A Methodology for the Reduction of Imprecision in the Engineering Design Process

Workgroup for Intelligent Systems in Design and Manufacturing

Imprecision is an inherent characteristic of engineering design. All designs begin with goals and requirements that are descriptive statements of what functions a product should perform. As descriptive statements, they are an imprecise specification of the product that is transformed by the design process to the precise specification necessary to manufacture the product. A major component of the design problem is how to make the transition from imprecise goals and requirements to precise specifications. This project is developing a methodology for making the transition from imprecise goals and requirements to the precise specifications needed to manufacture the product. We have introduced a new concept called precision convergence to formally describe the reduction in imprecision as the transition occurs. A hierarchy of fuzzy constraint networks has been developed along with a methodology for creating transitional links between different levels of the hierarchy. We have demonstrated that the solution of this hierarchy results in a reduction of imprecision found in the initial problem statement. Within the example problem an imprecision reduction of 95% has been achieved in only three stages of the design process, demonstrating that the methodology for precision convergence appears to work and that the level of imprecision reduction can be quantified.

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