SBD SYSTEM-DESIGN

A simulation-based approach to concurrent engineering enables early co nsideration of downstream life cycle processes by supporting the devel opment of virtual prototypes of products and processes and providing f or their simulation and evaluation in synthetic environments represent ing the entire product life cycle. To be effective, a system supportin g such an approach must adopt a highly integrated view of concurrent e ngineering. This includes the provision of rich, dynamically extensibl e product and process descriptions, availability of high-level computi ng environments facilitating assembly and invocation of design analysi s tools and simulations, and an overall collaborative framework suppor ting distributed product design and development teams. Each of these a reas is being incorporated into the development of the Simulation-Base d Design (SBD) Phase II system prototype. The specific approach taken to the design of the SBD system was to define the essential capabiliti es of a domain independent concurrent engineering framework by focusin g on fundamental engineering processes, which we consider to be applic able throughout the product life cycle. In particular, we are focusing on supporting engineering design processes. This reflects our view th at many life cycle processes, such as manufacturing, maintenance, and damage control, can be considered as design problems in themselves. A basic set of capabilities should thus provide support across the range of life cycle activities. In this paper, we describe the components o f a framework which supports these capabilities. We use high-level sof tware agents to provide broad-based support for the user in four main areas-product and process representation, collaboration and design pro cess assembly and activation, visualization and interaction with produ ct data, and integration of external applications. Underlying support is provided for flexible communication among these components-this inc ludes support for communication in a distributed heterogeneous computi ng environment, as well as higher-level knowledge-based communications among interacting agents.