Object-oriented Knowledge Modelling for Conceptual Design of Mechanisms

Conceptual design is an early stage of the whole mechanical product development process, which is a problem-solving activity based on knowledge engineering.Designers often have difficulty in fulfilling complex product designs due to the lack of sufficient product design knowledge.This paper is devoted to presenting a systematic object-oriented knowledge modeling for conceptual design of mechanisms.After object-oriented knowledge representation strategy is introduced, the object-oriented inheritance relationship of mechanisms is discussed in detail, and then the design catalogue for conceptual design of mechanisms is also put forward.Knowledge modeling for conceptual design of mechanisms, including function knowledge modeling, mechanism unit knowledge modeling, mapping knowledge modeling, is discussed step by step.A computer aided mechanism conceptual design software system is developed, and the system implementation of above knowledge base is proposed.The pipe racking system for the oil drilling platform is given as an example, which demonstrates that the object-oriented knowledge modelling methodology is obviously helpful for mechanical product conceptual design of mechanisms.