Automatic design by configuration space: An automatic design system for kinematic devices

Abstract

This paper reports the exploration and development of an intelligent CAD system called ADCS (Automatic Design by Configuration Space). ADCS is an automatic design system for kinematic devices. While most of the existing work in automatic design synthesis is limited to single-state design problems, ADCS is able to generate design solutions for multiple-state design problems. ADCS synthesizes a solution by retrieving kinematic pairs with appropriate shapes. The configuration space (Cspace) method is used as the basis for the representation of the kinematic pair. Cspace and Cfeature are used to establish relations between function, behaviour and geometric shape. The searching algorithm and the heuristics employed to guide the search during design synthesis are explained in detail. Design examples generated by ADCS are given to highlight the important features of ADCS. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.