Perceptual scaling in materials selection for concurrent design

Abstract

In this short paper, we describe the development of an adaptive design assistant to support and advise design team members when selecting materials for manufacture. Candidate proposals for materials are identified when the user subjectively rescales a similarity-based representation of materials. The approach taken seeks to acknowledge that personal decisions do not always appear rational and to address some of the often ignored problems that are encountered when scaling, clustering and categorisation are performed using a large number of highly correlated attributes. A short illustration of the approach is included