Study On Conceptual Modeling Technology Based On Design Intent Capture

As one of the most critical parts of the product design process, conceptual design always, since its first appearance, lacks of scientific methodology and computer support tools. The widely adopted approach of geometric modeling conceptual design, mainly with Pen and Paper sketch, is not able to meet the requirements of modern mechanical design to be rapid, complex and innovative, due to its low degree of automation and of information integration. With the support of the"863"National High-tech Project"Research on theory and realization of multidisciplinary collaborative modeling/simulation supporting innovative product design", some methods and key technologies on conceptual modeling based on design intent capture are studied in this paper. A conceptual design supporting system which provides comprehensive support to conceptual design phase, and then realize the fast curing of design intent and accurate recognition and semantic-based intelligent push, etc. is developed consequently.Key achievements of this paper are as follows:1. An approach of experimental research on the behavioral action of conceptual sketch is proposed. By studying the qualitative relationship between the trend of sketch speed change and expression of design intent and the quantitative relationship between sketch speed and the precision of expression of design intent, a design intent externalization model on the channel of the speed feature is established and the issues on capturing the design intent only by single channel (the geometry channel) are solved.2. Based on the outcomes of the sketch behavioral experiment, a 2D sketch recognition method based on multi-design features recognition is raised. Key technologies such as capturing, analyzing, identifying and integrating multiple design intents in the conceptual sketch design are in-depth studied. As a result, the precision rate and accuracy of the conceptual modeling have been improved dramatically. 3. A semantics sketch description language called SSDL is defined and utilized to realize the automatic semantic injection into the 2D conceptual model. A common semantics library of mechanical design is established, parser and comparer for descriptive language are developed, and the semantic understanding of conceptual modeling is realized.4. Based on design intent capture and semantic understanding, a new intelligent knowledge pushing method is proposed, and the topic web crawler as well as an intelligent pusher are designed and implemented. The topic web crawler captures related predefined knowledge and information from local databases and the internet, while the intelligent pusher realizes design intent related knowledge push by pushing that based on the semantics information of current design.5. A conceptual design supporting prototype system basing on the key technologies mentioned above is designed and implemented. The application validation of the system is completed and described by the end of this paper.