Knowledge-intensive collaborative design modeling and support: Part II: System implementation and application

Contemporary design problems embody significant levels of complexity, which make it unlikely that a single designer can work alone on a complex design problem. Knowledge-intensive collaboration has emerged as a promising discipline for dealing with the modeling and decision-making processes in distributed design systems. In this paper, we present the implementation and application of a web-based knowledge-intensive collaborative design support system called WebKIDSS. With the modularization of design, a modules networked system could be developed and deployed according to CORBA standard to facilitate the rapid construction of the concurrent integrated distributed models for the design process and the coordination among designers within the range of enterprises and even virtual enterprises. The prototype web-based collaborative design platform, is implemented for proof-of-concept through the distributed knowledge server based framework (KS-DMME) with concurrent integration of multiple cooperative knowledge sources and software using Java/Java Bean and CORBA technologies. The unified user interface of the WebKIDSS provides a cross-platform for distributed users to access to module servers throughout the network. By use of the developed the prototype system, collaborative design can be carried out in an integrated and distributed open environment on the internet/intranet. Based on the preliminary application to the collaborative design of a micro robotic assembly system on the Internet, the developed system indicates some advantages to increase the efficiency of the design coordination and decision-making in the design process.