AN ACTIVITY LAYER FOR AN INTELLIGENT AUTOMATIC PRODUCT DESIGN ENVIRONMENT

An activity layer is provided for the activity-driven, object-oriented (ADOO) automatic product design shell within atop-down environment fo r computer-based manufacturing systems. In the activity layer, a funct ional treatment template at-an assembly level is first presented to ex press a conversion from a functional-compliant view to an activity-com pliant view. An activity container produced by the treatment ment temp late is then applied to a procedure for the activity organization, whi ch includes index determining, simple circuit circle searching, topolo gical sorting, and subcycle decoupling. These identified and organized activities are transferred into an integrated module with an object-o riented class form. A geometrical metrical representation and feature- based modeling are implemented by using these defined activities for f urther applications in automatic manufacturing systems. The activity l ayer in an intelligent automatic product design environment supports t he activity-driven modeling through the functional treatment and activ ity alternatives within an intelligent concurrent environment.