Supporting Complex Design using AKT technology:
Rolls-Royce Case Studies
Derek Sleeman: AberdeenDavid Fowler: Aberdeen
Gary Wills: Southampton
I: Designers’ Workbench Aims
To assist designers by checking designs Easy to overlook simple rules Designer focuses on more important
issues
To record reasons for decisions/rules New designers learn why rules are used Experienced designers may realise that a
rule is obsolete
I: Designers’ Workbench Aims
AKT Challenges/Technologies addressed
Ontologies used to structure Domain knowledge & design features
Use/Reuse of Knowledge (largely Constraints)
Constraint-based problem solving
The Designers’ Workbench
Designers’ WorkbenchKnowledge Elicitation of Constraints & Rationales From various RR documents (eg JDSs) by
Engineers & Knowledge Engineers
Stores information about design Features, properties “Features” includes: assemblies, subassemblies,
materials, dimensions, etc (hierarchical)
Checks constraints on design Reports the rationale for constraints
Multi-user system
Technologies employed
Ontological description and processing of designs DAML+OIL OilEd Jena (DAML to Java data-structures)
Constraint satisfaction methods Sicstus Prolog
Current focus: IPCRSS*
*Intermediate Pressure Compressor Rear Stubshaft
Designers’ Workbench: Demos
User annotating a design with featuresdemo1
Checking (external) constraintsChecking rationalesdemo2
II: Intelligent Document Retrieval,High Integrity Joints (Flange)
A flange is a cylinder or collar to join two parts togetherFunctions Holds engine parts together, can
form seals, Load transfer, holds in debris in catastrophic failure, etc
Different points of view Whole engine, Heat transfer,
Cost model, Manufacturing, Assembling/Maintenance
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Discussions
High Integrity Joint Integrated Programme Team Documentation of aspects of the design
process Federated Representation (Multi-perspective
Representation)
Intelligent document retrieval system for existing designs & associated supporting documents
Intelligent Document Retrieval
AKT Challenges/Technologies addressed
Annotation of Ontologies (with Documents)
Ontologies used to support Multi-perspective Retrieval of Documents
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Document Database
RR supplied: Over 175,000 document summaries and
associated keywords Over 4,200 document types Over 20,000 key words - reduced to 9,000
However, documents provided did not include all the document types currently in use with these design teams.
Intelligent Document Retrieval: InterviewsAnalysis of Card sort: gave documents types & relationships
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Interviews
Interviews gave the functions/concepts and associated keywords
----------------Non-dimensional numbers-----------------------ReynoldsConvection/Radiation ratioStanton numberGrashofRayleighNusselt------- Rotating Components----free discRotating enthalpyRothalpyVortexWindage
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Interviews
Summary Card sort gave documents types and relationships Interviews gave the functions/concepts and
associated keywords Checklist (already developed by the Turbines
group) gave additional keywords for Design and Stress analysis
Simon Kampa developed the demo based on COHSE (Ontological Hypertext system)
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Demo
The 9,000 key words are presented alphabetically. Users can view document meta-data: The resulting list of documents can be ordered
according to job function. Users can opt to view the meta-data for a
particular document For demo purposes only the first 300
documents are shown Click here to see video
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Demo
Job function determines concepts & related documents selected The resulting list of document is ordered
according to : the current task (eg Original requirements ) Documents are ordered depending on the job
function (eg designer, thermal analyst, etc) the related concepts (identified by keywords). Additionally, peer recommended documents
are listed Video
Intelligent Document Retrieval: Demo
Sometimes too many documents are returned.So the engineer can look at just one series of documents. Video shows the engineer choosing a DDR.
Note DDR currently means Design Definition Report; earlier Design Department Report, OR Design Dept Report OR Design Department Reports all are in the database as DDRs
Planned Future Research
Apply Information Extraction techniques to documents (AKT, Sheffield).Implement Intelligent Editors to support document writing & extract key issues.Designers’ Workbench: use background knowledge to produce generalized constraints /rationales. (Enhance underlying Constraint Satisfaction Engine.)
Possible Future R & D
Develop CBR systems based on earlier designs.Integrate the 2 AKT demo systems with new KBE & CADS systems to be acquired by RR.
Supporting Complex Design using AKT technology
QUESTIONS / COMMENTS