TECHNIQUES FOR USING CONTROLLED NATURAL LANGUAGE TO CAPTURE DESIGN INTENT FOR COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN

• US 20150324494A1
• Filed: 05/08/2015
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: IORIO, Francesco, LI, Wei, CHEONG, Hyunmin
• Granted Patent: US 11,062,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/425 Lexical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing

Abstract

A computing device for receiving a design problem statement describing a design problem in a controlled natural language (CNL) that defines permitted lexicons and syntax structures. The design problem statement is processed using the CNL lexicons and syntax structures to produce a job description executable by a design application for generating a design solution for the design problem statement. An improved CNL user interface that assists users to produce valid design problem statements that are CNL-compliant. The CNL user interface receives user-selectable terms that are compliant with the CNL lexicons and generates candidate problem statements that are compliant with CNL syntax structures and receives a selection of a candidate problem statement that is added to the design problem statement. A graphical user interface may display a graphical representation of a design problem statement that can be directly modified. A dialogue-based design process to explore possible design intentions and design solutions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving from a user input engine a first design intention description describing one or more goals of a design problem;

mapping the first design intention description to a first set of observations describing different aspects of the first design intention description;

generating a first modified design intention description based at least in part on the first set of observations;

causing the first modified design intention description to be executed for display by the user input engine.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating one or more executable job descriptions that are configured to produce one or more suggested design solutions for the first design intention description.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising storing the one or more suggested design solutions within a database.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first design intention description comprises a natural-language based description, graphical representation of a design problem, or a design solution.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first design intention description is compliant with a controlled natural language (CNL) that defines lexicons and syntax structures permitted in the first design intention description.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the user input engine a second design intention description describing one or more goals of the design problem;

mapping the second design intention description to a second set of observations describing different aspects of the second design intention description;

generating a second modified design intention description based at least in part on the second set of observations; and

causing the second modified design intention description to be executed for display by the user input engine.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising generating one or more executable job descriptions that are configured to produce one or more suggested design solutions for the second design intention description.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first design intention description describes at least one of functions, objectives, constraints, environment objects, and environment interactions associated with the design problem.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first design intention description specifies a plurality of objects and at least one relationship between two objects, the first design intention description comprising a graphical representation that includes a plurality of nodes representing the plurality of objects and at least one edge representing the at least one relationship.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of:

receiving from a user input engine a first design intention description describing one or more goals of a design problem;

mapping the first design intention description to a first set of observations describing different aspects of the first design intention description;

generating a first modified design intention description based at least in part on the first set of observations;

causing the first modified design intention description to be executed for display by the user input engine.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the step of generating one or more executable job descriptions that are configured to produce one or more suggested design solutions for the first design intention description.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising the step of storing the one or more suggested design solutions to a database.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first design intention description comprises a natural-language based description, graphical representation of a design problem, or a design solution.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first design intention description is compliant with a controlled natural language (CNL) that defines lexicons and syntax structures permitted in the first design intention description.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

receiving from the user input engine a second design intention description describing one or more goals of the design problem;

mapping the second design intention description to a second set of observations describing different aspects of the second design intention description;

generating a second modified design intention description based at least in part on the second set of observations; and

causing the second modified design intention description to be executed for display by the user input engine.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising the step of generating one or more executable job descriptions that are configured to produce one or more suggested design solutions for the second design intention description.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising before determining and executing the first set of actions, updating a current state based on the first set of observations, wherein the first set of actions are determined based at least in part on the current state and a policy.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein a different set of actions is determined at each different current state.

19. A system, comprising:

a memory that includes a dialogue user interface (UI) engine; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein, upon executing the dialogue UI engine, is configured to;

receive from a user input engine a first design intention description describing one or more goals of a design problem;

map the first design intention description to a first set of observations describing different aspects of the first design intention description;

generate a first modified design intention description based at least in part on the first set of observations;

cause the first modified design intention description to be executed for display by the user input engine.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the dialogue UI engine is configured to generate one or more executable job descriptions that are configured to produce one or more suggested design solutions for the first design intention description.