Case Representation in Rapid Response Variant Design

A new case representation is proposed. Design process is included in this case representation. The record of design process provides designers with rationale and assumptions behind design solutions. This kind of case representation not only provides better understanding of design solutions among designers, but also helps designers create new solutions in case modification stage.

CASE-BASED CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

The current method of case-based design (CBD) can be well practiced forconfiguration design in which design experience knowledge is involved. However, since the designcase is confined to a certain application domain, it is difficult for CBD to be applied toconceptual design process that develops concepts to meet design specifications. Firstly, a functionfactor description space is erected to provide an exhibition room for all functions of design cases.Next, the approach for identifying the space state of function factor in description space isproposed, including the determination of the similarities between function factors of design case.And then a general object-oriented representation for design case is presented by bringing the classof function and in-out flow into the current case representation. Finally, a living example forelectro-pet design that illustrates the implementation of the method for case-based conceptualdesign based on distributed design case repositories is described.

Case-Based Reasoning(CBR) Model for Ultra-Fast Cooling in Plate Mill

New generation thermo-mechanical control process（TMCP） based on ultra-fast cooling is being widely adopted in plate mill to product high-performance steel material at low cost. Ultra-fast cooling system is complex because of optimizing the temperature control error generated by heat transfer mathematical model and process parameters. In order to simplify the system and improve the temperature control precision in ultra-fast cooling process, several existing models of case-based reasoning（CBR） model are reviewed. Combining with ultra-fast cooling process, a developed R5 CBR model is proposed, which mainly improves the case representation, similarity relation and retrieval module. Certainty factor is defined in semantics memory unit of plate case which provides not only internal data reliability but also product performance reliability. Similarity relation is improved by defined power index similarity membership function. Retrieval process is simplified and retrieval efficiency is improved apparently by windmill retrieval algorithm. The proposed CBR model is used for predicting the case of cooling strategy and its capability is superior to traditional process model. In order to perform comprehensive investigations on ultra-fast cooling process, different steel plates are considered for the experiment. The validation experiment and industrial production of proposed CBR model are carried out, which demonstrated that finish cooling temperature（FCT） error is controlled within±25℃ and quality rate of product is more than 97%. The proposed CBR model can simplify ultra-fast cooling system and give quality performance for steel product.

Extended Object Model for Product Configuration Design

This paper presents an extended object model for case-based reasoning （CBR） in product configuration design. In the extended object model, a few methods of knowledge expression are adopted, such as constraints, rules, objects, etc. On the basis of extended object model, case representation model for CBR is applied to product configuration design system. The product configuration knowledge can be represented by the extended object. The model can support all the processes of CBR in product configuration design, such as case representation, indexing, retrieving, and case revising. The presented model is an extension of the traditional object-oriented model by including the relationship class used to express the relation between the cases, constraints class used in the product configuration knowledge representation, index class used in ease retrieving, and solution class used in case revising. Therefore, the product configuration knowledge used in the product configuration design can be represented by using this model. In the end, a metering pump product configuration design system is developed on the basis of the proposed product configuration model to support customized products.