Multi-tier and multi-domain distributed rapid product configuration and design system

• US 20060020629A1
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Purdue Research Foundation (Purdue University)
• Original Assignee: Purdue Research Foundation (Purdue University)
• Inventors: Ramani, Karthik, Devanathan, Srikanth, Peters, Christopher, Subramaniam, Jayanti, Brent Cunningham, Robert Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,725,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/04 Constraint-based CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2117/08 HW-SW co-design, e.g. HW-SW partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/043 Optimisation of two dimensional placement, e.g. cutting of clothes or wood

Abstract

Techniques are presented for a multi-tier distributed frame work for mass configuration of products by design and synthesis. Products are represented as components having hierarchical relationships with one another. The components include form information, function information, behavioral information, and constraint information. Components may be created from scratch or retrieved from a plurality of sources over a network. In some embodiments, the components may include optimization constraints and derived from other components to meet the optimization constraints.

Claims

1. A method, including:

assembling components for a product design;

representing the components as a data structure, wherein constraints between each component with respect to other ones of the components are represented in the data structure;

associating a graphical form with each of the components; and

indexing the product design, the components, the constraints, the data structure and the graphical forms in a data store.

2. The method of claim 1 further including, associating at least one of a functional description with each component and a behavioral description with each component.

3. The method of claim 1 further including:

receiving at least one of a candidate product design and a candidate component as a search query; and

searching the data store for substantial matches on the search query.

4. The method of claim 1 further including, publishing selective portions of the data store as a catalogue with external services or agents.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein assembling further includes receiving the components from at least one of previous search results acquired from the data store, previous browsing selections made from the data store, and digital sketches supplied through an interface to the method.

6. The method of claim 1 further including, visually presenting the data structure as a product concept design graph which represents the product design.

7. The method of claim 1, further including associating one or more of the components as product designs for other products.

8. A method, including:

receiving local constraints for portions of a product design from a customer agent;

publishing the local constraints to supplier agents;

acquiring quotes from a number of the supplier agents that satisfy the local constraints; and

sending the quotes to the customer agent.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving further includes receiving the local constraints for the product design as a product concept data structure.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving further includes receiving the local constraints based at least in part on a catalogue lookup for the product concept data structure.

11. The method of claim 8, further including processing the method for a specific category of products.

12. The method of claim 8, further including processing the method for a plurality of categories associated with a variety of products.

13. A method, including:

receiving a search query associated with a component, wherein the search query includes a plurality of information associated with a product concept graph; and

retrieving from a data store search results for candidate components that substantially match the search query.

14. The method of claim 13 further including, determining that at least some of the plurality of information does not exist in the data store and represents new customer requirements for the component.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving further includes receiving at least some of the plurality of information as an optimization constraint for the component.

16. The method of claim 13 further including, recognizing the component as a plurality of subcomponents.

17. The method of claim 13, further including highlighting selective constraints associated with the candidate components.

18. A system, including:

a customer agent that supplies a specification for a component to a transaction manager;

the transaction manager that interacts with the customer agent and selects one or more unit configurators to service the customer agent in response to the specification; and

the one or more unit configurators that suggest configuration solutions for specification to the customer agent through the transaction manager.

19. The system of claim 18 further including, an analysis manager that recognizes sub-components associated with the component and their constraints and enlists the services of solvers to propagate the constraints to the one or more unit configurators.

20. The system of claim 18 further including, a concept editor that interacts with the customer agent and permits the specification to be defined for the component.

21. The system of claim 20 further including, a form manager that assist in defining and presenting one or more forms associated with the component to the concept editor.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein a designer interacts with the concept editor to generate a product design that includes the component and the specification.

23. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more optimization parameters for a component, wherein the component may include a plurality of sub-components;

locating an analysis algorithm to generate the component from existing components; and

processing the analysis algorithm thereby generating the component to satisfy the one or more optimization parameters.

24. A data structure implemented in a computer readable medium for product design analysis reuse within a machine, including:

analysis procedures or algorithms organized in graphs, wherein each of the analysis procedures or algorithms are linked to a design component and selectively linked to one another;

input parameters associated with the analysis procedures or algorithms; and

output parameters associated with output of the analysis procedures or algorithms;

wherein the graphs are adapted to be queried and return appropriate ones of the analysis procedures or algorithms for the design component.