Title: Automated conceptual design of mechanisms using enumeration and functional reasoning

Authors: Yao Zu, Renbin Xiao, Xinhui Zhang

Addresses: CAD Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China. ' CAD Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China. ' Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435, USA

Abstract: This paper presents an automated method for conceptual design of mechanisms using enumeration and functional reasoning. In this method, design requirements and kinematic building blocks are expressed by function codes. Based on principle of combination and categories of functions, an enumeration process is proposed to enumerate all possible and feasible functional connections of each kinematic building block in the knowledge base. Then a combinatorial algorithm is computerised to automatically yield many candidate solutions to the desired function requirements using bidirectional search, and functional reasoning is introduced to filter out infeasible solutions. Experiment results demonstrate the practicability and effectiveness of the approach.

Keywords: conceptual design; enumeration; functional combinations; kinematic building blocks; kinematics; functional reasoning; mechanism design; function categories.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2009.024659

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2009 Vol.34 No.3, pp.273 - 294

Published online: 14 Apr 2009 *

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