Design for manufacturability: A feature-based agent-driven approach

Abstract Extensions to mechanical feature-based design and design for manufacturability are presented that adopt the increasingly recognized multiagent paradigm. This approach uses autonomous agents to implement each form feature inside the model being created, thus leading to the creation of a new type of active product model. Designers add new features to their designs by populating a living community of agents that construct the model, therefore creating an active product program as opposed to the traditional passive product data. Feature agents are self-scheduled autonomous entities, able to exchange data with one another and with a degree of self-control over their own geometric data. Using simple manufacturability criteria, each feature agent endlessly applies its embedded knowledge to ensure its own local manufacturability. A global behaviour emerges from the agents' activity inside the model that optimizes the global manufacturability of the component being designed.