knowledge Sharing , 2002, J. Inf. Technol. Constr..

[6]  Thomas R. Gruber,et al.  Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing? , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[7]  Alan Colquhoun,et al.  Typology and Design Method , 1969 .

[8]  Hanno-Walter Kruft,et al.  A History of Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius to the Present , 1994 .

[9]  N. J. Habraken,et al.  The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment , 1998 .

[10]  Hh Henri Achten,et al.  Feature-Based High Level Design Tools , 1999 .

[11]  C. Westfall,et al.  Architectural principles in the age of historicism , 1991 .

[12]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Developments in design methodology , 1984 .

[13]  Greg Lynn,et al.  Folds, Bodies & Blobs: Collected Essays , 1998 .

[14]  Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza,et al.  Towards an Ontological Framework for Knowledge-Based Design Systems , 2000, AID.

[15]  Hyacinth S. Nwana,et al.  2 Multi-Agent Systems : Promises and Reality , 1999 .

[16]  Mary Lou Maher,et al.  Designing with the Activity/Space Ontology , 1998, AID.

[17]  Kate Nesbitt.  Theorizing a new agenda for architecture : an anthology of architectural theory 1965-1995 , 1996 .

[18]  Timothy W. Finin,et al.  An Overview of KQML: A Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language , 1991 .

[19]  Gregory R. Olsen,et al.  An Ontology for Engineering Mathematics , 1994, KR.

[20]  Nils J. Nilsson,et al.  Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis , 1997 .

[21]  John F. Sowa,et al.  Knowledge representation: logical, philosophical, and computational foundations , 2000 .

[22]  Thomas R. Gruber,et al.  A translation approach to portable ontology specifications , 1993, Knowl. Acquis..

[23]  Peter Norvig,et al.  Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , 1995 .

[24]  Parisa Ghodous,et al.  Product Data Exchange Using Ontologies , 2002, AID.

[25]  Donald A. Schön.  Designing: Rules, types and worlds , 1988 .

[26]  B. de Vries,et al.  Modelling with Features and the Formalisation of Early Design Knowledge , 2000 .

[27]  F. Dikker,et al.  Integrating Standards and Synthesis Knowledge Using the YMIR Ontology , 1994 .

[28]  Tom Heath,et al.  Method in architecture , 1984 .

[29]  van Jp Jos Leeuwen.  Modelling architectural design information by features : an approach to dynamic product modelling for application in architectural design , 1999 .

[30]  Douglas B. Lenat,et al.  CYC: a large-scale investment in knowledge infrastructure , 1995, CACM.

[31]  Jane Darke,et al.  The primary Generator and the Design Process , 1979 .

[32]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Agent Systems and Applications , 1998, Knowl. Eng. Rev..

[33]  Peter Eisenman,et al.  Houses of Cards , 1987 .

[34]  Bryan Lawson,et al.  How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified , 1990 .

[35]  George A. Miller,et al.  Introduction to WordNet: An On-line Lexical Database , 1990 .

[36]  Nicole Segers,et al.  Towards a data-structure that can handle ambiguous information in a computer-aided tool for the earl , 2002 .

[37]  Rüdiger Klein,et al.  Knowledge Modeling In Design - The MOKA Framework , 2000, AID.

[38]  Gerhard Weiss,et al.  Multiagent systems: a modern approach to distributed artificial intelligence , 1999 .

[39]  N. F. M. Roozenburg,et al.  Product design: Fundamentals and methods , 1996 .