Considerations for a design and operations knowledge support system for Space Station Freedom

Engineering and operations of modern engineered systems depend critically upon detailed design and operations knowledge that is accurate and authoritative. A design and operations knowledge support system (DOKSS) is a modern computer-based information system providing knowledge about the creation, evolution, and growth of an engineered system. The purpose of a DOKSS is to provide convenient and effective access to this multifaceted information. The complexity of Space Station Freedom's (SSF's) systems, elements, interfaces, and organizations makes convenient access to design knowledge especially important, when compared to simpler systems. The life cycle length, being 30 or more years, adds a new dimension to space operations, maintenance, and evolution. Provided here is a review and discussion of design knowledge support systems to be delivered and operated as a critical part of the engineered system. A concept of a DOKSS for Space Station Freedom (SSF) is presented. This is followed by a detailed discussion of a DOKSS for the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Work Package-2 portions of SSF

Integrating Distributed Sources of Information for Construction Cost Estimating using Semantic Web and Semantic Web Service technologies

A construction project requires collaboration of several organizations such as owner, designer, contractor, and material supplier organizations. These organizations need to exchange information to enhance their teamwork. Understanding the information received from other organizations requires specialized human resources. Construction cost estimating is one of the processes that requires information from several sources including a building information model (BIM) created by designers, estimating assembly and work item information maintained by contractors, and construction material cost data provided by material suppliers. Currently, it is not easy to integrate the information necessary for cost estimating over the Internet. This paper discusses a new approach to construction cost estimating that uses Semantic Web technology. Semantic Web technology provides an infrastructure and a data modeling format that enables accessing, combining, and sharing information over the Internet in a machine processable format. The estimating approach presented in this paper relies on BIM, estimating knowledge, and construction material cost data expressed in a web ontology language. The approach presented in this paper makes the various sources of estimating data accessible as Simple Protocol and Resource Description Framework Query Language (SPARQL) endpoints or Semantic Web Services. We present an estimating application that integrates distributed information provided by project designers, contractors, and material suppliers for preparing cost estimates. The purpose of this paper is not to fully automate the estimating process but to streamline it by reducing human involvement in repetitive cost estimating activities

New design companions opening up the process through self-made computation

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75).This thesis is about man and machine roles in the early conception of designs where it investigates computational methods that support creativity and surprise. It discusses the relationship between human and digital medium in the enterprise of Computer-Aided Design', and Self-Made Computation to empower the designer as driver of digital processes taking the computer as an active collaborator, or a sharp apprentice, rather than a master. In a design process tool personalization enables precise feedback between human and medium. In the field of architecture, every project is unique, and there are as many design workflows as designers. However current off-the-shelf design software has an inflexible built-in structure targeting general problem-solving that can interfere with non-standard design needs. Today, those with programming agility look for customized processes that assist early problem-finding instead of converging solutions. Contributing to alleviate software frustrations, smaller tailor-made applications prove to be precisely tailored, viable and enriching companions in certain moments of the project development. Previous work on the impact of standardized software for design has focused on the figure of the designer as a tool-user, this thesis addresses the question from the vision of the designer as a tool-maker. It investigates how self-made software can become a design companion for computational thinking - observed here as a new mindset that shifts design workflows, rather than a technique. The research compares and diagrams designer-toolmaker work where self-made applets where produced, as well as the structures in the work of rule-maker artisans. The main contributions are a comparative study of three models of computer-aided design, their history and technical review, their influence in design workflows and a graphical framework to better compare them. Critical analysis reveals a common structure to tailor a creative and explorative design workflow. Its advantages and limitations are exposed to guide designers into alternative computational methods for design processes. Keywords: design workflow; computation; applets; self-made tools; diagrams; design process; feedback; computers; computer-assisted-designby Laia Mogas-Soldevila.S.M

Feature-based validation reasoning for intent-driven engineering design

Feature based modelling represents the future of CAD systems. However, operations such as modelling and editing can corrupt the validity of a feature-based model representation. Feature interactions are a consequence of feature operations and the existence of a number of features in the same model. Feature interaction affects not only the solid representation of the part, but also the functional intentions embedded within features. A technique is thus required to assess the integrity of a feature-based model from various perspectives, including the functional intentional one, and this technique must take into account the problems brought about by feature interactions and operations. The understanding, reasoning and resolution of invalid feature-based models requires an understanding of the feature interaction phenomena, as well as the characterisation of these functional intentions. A system capable of such assessment is called a feature-based representation validation system. This research studies feature interaction phenomena and feature-based designer's intents as a medium to achieve a feature-based representation validation system. [Continues.

Analyzing decision making in software design

A model is given for the analysis of rationality in design decision making. We define a formal means for answering the query, To what extent has a designer, on a particular occasion, using an explicit definition of 'good', decided rationally?A decision rationality classification scheme is proposed. This scheme incorporates non-compensatory decision analysis techniques (dominance and conjunctive cut-off) as well as compensatory techniques (simple and hierarchical additive weighting, linear assignment, concordance, and displaced ideal). A formal definition of design decision is derived by extending the Lehman, Stenning, Turski transformational model of the software design process. Their view of artifact specification mappings between linguistic systems is extended to include the concomitant effect of the mapping on resource expenditure.A formal specification for decision control knowledge is defined. This representation is the union of that knowledge required to support the various decision analysis techniques. Presumed to operationalize a designer's goals, the knowledge representation scheme includes five levels:1. Each objective expresses some relevant design concern for an artifact and/or resource characteristic.2. Each criterion expresses some relevant decomposition of a superior objective or criterion.3. Each attribute expresses the bottom-most decomposition for a superior criterion. Each attribute may have a weight indicating its relative contribution to its superior criterion.4. For each attribute, a value function expresses the designer's preference ordering over observed performance for an attribute.5. For each attribute, an observation channel describes an observer independent metric over some specification (either resource or artifact) rendered in some linguistic system and a procedure for application of that metric.Our model is applied to problems in Structured Design and conceptual data modeling. We argue that a comprehensive design history must include not only the transformations applied but also the rationale used in deciding their application. This rationale must include decision control knowledge governing both artifact (product) and resource (process) facets of design decision making. The principal contribution of this work is that the opacity of the decision intensive aspects of design are reduced thereby taking a necessary step for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of software development

Reusing processes and documenting processes: toward an integrated framework

This paper presents a cognitive typology of reuse processes, and a cognitive typology of documenting processes. Empirical studies on design with reuse and on software documenting provide evidence for a generalized cognitive model. First, these studies emphasize the cyclical nature of design: cycles of planning, writing and revising occur. Second, natural language documentation follows the hierarchy of cognitive entities manipulated during design. Similarly software reuse involves exploiting various types of knowledge depending on the phase of design in which reuse is involved. We suggest that these observations can be explained based on cognitive models of text processing: the van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) model of text comprehension, and the Hayes and Flower (1980) model of text production. Based on our generalized cognitive model, we suggest a framework for documenting reusable components

Plan recognition for space telerobotics

Current research on space telerobots has largely focused on two problem areas: executing remotely controlled actions (the tele part of telerobotics) or planning to execute them (the robot part). This work has largely ignored one of the key aspects of telerobots: the interaction between the machine and its operator. For this interaction to be felicitous, the machine must successfully understand what the operator is trying to accomplish with particular remote-controlled actions. Only with the understanding of the operator's purpose for performing these actions can the robot intelligently assist the operator, perhaps by warning of possible errors or taking over part of the task. There is a need for such an understanding in the telerobotics domain and an intelligent interface being developed in the chemical process design domain addresses the same issues

To develop a model for design protocol in the research-based design process in architecture education

Despite a great deal of effort has been made to present systematic models of design process, in practice, a lot of designs still proceed through unsystematic methods. It seems that the reason for this is too much emphasizing on describing the final design (product) and little attention to the design process; such that, there is no clear method so as to research-based design. This led to illustrate a distinct pattern from configuration of "design protocol" in terms of research-based design process. The aim of this study is to develop a model that can be used in the architecture educational system. So at first step, the readers of this research are architecture students, and designers can also benefit from it in the next steps. So that all the readers of this research using this model, in a logical process, can recognize the right information for design and ultimately achieve an optimal architectural design. In this research, our preferred context is architecture, and the focus is on research-oriented design; therefore, any given example would be in the field of architecture. In this paper, the proposed process is the result of experience gained from five years teaching architectural design (2) in master's degree that includes three milestones as follows: 1) Statement of problem 2) The scheme and 3) Design protocol. "Statement of design problem" is obtained from people's concerns about "design subject" integrated in its "bed". The scheme, itself, constitutes the expectations, goals and mission representing two sets of information (cognitive and distinction) about design that finally leads to establish a "spatial-body program" of the project. As proceeding from the onset of diagram into the end, we passed from "analyze" into "synthesize" phase. In fact, in «analyze» phase, designer decides to collect and analyze information; however, as the process goes forward, he/she combines the information from the previous phase in order to achieve novel findings. Finally, we hope that by taking advantage of the proposed process, designers can find the best way to accomplish their design projects within a defined framework