Automatic design by configuration space: an automatic design system for kinematic devices

This paper reports the exploration and development of an intelligent CAD sy stem called ADCS (Automatic Design by Configuration Space). ADCS is an auto matic design system for kinematic devices. While most of the existing work in automatic design synthesis is limited to single-state design problems, A DCS is able to generate design solutions for multiple-state design problems . ADCS synthesizes a solution by retrieving kinematic pairs with appropriat e shapes. The configuration space (Cspace) method is used as the basis for the representation of the kinematic pair. Cspace and Cfeature are used to e stablish relations between function, behaviour and geometric shape. The sea rching algorithm and the heuristics employed to guide the search during des ign synthesis are explained in detail. Design examples generated by ADCS ar e given to highlight the important features of ADCS. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.