FUNCTIONAL-MODELING FOR ENABLING ADAPTIVE DESIGN OF DEVICES FOR NEW ENVIRONMENTS

Current AI research on adaptive design is limited to devices with mini mal interactions with their environments. This is partly because curre nt functional models are limited to devices with minimal environmental interactions. We describe a functional representation scheme, called the Environmentally-bound Structure-Behavior-Function (or ESBF) model, to represent and organize knowledge of the functioning of a device, i ncluding the role of its environmental interactions. We also describe a processing strategy called Environmentally-driven Adaptive Modeling (or EAM) for modifying a known design for operation in a new environme nt, and thus for carrying out new functions that arise due to new devi ce-environment interactions. We illustrate the ESBF and EAM through th e example of adapting the conceptual design of a refrigerator to obtai n a preliminary design of an air-conditioner. We also discuss the impl ementation of this example in a computer program called Environmental KRITIK. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.