Ever since computers have been used to support human designers, a variety of representations have been used to encapsulate engineering knowledge. Computational design synthesis (CDS) approaches utilize this knowledge to generate design candidates for a specified task. However, new approaches are required to enable systematic solution space exploration. This paper presents an approach that combines a graph-based object-oriented knowledge representation with first-order logic and Boolean satisfiability. This combination is used as the foundation for a generic automated approach for requirement-driven computational design synthesis. Available design building blocks and a design task defined through a set of requirements are modeled in a graph-based environment and then automatically transferred into a Boolean satisfiability problem and solved, considering a given solution size. The Boolean solution is automatically transferred back to the graph-based domain. The method is validated through two case studies: synthesis of automotive powertrains and chemical process synthesis for ethyl alcohol production. The contribution of the paper is a new method that is able to determine if an engineering task is solvable for a given set of synthesis building blocks and enables systematic solution space exploration.
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e-mail: muenzerc@ethz.ch
e-mail: helms@pe.mw.tum.de
e-mail: kshea@ethz.ch
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October 2013
Research-Article
Automatically Transforming Object-Oriented Graph-Based Representations Into Boolean Satisfiability Problems for Computational Design Synthesis
Clemens Münzer,
e-mail: muenzerc@ethz.ch
Clemens Münzer
Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory
,ETH Zürich, Tannenstr. 3, CH-8092, Zürich
,e-mail: muenzerc@ethz.ch
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Bergen Helms,
e-mail: helms@pe.mw.tum.de
Bergen Helms
Institute of Product Development, Technische Universität München
,Boltzmannstr. 15, DE-85748, Garching
,e-mail: helms@pe.mw.tum.de
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Kristina Shea
e-mail: kshea@ethz.ch
Kristina Shea
Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory
,ETH Zürich, Tannenstr. 3, CH-8092, Zürich
e-mail: kshea@ethz.ch
Search for other works by this author on:
Clemens Münzer
Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory
,ETH Zürich, Tannenstr. 3, CH-8092, Zürich
,e-mail: muenzerc@ethz.ch
Bergen Helms
Institute of Product Development, Technische Universität München
,Boltzmannstr. 15, DE-85748, Garching
,e-mail: helms@pe.mw.tum.de
Kristina Shea
Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory
,ETH Zürich, Tannenstr. 3, CH-8092, Zürich
e-mail: kshea@ethz.ch
Contributed by the Design Theory and Methodology Committee of ASME for publication in the Journal of Mechanical Design. Manuscript received March 13, 2013; final manuscript received June 7, 2013; published online July 15, 2013. Assoc. Editor: Irem Y. Tumer.
J. Mech. Des. Oct 2013, 135(10): 101001 (13 pages)
Published Online: July 15, 2013
Article history
Received:
March 13, 2013
Revision Received:
June 7, 2013
Citation
Münzer, C., Helms, B., and Shea, K. (July 15, 2013). "Automatically Transforming Object-Oriented Graph-Based Representations Into Boolean Satisfiability Problems for Computational Design Synthesis." ASME. J. Mech. Des. October 2013; 135(10): 101001. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4024850
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