DEJAVU: Case-based reasoning for mechanical design

Abstract

The architecture and implementation of a mechanical designer's assistant shell called DEJAVU is presented. The architecture is based on an integration of design and CAD with some of the more well known concepts in case-based reasoning (CBR). DEJAVU provides a flexible and cognitively intuitive approach for acquiring and utilizing design knowledge. It is a domain independent mechanical design shell that can incrementally acquire design knowledge in the domain of the user. DEJAVU provides a design environment that can learn from the designer(s) until it can begin to perform design tasks autonomously or semi-autonomously. The main components of DEJAVU are a knowledge base of design plans, an evaluation module in the form of a design plan system, and a blackboard-based adaptation module. The existance of these components are derived from the utilization of a CBR architecture. DEJAVU is the first step in developing a robust designer's assistant shell for mechanical design problems. One of the major contributions of DEJAVU is the development of a clean architecture for the utilization of case-based reasoning in a mechanical designer's assistant shell. In addition, the components of the architecture have been developed, tailored or modified from a general CBR context into a more synergistic relationship with mechanical design.