Knowledge Intensive Engineering Framework (KIEF)

What's Knowledge Intensive Engineering Framework (KIEF)
Architecture of the KIEF
Simple demonstration tour
Manual of the KIEF

1. What's Knowledge Intensive Engineering Framework (KIEF)

KIEF (Knowledge Intensive Engineering Framework) is a tool for supporting various engineering activity related to the whole life cycle of artifacts; e.g. design, maintenance, and so on. In this framework, various kind of engineering tools can be integrated by intensively storing engineering knowledge and representing the relationship among them.

The KIEF has two major roles. It works as a knowledge base, and it manages various computational engineering tools by using pluggable metamodel mechanism that allows to plug in existing design object modelers. In this framework, all design object modelers in SYSFUND (SYStematization tool of FUNctional knowledge for Design) (e.g. Function Behavior State (FBS) modeler which is a CAD for conceptual design, qualitative physics based reasoning system) are already plugged in.

As a knowledge base, the KIEF accumulates concept dictionary which is a basic definition of concepts for knowledge bases represented in various engineering tools for management of the relationship among knowledge bases. In addition, since the KIEF includes all design object modelers in SYSFUND (e.g. Physical Reasoner based on Qualitative Process Theory, Function Behavior State (FBS) modeler, knowledge bases for these modelers accumulates functional knowledge about machines, knowledge about behavior and structure and so on.

As a CAD for conceptual design, the designer uses FBS modeler for functional design. As a result, a function hierarchy and a causal dependency network which depicts the basic mechanism, including a topological structure, of the design object will be constructed. After that, the KIEF system reasons out the possible physical phenomena
occurred on the designed object. From this description of the designed object, the designer can make various design object model (e.g., Physical reasoner base on Qualitative Process Theory, physical reasoner based on mathematical model, and so on), and evaluate the designed object for verifying its function.

2. Architecture of the KIEF

Figure 1 shows the system architecture of the KIEF.

Figure1: System architecture of KIEF

Right side of Figure 1 depicts the three component architecture of the knowledge base system for KIEF. The middle component, called concept dictionary, contains physical concepts.

In the concept dictionary, physical concepts are categorized into the following six types.

Entity:An entity represents an atomic physical object. Entities include such as mechanical parts and electric devices, and are organized in an abstract-concrete hierarchy. For example, a ``worm gear'' is a subclass of a ``gear.'' The hierarchy allows multiple inheritance.
Relation:Relations represent relations among entities to denote static structure. They include relations between physical objects such as ``connection'' and ``on.'' They are also organized in an abstract-concrete hierarchy.
Attribute: An attribute is a concept attached to an entity and takes a value to indicate the state of the entity, such as ``position'' and ``temperature.'' Attributes also have a description about differential relationships with other attributes (e.g. ``velocity'' is a differential of ``position'').
Physical rule: A physical rule represents relationships among attributes such as ``Kirchhoff low.'' A physical rule represents relationships among attributes.
Physical phenomenon:A physical phenomenon designates physical laws or rules that govern behaviors. A physical phenomenon is defined by the following slots.
- Name of the phenomenon.
- Super (or abstract) physical phenomena as described in Entity.
- Related physical phenomena, entities, and attributes with respect to the phenomenon.
- Physical rules govern the phenomenon.

Figure 2 is an example description about gear transmission. The upper layer contains a Physical Feature, such as
a worm gear pair, which represents a combination of a set of entities and relations among the entities, and physical phenomena causally related to the entities. Physical features are used as building blocks for a physical model on this system. Physical concepts in the concept dictionary provide a vocabulary to build the physical feature.

Model fragments for building a model with various model representation are stored in the model library with the relationship to the concept stored in the concept dictionary.

Figure 2: Describing the Knowledge about Gear Transmission in KIEF

Left side of Figure 1 depicts the pluggable metamodel mechanism which has a capability to use existing design object modelers (including commercial CAE tool such as solid modeler, FEM and so on). The pluggable metamodel system maintains the consistency by using metamodel that is a model which represents the relationships among concepts used in various design object models.

In the pluggable metamodel mechanism, a metamodel is constructed by using physical features as building blocks. For plugging-in new design object modelers, Knowledge about Modelers should be defined by using the vocabulary in the concept dictionary. Model library is used as model fragments while exporting the information in metamodel to the design object modelers through Interface of Modelers.

Please consult manual for detail.