A case based model to assist in the design process in the manufacture of furniture products

This paper describes progress on a project to utilise case based reasoning methods in the design and manufacture of furniture products. The novel feature of this research is that cases are represented as structures in a relational database of products, components and materials. The paper proposes a method for extending the usual "weighted sum" over attribute similarities for a ·single table to encompass relational structures over several tables. The capabilities of the system are discussed, particularly with respect to differing user objectives, such as cost estimation, CAD, cutting scheme re-use, and initial design. It is shown that specification of a target case as a relational structure combined with suitable weights can fulfil several user functions. However, it is also shown that some user functions cannot satisfactorily be specified via a single target case. For these functions it is proposed to allow the specification of a set of target cases. A derived similarity measure between individuals and sets of cases is proposed.

CBE-conveyor: a case-based reasoning system to assist engineers in designing conveyor systems

In this paper, we address the use of CBR in collaboration with numerical engineering models. This collaborative combination has a particular application in engineering domains where numerical models are used. We term this domain “Case Based Engineering” (CBE), and present the general architecture of a CBE system. We define and discuss the general characteristics of CBE and the special problems which arise. These are: the handling of engineering constraints of both continuous and nominal kind; interpolation over both continuous and nominal variables, and conformability for interpolation. In order to illustrate the utility of the method proposed, and to provide practical examples of the general theory, the paper describes a practical application of the CBE architecture, known as CBE-CONVEYOR, which has been implemented by the authors.Pneumatic conveying is an important transportation technology in the solid bulks conveying industry. One of the major industry concerns is the attrition of powders and granules during pneumatic conveying. To minimize the fraction of particles during pneumatic conveying, engineers want to know what design parameters they should use in building a conveyor system. To do this, engineers often run simulations in a repetitive manner to find appropriate input parameters. CBE-Conveyor is shown to speed up conventional methods for searching for solutions, and to solve problems directly that would otherwise require considerable intervention from the engineer.