A heuristic state-space approach to the functional design of mechanical systems

This paper presents a knowledge-based approach for automating the functional design of mechanical systems. By using our proposed automated functional reasoning strategy, which is based on a heuristic search method, a set of physical behaviours can be reasoned out automatically from the desired functions. The interconnection of these behaviours is possible when the functional outputs of one are compatible to the corresponding functional requirements of the next one. Though the design space for behavioural configuration is very large, by defining its heuristic evaluation function as a fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (FMCDM) problem, the proposed heuristic search method can lead to a near optimum design solution in a reasonable time. A case study for the automated functional design of an automatic assembly system is given to illustrate the operation of the proposed heuristic search method, and to show its effectiveness in functional reasoning and optimising the final design.