M. Ohki et al., DESIGN SUPPORT TO DETERMINE THE RANGE OF DESIGN PARAMETERS BY QUALITATIVE REASONING, IEEE transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, 24(5), 1994, pp. 813-819
Citations number
28
Categorie Soggetti
Controlo Theory & Cybernetics","Computer Science Cybernetics","Engineering, Eletrical & Electronic
We present a new application of qualitative reasoning to design: sugge
sting valid ranges for design parameters after the structure has been
determined. This design step is implemented by using an envisioning me
chanism that uses qualitative reasoning to determine all possible beha
viors of a system. Our method finds all possible behaviors by envision
ing with design parameters whose values are initially indeterminate an
d with whatever specifications the designer has. If several behaviors
are found, the designer selects the ones he prefers. The design-suppor
t system Desq (Design support system based on qualitative reasoning) i
s based on an earlier qualitative reasoning system Qupras (Qualitative
physical reasoning system) with three improvements: envisioning, prop
agating new constraints on constant parameters, and solving constraint
in parallel. Like Qupras, the Desq system can deal with quantities qu
alitatively and quantitatively. Therefore, if the parameters can be ex
pressed quantitatively, we may be able to determine the quantitative r
anges, which are often more useful than qualitative values.